Offshore wind farms are becoming part of America and the world's renewable energy landscape.

And now the Gulf of Maine is being considered a possible site for offshore wind development.

In this series of stories, you'll learn about this emerging technology and what it might mean for you, our coastal communities and the Gulf of Maine's natural environment.

In this segment, part eight of 11, we will dive into the interactions of offshore wind energy with commercial fishermen.

The Gulf of Maine is my home.

I spent more time in the Gulf of Maine than I have literally my own backyard.

I know it better.

Just ask my lawn mower.

And I care about it.

So the Gulf of Maine especially is very special place to me, and it has a very high level of food productivity and, has lots of regulations in place to to make sure that fish are harvested in a sustainable way.

And so layering in wind farms on top of this, it's just another layer of complexity.

David Goethel has spent most of his adult life fishing for a living.

He's aware of the need for renewable energy sources, but is cautious.

David thinks more time is needed to study the effects of a commercial wind farm on the Gulf of Maine.

I think there is a responsible way of proceeding, and really that is to study first and then build afterwards.

And and take as an example, start these baseline studies now.

The turbines would be in floating structures and tethered to the seabed.

A large export cable buried beneath the seabed would transfer the power from the arrays to the mainland.

Although the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has identified areas in the Gulf of Maine that are relatively suitable for offshore wind, there are no conflict free areas.

I mean, the most general concern is loss of real estate.

The fish in the Gulf of Maine migrate every year.

They migrate towards shore in the spring and they migrate offshore in the fall.

So they cover pretty much the whole Gulf of Maine.

And it makes it very difficult in this so-called siting process to deal with that fact.

And again, the other concern is these cables that will run to shore and may seriously impact these migrations.

Scientists both in the U.S. and across the globe are studying the scope of potential impacts on fish and fisheries through studies.

This field of study encompasses ecological impacts on fish populations, as well as economic and socio cultural impacts that may result from changes to fisheries access and changes, and how fisheries managers can assess fish stocks.

In parallel, wind farm engineers are working on technology improvements that may enable coexistence with certain fisheries.

Coexistence is a goal for those planning offshore wind farms.

It means that the ocean remains available to a broad range of activities, while protecting natural resources.

One of the big things is the way the mooring system is designed so one of the things we can do is to actually, reduce the amount of space that it takes up.

We call it the footprint.

So the anchor circle can be made a lot smaller with good engineering design.

And we're working on some of those ideas now.

There is a real desire to coexist with the fishermen.

And so if we take up less space on the seabed, then that leaves more space for the fishermen to use that space for other things.

Well I mean, coexistence is probably possible on a relatively small scale, but this is not being planned on a small scale.

It's being planned on an enormous scale.

Although engineers, developers and regulators are aiming for coexistence on the water, many fishermen remain skeptical that coexistence is technologically possible.

The Winds of Change in the Gulf of Maine series is a co-production of New Hampshire PBS and New Hampshire Sea Grant, with support from the University of New Hampshire.

Production funding was provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.