Abstract
NOAA Fisheries has developed reports summarizing fishing activity from 2008-2024 within each offshore wind lease area and all currently approved lease areas combined along the U.S. Atlantic Coast from Maine to North Carolina. For some approved projects, the reports include data on impacts within the lease area and finalized export cable corridors. Lease areas and export cable corridors used for these reports reflect areas posted on the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) website as of November 21, 2024.
Report Contents
Commercial fishery reports include the following information:
- Annual landings and revenue by species, gear, fishery management plan, and state
- Minimum/average/maximum annual landings and revenue for the most impacted and dependent ports;
- Individual vessel fishing revenue dependence within the lease area
- Proportion of annual regional landings and revenue harvested within each lease area and species-specific landings and revenue for the most affected landing ports
- Small and large business count and associated revenue
- Fishing effort (count of vessels and trips) by species, fishery, and port
- Lease area annual landings and revenue as a percentage of total regional values for each species and fishery
Party/charter fishery reports include the following information:
- Annual kept catch by species and management category (proxy for fishery management plan)
- Annual revenue based on passenger fees and number of anglers per trip
- Annual vessel and angler trips by port
- Vessel/angler dependence upon operations in each lease area