Representation by West Coast Sea Products Ltd (West Coast Sea Products Ltd)
- Date submitted
- 4 June 2024
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
Similar to the Mona project which we recently registered our representation, we stand to be significantly impacted by the proposed windfarm. This is since we have harvested Queen and King Scallops from within the Morgan proposal area an annual basis for the last 40+ years which supports our processing business on land with over 100 people employed. Much of our fishing is concentrated in the western extents of the development area and much of the development area to the east supports unfished nursery / spawning ground for Queen Scallops. We are extremely worried about the introduction of buried cables and construction of the wind turbines which has the potential to permanently alter the unique ground (sandy gravelly) substrate for which Queen Scallops thrive on. A coexistence plan has been included with the application, but we have grave concerns about the viability of our business as we fear we will have a situation where we may have room to operate to fish, but the seabed will have been altered so significantly that the stock will no longer be there to be sustainably harvested. Queen Scallops are extremely vulnerable and 'flighty' as we have seen with other marine projects in the past; especially compared to King Scallops. The Morgan proposal area may be considered as just one development area over the stock, but if it considered in terms of cumulative impacts with the Mona windfarm proposal we are going to be significantly impacted. This is since both projects are going to be situated on the strip of sandy gravelly unique ground where Queen Scallops thrive from the Isle of Man down to Anglesey. I look forward to making further comments regarding our representation on this proposal.