Off the coasts of Belgium, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands dozens of wind farms whir away, helping Europe switch to renewable energy from fossil fuels.
Some of those wind farms are also helping Europe do something few people might imagine: grow seafood. The activity represents a promising new approach to tapping natural resources.
Business as unusual
Called “multiuse”, it involves the sharing of offshore space and is a big departure from the usual idea of exclusive operating rights.
‘Traditionally, most things are done separately,’ said Alex Ziemba, a researcher at Deltares, a Dutch institute specialised in water and subsurface. ‘If you want a wind farm, you put it over there. If people want to go fishing, they go over there. You chop everything up into a nice marine spatial plan and everyone has their own little areas.’…