Offshore wind project-level monitoring in the Northeast U.S. continental shelf ecosystem: evaluating the potential to mitigate impacts to long-term scientific surveys
Offshore wind will generate much needed renewable energy in the U.S. and worldwide, but this industry will also affect other ocean uses. In the Northeast U.S. continental shelf (NES) ecosystem, these effects include the impact that wind development will have on the design and execution of long runni...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2023-07-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Marine Science |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2023.1214949/full |
| _version_ | 1797785759246188544 |
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| author | Elizabeth T. Methratta Andrew Lipsky Jason M. Boucher |
| author_facet | Elizabeth T. Methratta Andrew Lipsky Jason M. Boucher |
| author_sort | Elizabeth T. Methratta |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Offshore wind will generate much needed renewable energy in the U.S. and worldwide, but this industry will also affect other ocean uses. In the Northeast U.S. continental shelf (NES) ecosystem, these effects include the impact that wind development will have on the design and execution of long running scientific surveys conducted by National Marine Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA Fisheries) which play a critical role in the provision of scientific information for stock assessment and advice for fisheries management. Recognizing these impacts, the federal government has established a Survey Mitigation Strategy that identifies a need to evaluate whether the information yielded from project-level monitoring studies conducted by wind developers might be suitable for integration with data from NOAA Fisheries surveys, thereby ameliorating the impacts to the surveys. To address this need, we compiled and tabulated information from all currently available project-level monitoring studies and compared elements of the design and methodology of each study with that of the comparable NOAA Fisheries survey. Based on this information, we evaluated their suitability for filling expected gaps in long term surveys, for addressing impacts at the population level, and for understanding interactions between fish stocks and habitat alterations. We found that project-level monitoring studies as currently designed for the NES ecosystem will not yield information that can mitigate impacts to NOAA Fisheries scientific survey time series from offshore wind development. We provide recommendations on how to enhance the ability of project-level monitoring studies to mitigate impacts to long term scientific surveys. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-13T00:58:30Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-dd2870c0f78044a5acf84e817bf95ebc |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2296-7745 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-13T00:58:30Z |
| publishDate | 2023-07-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Marine Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-dd2870c0f78044a5acf84e817bf95ebc2023-07-06T14:43:44ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Marine Science2296-77452023-07-011010.3389/fmars.2023.12149491214949Offshore wind project-level monitoring in the Northeast U.S. continental shelf ecosystem: evaluating the potential to mitigate impacts to long-term scientific surveysElizabeth T. Methratta0Andrew Lipsky1Jason M. Boucher2Northeast Fisheries Science Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service, Narragansett, RI, United StatesNortheast Fisheries Science Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service, Narragansett, RI, United StatesNortheast Fisheries Science Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service, Woods Hole, MA, United StatesOffshore wind will generate much needed renewable energy in the U.S. and worldwide, but this industry will also affect other ocean uses. In the Northeast U.S. continental shelf (NES) ecosystem, these effects include the impact that wind development will have on the design and execution of long running scientific surveys conducted by National Marine Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA Fisheries) which play a critical role in the provision of scientific information for stock assessment and advice for fisheries management. Recognizing these impacts, the federal government has established a Survey Mitigation Strategy that identifies a need to evaluate whether the information yielded from project-level monitoring studies conducted by wind developers might be suitable for integration with data from NOAA Fisheries surveys, thereby ameliorating the impacts to the surveys. To address this need, we compiled and tabulated information from all currently available project-level monitoring studies and compared elements of the design and methodology of each study with that of the comparable NOAA Fisheries survey. Based on this information, we evaluated their suitability for filling expected gaps in long term surveys, for addressing impacts at the population level, and for understanding interactions between fish stocks and habitat alterations. We found that project-level monitoring studies as currently designed for the NES ecosystem will not yield information that can mitigate impacts to NOAA Fisheries scientific survey time series from offshore wind development. We provide recommendations on how to enhance the ability of project-level monitoring studies to mitigate impacts to long term scientific surveys.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2023.1214949/fullrenewable energysurvey mitigationimpact assessmentstock assessmentfisheries independent surveys |
| spellingShingle | Elizabeth T. Methratta Andrew Lipsky Jason M. Boucher Offshore wind project-level monitoring in the Northeast U.S. continental shelf ecosystem: evaluating the potential to mitigate impacts to long-term scientific surveys Frontiers in Marine Science renewable energy survey mitigation impact assessment stock assessment fisheries independent surveys |
| title | Offshore wind project-level monitoring in the Northeast U.S. continental shelf ecosystem: evaluating the potential to mitigate impacts to long-term scientific surveys |
| title_full | Offshore wind project-level monitoring in the Northeast U.S. continental shelf ecosystem: evaluating the potential to mitigate impacts to long-term scientific surveys |
| title_fullStr | Offshore wind project-level monitoring in the Northeast U.S. continental shelf ecosystem: evaluating the potential to mitigate impacts to long-term scientific surveys |
| title_full_unstemmed | Offshore wind project-level monitoring in the Northeast U.S. continental shelf ecosystem: evaluating the potential to mitigate impacts to long-term scientific surveys |
| title_short | Offshore wind project-level monitoring in the Northeast U.S. continental shelf ecosystem: evaluating the potential to mitigate impacts to long-term scientific surveys |
| title_sort | offshore wind project level monitoring in the northeast u s continental shelf ecosystem evaluating the potential to mitigate impacts to long term scientific surveys |
| topic | renewable energy survey mitigation impact assessment stock assessment fisheries independent surveys |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2023.1214949/full |
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