The Fulton Fish Market Cooperative in New York, the nation’s largest seafood market, has signed onto a federal lawsuit brought by commercial fishermen and coastal activists opposing Equinor’s ongoing Empire Wind offshore energy project.

Operators of the Fulton market, including 23 member companies that move more than 5 million tons of seafood through their Bronx location weekly, are the newest plaintiffs in an amended complaint filed July 4 with the U.S. District Court for New Jersey.

With the Trump administration allowing Equinor to proceed with construction, it’s clear “that this administration is aware offshore wind is nothing but a greenwashing shell game that will industrialize our oceans and kill longstanding American port communities and economies,” Fulton CEO Nicole Ackerina said in a joint statement July 9 with other plaintiffs.

The 810-megawatt project of 54 planned turbines is being built  on Equinor’s federal lease of 80,000 acres tucked between shipping lanes for New York Harbor. “Many of Fulton’s suppliers fish directly in the Empire Wind lease area, a direct threat to their product stream and business model,” according to the plaintiffs.

Ackerina said the project will come “at the expense of an industry that provides one of the last remaining pure and unprocessed proteins to Americans; at the expense of thousands of union jobs, working docks, and the entire American seafood economy that fuels New York’s restaurants and tourism sector.”

Also joining was the recreational Point Lookout Fishing Club, with 100-plus members in Long Island’s Nassau County. Club members “regularly fish traditional grounds like Cholera Banks and Hudson Canyon; prime areas now located within and beyond the Empire Wind lease zone. Members now face serious navigational risks, as routes to these offshore canyons would require crossing through a dangerous field of turbines.”

Project opponents insist the Norwegian government’s majority stake in Equinor should have disqualified it from obtaining the lease.

Bruce Afran, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said the addition of more major players in the seafood industry will help their case. The original complaint brought in early June was signed by other well-known fishermen, including those from the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, the Belford and Point Pleasant co-ops in New Jersey, Cape May, N.J. and Point Judith, R.I.

“With the entry of the Fulton Fish Market into the case, it is now clear that the largest fishing industry participants and environmental groups recognize the danger of this project that benefits only a Norwegian government company and not the people of New York and New Jersey,” said Afran.