As debris from a busted wind turbine blade floats in the ocean and washes ashore, Nantucket business owners and residents are scrambling for a lifeline.

Business should be booming this time of summer at ACK Surf School at Nobadeer Beach along the island’s south shore, where owner Gaven Norton says he treats every day like a week for income.

Instead of thriving, Norton is barely surviving due to the Vineyard Wind crisis.

The business owner said he had to close shop all of Tuesday, conducted just one lesson on Wednesday, and all bookings for Thursday had been canceled by Wednesday night.

People are fearful of “getting hurt out in the water,” Norton said, while his 25 employees are struggling financially since they can’t teach.

“Nobody has any answers,” Norton told the Nantucket Select Board Wednesday evening. “GE, Vineyard Wind … it’s pretty clear that they have no idea how long this is going to take. If that thing just fell into the water … my season is done.”

A “significant portion” of the damaged blade detached from the turbine Thursday morning, while the U.S. Coast Guard advised all mariners to “use extreme caution when transiting the area,” adding that it had received a report of debris measuring roughly “300 feet in length.”

Crews had already been busy, cleaning up debris from the blade failure that happened Saturday at Vineyard Wind 1, about 21 miles south of Nantucket. More manpower was on its way following the latest mishap, Vineyard Wind said in a statement.

Officials from the wind energy company said they expected additional debris to wash ashore Thursday night and Friday, leaving business owners and residents even more uncertain about how their profits and livelihoods will be impacted.

Island lobsterman Dan Pronk fishes 800 traps in the area of Vineyard Wind 1, about 21 miles south of Nantucket, where the blade failure sparked nearly a week ago. Pronk refers to the turbines as “tombstones”

Vineyard Wind, a joint venture of Connecticuct-based Avangrid and Denmark-based Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, is offering 2 to 4% of a fisherman’s annual income if they can “prove” they fish in the area, Pronk told the Select Board.

The longtime lobsterman said that equates to about $2,000 to $4,000 and to qualify, fishermen must provide copies of log books, bank statements, and “basically everything” involving their enterprises.

“The reason they’re offering that is they know they’re displacing us,” Pronk said, “they know they’re putting us out of business.  … 2 to 4%? That’s an insult. Good luck getting any money out of them for lost revenue on the island.”

Vineyard Wind and officials from GE Vernova, the project’s turbine and blade manufacturer and installation contractor, have said the debris – foam and fiberglass – is not toxic, but residents and business owners are not buying it.

Jerry Leeman, CEO of the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association, called the environmental impacts “tragic” and the “slow-rolling disaster … a serious threat to fishery sustainability.”

“Shards of fiberglass, which are not biodegradable, are a huge threat to whales, dolphins, and porpoises, some of which are endangered,” Leeman said in a statement. “Nanoparticles from the fiberglass could even enter the food web if zooplankton mistake particles for forage.

Vineyard Wind had reported Wednesday that crews removed about 17 cubic yards of debris, enough to fill more than six truckloads and several larger pieces that washed ashore.

Among those crews were town employees, dock staff and lifeguards. Resident Suzanne Gerardi said her daughter has been one of the lifeguards helping clean up the mess.

“They were getting in the water to do the job that these people, that are supposed to know how to remove hazardous waste, should be doing,” Gerardi said. “Fiberglass is like a razor, and these kids are in the water, pulling in 200-pound pieces.”

Bobby DeCosta, a charter boat captain on the island, was one of the dozens of residents who slammed Vineyard Wind and GE for the lack of notification surrounding Saturday’s blade failure. The Select Board and town manager Libby Gibson also shared frustration.

DeCosta said he drove his boat through the wind farm around 5:30 Sunday morning in black fog, and his “$100,000 worth of electronics” failed to pick up any debris.

Town officials, residents and mariners didn’t learn of the incident until Monday evening.

“We were always told we were going to be able to fish around these things, they weren’t going to affect our livelihood,” DeCosta said. “This is unacceptable.”

Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy has highlighted his anger regarding the incident in posts on X. The owner of the wildly popular sports and pop culture website, who vacations on Nantucket, coincidentally lost control of his boat off the island before being rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard on Monday.

“Local businesses are getting absolutely (expletive),” Portnoy posted on Thursday. “@VineyardWindUS should pay all damages to local businesses who they’ve ruined. Also what about seafood? Is it safe to eat any local seafood now? Shut down @VineyardWindUS.”