PROVIDENCE — A year and a half after all nine members of the Fisheries Advisory Board resigned in protest, coastal regulators have approved a new roster of people to serve on the state panel.

Colloquially known as FAB, the body was created under the Coastal Resources Management Council’s Ocean Special Area Management Plan (Ocean SAMP), the state’s regulatory plan for its marine waters, to advise the agency and provide stakeholder input on decisions that may impact the state’s commercial and recreational fisheries and other local ocean uses.

Part of FAB’s job is to help CRMC with marine research and identify areas with important natural habitats or other areas of natural productivity or fragility to be designated for conservation protections.

The board was a key advisory component in recent years as CRMC began its oversight and permitting process for the offshore wind projects proposed for the lease area 20 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard.

Offshore wind was a big point of contention for the previous version of the FAB. All nine members of the board resigned in protest in September 2023, calling CRMC’s approval process of offshore projects “political theater.”

In a strongly worded letter to CRMC executive director Jeff Willis, FAB members accused the agency of prioritizing wind developers over the requirements of the Ocean SAMP.

According to the letter, CRMC did not consider “the cost to the environment, or the impacts to Rhode Island’s fishing industry,” when deciding on approval for offshore projects. “In staff’s own words,” the letter read, “the purpose of the FAB/CRMC review process of offshore wind projects is to move the permits forward.”

At the time of the members’ resignation, CRMC had approved a total of five offshore wind projects: the Block Island Wind Farm, the 65-turbine Revolution Wind, the 84-turbine Vineyard Wind, the 12-turbine South Fork Wind, and the 84-turbine Sunrise Wind, which was approved the week before the mass resignations from FAB.

So why did it take a year and a half for the council to appoint a new board? CRMC staff spent most of last year trying to get the old members to serve on the board again.

“We were unsuccessful with that,” Willis said at Tuesday’s CRMC meeting. “We reached out to the Commercial Fisherman’s Research Center and asked them to maybe use their board as a proxy to the FAB. Conversations went back and forth for a little while, but those were unsuccessful.”

Offshore wind is behind the agency’s impetus for going with a new board. In the coming years the agency is expected to review three additional offshore wind projects, chief among them South Coast Wind, which received its final approval from the federal government before the change in administration, and will be considered by the agency for state approval later this year.

CRMC, at the end of January, put out a notice seeking volunteers willing to serve on the FAB. Agency staff whittled down the volunteers to 10 members, plus one alternative, which the council approved unanimously April 8.

“The folks we have put forward are very interested, they’re very passionate,” said Kevin Sloan, a coastal policy analyst with CRMC. “They have a varied background, whether it be commercial fishing, seafood processing, construction, project management, etc. We’re really excited to bring these folks on board.”

Sloan acknowledged the workload and expectations of the FAB might be steep for volunteers unfamiliar with the way government functions. New FAB members will be required to do more than weigh in on project proposals; they must also find ways to minimize the impacts to the state’s different fishing industries.

“We are simply asking them to bring their experience, their expertise and knowledge and willingness to kind of go on the steep learning curve with us,” Sloan said.

The following are the 10 new members of FAB:

Adam Silkes, from American Mussel Harvesters, a commercial shellfishing company.

Jeff Grant, a commercial fisherman and industry representative from the Rhode Island Shellfisherman’s Association. Mike McGiveney, the organization’s president, will serve as the FAB alternate.

Isaiah Alvarez, a construction manager.

Wayne Banks, a retired electronics engineer with the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, who also served for nine years on the Jamestown Harbor Commission.

John Walker, a Newport resident and commercial fisherman who served on an advisory committee to Newport’s Waterfront Commission.

Steve Langley, a Bristol resident and recreational lobsterman since 2011.

Patrick Dowling, a partner at D’Amico Burchfield LLP, a lifelong Rhode Islander, and a recreational fisherman. Dowling has a bachelor of science degree in environmental science and management from the University of Rhode Island.

Jennifer Scappatura-Harrington, an aquaculturist and owner of the Quonnie Siren Oyster Co.

James Riggs, a recreational fisherman of 50 years.

More information on the new FAB members can be found here.