On Friday (May 15th, 2015) the first of a series of meetings took place between local fishermen  and the investor – Polenergia Bałtyk III , who is planning to build the Offshore Wind Farm Bałtyk Środkowy III. The investment will consist of max. 120 wind turbines located 23 km of the coast of Poland. The meeting was moderated by the Foundation for Sustainable Energy which introduced an overview of the situation of offshore wind energy in Europe and Poland.
The investor presented details of the project and experts from National Marine Fisheries Research Institute presented results of an over-a-year-long environmental monitoring programme for the project and the potential impacts on fish and fisheries.
The meeting was attended by almost 20 representatives of the local fish producers group and the port authority in Darłowo, who had an opportunity to present their concerns, such as:
•    possibility of navigating through the wind farm area,
•    possibility of fishing within the wind farm area,
•    the impact of investment on regional industry.
The investor declared that he will not file a request to the authorities to restrict navigation through the wind farm area and fishing  but only using gear which will not be a risk to the subsea cables . The project is at an early stage of development and detailed agreements will be determined on a further stage, when all the impacts are known and can be monetized.
Apart from the impact of the project on fishing industry the impact on the local industry was also discussed.  An example from France was presented where realization of offshore wind farm projects was directly connected with locating production facilities in this country. Such system could be transferred to Poland.
Full record of the meeting is available at www.baltyk3.pl .