John Walker of Newport, shown on his lobster boat south of Brenton Point in the summer 2018, is withdrawing from the Fishermen’s Advisory Board before it even meets this week with SouthCoast Wind. Walker said he learned he was confirmed to the board after reading a news article. (Photo courtesy of John Walker)
Four of the 10 newly confirmed members to a state fishing advisory panel already want out, two days before their first meeting with offshore wind developers, Rhode Island Current has confirmed.
Three people appointed to the Fishermen’s Advisory Board have decided to resign after the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council’s April 8 confirmation vote. A fourth candidate said he was no longer interested before the vote, but his name was inadvertently included on the list anyway, Laura Dwyer, a CRMC spokesperson, said in an email Tuesday.
Hardly an auspicious start for the revived fishing advisory panel, which has been defunct since all of its former members quit in protest in August 2023. The group is meant to advise the CRMC in its review of offshore wind projects, but former members alleged the reviews were mere “political theater” that ignored their input.
Past members’ misgivings soured at least two of the new members on participation, one of whom hopes his resignation will stall upcoming reviews of the SouthCoast Wind cable burial plan. The new fishing panel is scheduled to meet with project developers for the first time Thursday.
John Walker, a Newport resident and commercial fisherman, will not be attending. He said in an interview Tuesday that he planned to submit his resignation notice to state regulators shortly.
“From what I understand, we don’t really have a say in any of this,” said Walker, who also ran for Newport City Council in 2024. “At this point, the best thing we as a state can do to advocate for our industry is try and stall these projects.”
Walker first connected by email with Jeffrey Willis, CRMC executive director, in late February, after being recommended by his friend for the volunteer advisory panel.
Walker said his calls to Willis seeking more information went unreturned and that he never had a direct conversation with anyone at the CRMC. Willis sent two emails to interested board candidates, including Walker, on March 6 and March 21, regarding their participation and the council’s upcoming vote, according to public documents. Walker said he never saw them.
In the meantime, Walker said former advisory panel members he talked to persuaded him against joining. He had no idea he was confirmed to the board until he read a news article days after the vote took place.
‘Are you kidding me?’
Adam Silkes was similarly caught off-guard that his name was on the public list of candidates confirmed to the panel. Silkes, a North Kingstown resident who works for his family-owned shellfishing company, American Mussel Harvesters, was still in disbelief when contacted by phone Tuesday morning,
“Is it confirmed? Am I on this?” Silkes asked. “You’re kidding me. Really?”
Silkes received emails from Willis in March notifying him about an initial Zoom training call and the subsequent confirmation vote. But two days before the CRMC was set to vote, Silkes emailed Justin Skenyon, a member of the agency’s permitting staff, to withdraw.
“I won’t be able to commit to FAB,” Silkes wrote in the email, obtained by Rhode Island Current. “I’ve got too much on my plate already.”
Skenyon replied the next morning, thanking Silkes.
Yet on the evening of April 8, Silkes’ name was on the list of 10 people, plus an alternate, that the council appointed to the advisory board.
Dwyer was aware that Silkes had withdrawn but said the agency could not amend its publicly posted agenda prior to the vote.
“CRMC spoke with everyone who was on the FAB list — either via a virtual onboarding meeting back in March, or via phone if they missed the meeting,” Dwyer said.
She did not respond to requests for comment on Walker’s version of events , and had not received his resignation notice. Willis deferred requests for comment to Dwyer.
The CRMC has also not heard from another dropout: Isaiah Alavarez. Alvarez was confirmed to the board on April 8, but told Rhode Island Current via text two days later that he did not plan to continue. Alavarez did not return multiple inquiries for comment.
A fourth member, Jennifer Scappatura-Harrington, emailed the CRMC Tuesday that she no longer wanted to be a part of the group, Dwyer said. Scappatura-Harrington, who owns Quonnie Siren Oyster Co. in Charlestown, did not immediately return inquiries for comment.
Silkes cited his busy schedule as the initial reason why he decided he couldn’t commit to joining the board. But when pressed, he acknowledged that he was also hesitant because of what former board members told him.
“It’s 100% both,” said Silkes. “A very close friend of mine was on the previous board. When I talked to him, he said he spent like thousands of hours in meetings. I have so much going on personally and professionally.”
Four of 10 people appointed to the Fishermen’s Advisory Board — set to meet this week to review SouthCoast Wind’s plan to lay transmission lines up the Sakonnet River, across the north end of Portsmouth and out to Mount Hope Bay — have withdrawn from the board. The cables would reach land on Island Park Beach in Portsmouth and cross under Park Avenue to Boyds Lane. (Photo by Jim McGaw/Portsmouth Times)
Starting anew
Time spent on negotiations over offshore wind projects in 2023 brought the former advisory panel members to their breaking point. With the new group of volunteers, Willis hopes to minimize frustration by reducing the number of meetings they attend, he said in a prior interview.
Federal regulations dictate where and how projects get built — state oversight is limited to affirming whether or not the proposals meet Rhode Island coastal regulations. There’s also no federal requirement that offshore wind project developers pay fishermen to offset industry losses. The CRMC has tried to help negotiate for compensation in past project reviews, but fishermen were largely dissatisfied with the amounts that developers agreed to pay.
Is it confirmed? Am I on this? You’re kidding me. Really?
– Adam Silkes of North Kingstown when told he had been appointed to the Fishermen’s Advisory Board
“If we show up to a meeting with a developer, that’s it, they can check that box,” Walker said.
He hoped that by resigning and “exposing” the miscommunication with state coastal regulators regarding its attempts to repopulate the fishing panel, he could stall upcoming progress on SouthCoast Wind’s permit application.
Not likely, said Jim Boyd, former CRMC deputy director who retired in 2022. As Boyd noted, the 2011 state regulations that created the Fishermen’s Advisory Board set a 20-person maximum, but no minimum. As long as at least one person remains on the board, the state requirement to have the panel meet with offshore wind developers is satisfied.
Another new member of the panel, Jeff Grant, confirmed he plans to serve, despite the board’s history of limited input on offshore wind.
“If something good can come out of it, I am open to it,” said Grant, a Warwick resident and member of the Rhode Island Shellfisherman’s Association. “I’d like fishermen to have more of a voice in what happens.”
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in an April 10 report evaluating the Rhode Island coastal management program wrote that it “meaningfully engages with the commercial and recreational fishing sectors on the offshore wind energy development review process.” However, the 147-page report also noted the “dissatisfaction of the Fishermen’s Advisory Board” in that review process.
Silkes said his personal interactions with the CRMC related to changes to his company’s leases for local aquaculture farms have been positive”
He did not feel so complimentary when it came to the agency’s failure to remove his name from the list of advisory panel candidates before the confirmation vote, or to include his email notifying them he did not want to join in its public records.
“That’s messed up,” he said.
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