Sunken fishing trawler exposes offshore wind's safety risks

A research expedition says it has found the wreck of the fishing trawler Mistress off Rhode Island near the Block Island Wind Farm. The ship sank on Jan. 1, 2019, and the captain and his nephew were lost. The discovery has revived calls for a federal investigation into whether operator Ørsted knew about the wreck and failed to report it, particularly after Ørsted began maintenance on the turbine near where the Mistress now rests—about 50 feet from the base—in April 2019. The exact cause of the sinking remains undetermined. A Coast Guard rescue attempt was abandoned that night, with turbine spacing cited as limiting nighttime operations.