Abstract
The Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation (CFRF), the University of Rhode Island, and local fishermen have completed both years of the South Fork Wind Farm (SFWF) predevelopment fisheries monitoring ventless trap survey and one year of the construction fisheries monitoring ventless trap survey. The survey was designed to collect data on the abundance, distribution, and movement of American lobster and Jonah crab within the SFWF area and two nearby reference control areas. The South Fork Wind Farm development and two nearby reference control areas were sampled twice a month from May-November 2021, 2022 and 2023. Each area had ten stations consisting of ten traps with a target soak time of 5 days between samples. The traps at each station consisted of 6 ventless (V) traps and 4 standard (S) traps in the configuration: V-S-V-S-V-V-S-V-S-V. The entire catch was speciated and counted at the trap level at each station, then sampled for size and sex. Additional data on water temperature and habitat were also collected. Across all years, the eastern control area had the highest abundance of lobster, Jonah crab, and rock crab, with decreased and more comparable abundance for all three species in the western control and South Fork areas. The abundance of lobsters decreased somewhat each year in the two reference areas but remained consistent in the South Fork area. Jonah crab abundance has been relatively consistent in the western reference area but was lower in 2023 for both the South Fork and the eastern areas. Rock crab abundance decreased slightly in South Fork in 2023 but was higher than in 2022 for both reference areas. Across all years, the abundance of rock crabs peaked in the early months (May-June), lobster abundance peaked in the summer (July-September), and Jonah crab abundance peaked in the later months (August-November).