If you’re reading this without the paywall window crashing down, I’ll assume you’re a subscriber; so thank you for that! Remember, “members only” access allows you access to both the Long Island and New England editions well as New Jersey, Delaware Bay. Be sure to check out Dave Anderson’s Editor’s Log: Artificial Engagement in the New England edition for July about the “crossroads” at which we’ve arrived with regard to artificial intelligence, or AI.
“As AI has become openly accessible, it’s dragging frantic posters into the depths of the bargain basement, where prominent anglers, desperate to stay relevant, are using AI to make their fish look bigger and their photos more impressive, simply for the engagement,” wrote Dave, going on to reference one clearly augmented striper on Instagram held by an angler with six fingers; possible, sure, but not likely.
We talked about AI in our weekly Next Cast Weekly Podcast #16 on July 7, 2026, specifically how some anglers have fallen in love with an AI generated female surfcaster holding other peoples’ striper images mined from social media. And there are the latest “AI” headlines in New Jersey about widespread community blowback wherever big tech companies propose constructing their high-tech data centers in which to house massive computer servers for online processing, data mining and storage, and of course artificial intelligence.
According to government data, these data center facilities currently consume about 4.4% of the nation’s total electricity, with the acceleration of AI projecting that figure to grow to between 9% and 12% by 2030. So, how does this relate to fishing? I’m glad you asked; it actually scratches an old editorial itch of mine regarding industrial offshore wind. When I first started researching offshore wind construction and its potential impacts to coastal fisheries, I was often labeled a tinfoil hat denier because I had grown skeptical – based on the data I found – about industrializing our oceans purely in the name of fighting climate change. It’s clear to me now that saving the planet was never really the goal of industrial offshore wind; it’s about AI, money, and water.
Large data centers use close to 5 million gallons of every day for cooling powerful servers, with up to 40% of data center energy consumption coming from cooling systems alone; this according to the California Natural Resources Agency in a recent report about how offshore data centers could be built and powered in conjunction with offshore wind. “Offshore ocean data centers are expected to virtually eliminate freshwater usage. Ratepayers will benefit from reduced drought risks and lower water costs,” the California report noted, explaining how data centers could instead use of ocean water to cool their equipment.
So rather than drying up aquifers and drawing down reservoirs – partly to make fish look bigger on TikTok for imaginary influencers – it’s somehow okay to use untold billions of gallons of ocean water to cool off this high-tech equipment? That’s a lot of larvae and young-of-the-year fish getting sucked up the intake pipes, ultimately spit out the other side in the form of piping hot, chemically treated water.
Empire Wind turbines are currently being deployed along a corridor southeast of the Three Sisters along the Cholera Bank, roughly 20 miles east of Long Branch. In addition to dozens of individual turbines, large substations will also be constructed that utilize either closed-loop liquid-to-liquid cooling systems or open-loop seawater intake systems to “dissipate the high thermal loads generated when stabilizing and stepping up high-voltage electricity before sending it to shore.”
No one wants wind turbines or data centers housed in their backyard, yet NIMBY has no problem looking off into the eastern horizon, out of their own sight and mind. This isn’t about climate change; we’re in a heavily subsidized industrial war over water, smack dab in the front yard of our beloved Jersey Shore.
