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Opportunities and risks of wind farm growth for the fishing industry

North Sea wind farms are essential for achieving the climate and energy goals of the government. At the same time, fishers are watching these wind farms continue to encroach on their fishing grounds, leading to discontent in the fishing community. In order to close the gap between these conflicting interests, the government is striving to have wind farms provide multiple functions.

The Win-Wind consortium is working on ecologically acceptable and economically cost-effective multi-use. In order to explore the possibilities for commercial, sustainable food production in wind farms on the North Sea, Win-Wind began a research and test case with lobster and crab fishing in the North Sea. Wageningen Marine Research and Wageningen Economic Research have joined a consortium of fishing companies and have supported this demonstration project with their own expertise in these areas.

Both institutes are also helping the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality assess the impact of the decrease in available fishing space as a result of the expansion of offshore wind energy and its potential effects on catches and income in the fishing sector.

In doing so, WUR is contributing to the development of knowledge regarding the opportunities and risks for the fishing sector due to the expansion of offshore wind farms.

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