No to offshore wind turbines in 3Ps

To Whom it May Concern;

Please accept my comments as part of your regional assessment:
Placentia Bay, Newfoundland boasts some of the most beautiful landscapes and most bountiful waters in the Province. Fishing area 3Ps, Placentia Bay, is widely frequented and home to many species of seabirds and the water is teeming with not only many species of fish that are very lucrative to the inshore fishery but also with many varieties of mammals and fish that are either endangered or on the species at risk list. 

Leatherback Turtles, Wolffish, Porpoises, many varieties of Whales and other sea life will all be threatened by the installation of wind turbines in our Bays. Many of those threatened in their fragile environment will be nearer extinction. It will also mean the decimation of our fishery as we know it. The disturbances to the bottom and the ocean noise will forever change the ecosystem that we try to eke a living from. 

The depths that have been proposed for the offshore turbines are the same depths that we set our traps for the crab fishery. Most of our fishing fleet in Placentia Bay is under 40’. The smaller boats that harvest lobster, crab and cod will be slowly driven out of the fishery. Interference from the turbines with our vessels equipment will make it unsafe to fish with the huge amount of traffic that is already in our foggy Bay. 

As a 3Ps harvester I do not wish to see the turbines anywhere near our Bay! 

Sincerely,

Loretta Ward

South East Bight,NL

(attached is a pic of the track of a Leatherback Sea Turtle that visited our Bays this summer.)