Shipping Safety Fairways Along the Atlantic Coast

McAllister Towing and Transportation Company, Inc., a marine services provider, supports the Coast Guard's objective of creating shipping safety fairways to improve navigation safety and preserve port access. They advocate for routing measures that maintain sufficient sea room for tug and towing operations, coordinate with offshore wind development, and provide clear, usable information for mariners.

The American Waterways Operators, representing the tugboat, towboat, and barge industry, supports the proposed shipping safety fairways but urges the Coast Guard to expand three specific fairways along the New Jersey coast. They argue that the current proposed widths are insufficient due to shoals and offshore wind leases, which create dangerous bottlenecks for large vessels.

The American Clean Power Association, Oceantic Network, and RENEW Northeast are submitting comments on behalf of the offshore wind industry. They oppose the proposed shipping safety fairways because they unnecessarily reduce offshore wind lease areas, impact energy security, and create economic losses for the New England region.

The New England Fishermen's Stewardship Association (NEFSA) supports the Atlantic Fairways initiative but argues that the Draft PEIS/OEIS fails to adequately analyze the specific areas where commercial fishing, shipping, and offshore wind development overlap. They request a 90-day extension of the comment period, additional public meetings, and supplemental analyses to better evaluate the cumulative impacts on fishing communities and port access.

Blue Water Fisheries, a commercial offshore aquaculture company, opposes the proposed shipping safety fairways because they would effectively prohibit their project and other aquaculture developments in the Gulf of Maine. They argue that the Coast Guard's proposal is overly broad, ignores existing navigation technologies, and fails to consider less-restrictive, site-specific mitigation measures.

Stronger America Through Seafood (SATS), a coalition representing seafood supply chain companies, opposes the creation of broad and exclusive shipping safety fairways along the Atlantic coast. They argue that the proposed fairways would effectively foreclose commercially viable open ocean aquaculture development and conflict with federal goals to increase domestic seafood production.

Seafreeze Ltd./Seafreeze Shoreside, representing the commercial fishing industry, supports the proposed Fairways action but argues that it must be expanded to include the protection of historic commercial fishing transit routes. They specifically request that the USCG incorporate offshore wind lease buyback areas into the action and use Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) data to identify and protect these critical fishing paths.

The New England Fishermen's Stewardship Association (NEFSA) opposes the proposed Atlantic Coast Shipping Safety Fairways because the Supplemental Regulatory Analysis fails to adequately quantify the economic and operational costs to the commercial fishing industry. They argue that the analysis overemphasizes benefits to commercial shipping while ignoring the cumulative impacts of routing changes and offshore wind development on fishing vessels, ports, and the broader seafood supply chain.

The commenter asks the agency to consider how sea-level rise might affect the long-term costs, benefits, and efficiency of the proposed routing measures. They also request clarification on whether recent NOAA announcements regarding potential deregulation of North Atlantic Right Whale speed restrictions should influence the proposed rule's routing measures.

The Towboat Harbor Carriers’ Association of N.Y./N.J. supports the Coast Guard's proposal to create shipping safety fairways along the Atlantic Coast. They argue that the fairways will enhance navigation safety, preserve port access, and provide a clear framework for offshore wind development.