Abstract
The Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation (CFRF) and local fishermen are conducting a two-year acoustic telemetry study within the South Fork Wind Farm (SFWF) and nearby undeveloped areas. This survey focuses on the introduction of artificial reef habitat by offshore wind turbine installation and operation. This direct change in the physical environment will likely impact the habits of species that typically reside in or migrate through these areas. Structure associated species may be drawn to the increase in structure within wind energy developments; however, the spatial extent to which they utilize the turbine foundations and how long individuals would stay in these areas is largely unknown. Fine scale positioning acoustic telemetry will provide precise spatial and temporal positions of individually tagged fish and crustaceans, allowing insight into how long and far away individuals stay around a turbine foundation. We have created and are monitoring fine scale positioning acoustic receiver arrays around a single turbine within the SFWF and in a reference control area. The reference area is in an area with a natural rocky reef habitat, which was present in the SFWF lease area prior to the wind farm’s construction, providing potential insight into habitat use in SFWF before construction. Species of interest are tagged on the SFWF ventless trap survey trips and detected by other receivers placed around SFWF by external researchers, leveraging existing efforts to reduce costs and detect larger scale movement within and around the South Fork Wind Farm.
This report details the survey methods and summarizes the results from the first year of the survey conducted between January and December 2024. During this reporting period, the location of the two study areas was determined. Turbine AP08 within the SFWF is the center of the turbine reef array and the natural reef array is located in the western reference area of the SFWF ventless trap survey. The F/V Cailyn and Maren and the F/V Sweet Misery and all crew members met the Orsted HSE and marine inspection standards. Preliminary range testing was conducted within the SFWF, the two receiver arrays were deployed within the SFWF and control area, 67 acoustic tags were deployed across both receiver arrays on ventless trap survey trips, and half of the receivers in each array were hauled and data downloaded.