Abstract
In 2015, Vineyard Wind LLC (Vineyard Wind) leased a 675 square kilometer (km2) area for renewable energy development on the Outer Continental Shelf, Lease Area OCS-A 0501, which is located approximately 14 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard off the south coast of Massachusetts. Vineyard Wind is developing the northern portion of Lease Area OCS-A 0501 and fisheries studies are being conducted in a 306 km2 area referred to as “501 North” or the 501N Study Area, which is the focus of this report. Vineyard Wind is also conducting fisheries studies within the southern portion of Lease Area OCS-A 0501 (the “501S Study Area”) and within Lease Area OCS-A 0522 (the “522 Study Area”); these studies are reported separately.1
BOEM has statutory obligations under the National Environmental Policy Act to evaluate the environmental, social, and economic impacts of a potential project. Additionally, BOEM has statutory obligations under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to ensure any on-lease activities “protect the environment, conserve natural resources, prevent interference with reasonable use of the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone, and consider the use of the sea as a fishery.”
To address the potential impacts, Vineyard Wind, in collaboration with the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST), has developed a monitoring plan to assess the potential environmental impacts of the proposed development on marine fish and invertebrate communities. The impact of the development will be evaluated using the Before-After-Control-Impact (BACI) framework. This framework is commonly used to assess the environmental impact of an activity (i.e., wind farm development and operation). Under this framework, monitoring will occur prior to development (Before), and then during construction and operation (After). During these periods, changes in the ecosystem will be compared between the development site (Impact) and a control site (Control). The control site will be in the general vicinity with similar characteristics to the impact areas (i.e., depth, habitat type, seabed characteristics, etc.). The goal of the monitoring plan is to assess the impact that wind farm construction and operation have on the ecosystem within an ever-changing ocean.
The current monitoring plan incorporates multiple surveys utilizing a range of survey methods to assess different facets of the regional ecology. The trawl survey is one component of the overall survey plan. A demersal otter trawl, further referred to as a trawl, is a net that is towed behind a vessel along the seafloor and expanded horizontally by a pair of otter boards or trawl doors (Figure 1). Trawls tend to be relatively indiscriminate in the fish and invertebrates they collect; hence, bottom trawls are a generally accepted tool for assessing the biological communities along the seafloor and are widely used by institutions worldwide for ecosystem monitoring. Since they are actively towed behind a vessel, they are less biased by fish activity and behavior than passive fishing gear (i.e., gillnets, longlines, traps, etc.), which relies on animals moving to the gear. As such, state and federal fisheries management agencies heavily rely on trawl surveys to evaluate ecosystem changes and to assess the abundance of fishery resources. The current trawl survey closely emulates the Northeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program (NEAMAP) survey protocol. In doing so, the goal was to ensure compatibility with other regional surveys, including the National Marine Fisheries Service annual spring and fall trawl surveys, the annual NEAMAP spring and fall trawl surveys, and state trawl surveys including the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries trawl survey. The bottom trawl survey is complemented by the drop camera survey and lobster trap survey, both are also carried out by SMAST.
The primary goal of this survey was to provide data related to fish abundance, distribution, and population structure in and around the 501N Study Area. The data will serve as a baseline to be used in a future analysis under the BACI framework. The reports for the first year of monitoring, which occurred from spring 2019 to winter 2020, have been submitted to the sponsoring organization. The surveys planned for spring 2020 were not conducted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This progress report documents survey methodology, survey effort, and data collected during the spring of 2021.