Abstract
The Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation (CFRF) and collaborators have completed the first year of the South Fork Wind Farm pre-development fisheries monitoring beam trawl survey. The survey is conducted within the South Fork Wind Farm development area as well as two nearby reference areas. The survey gear consists of a 3 m beam trawl outfitted with a 2.4 cm knotless nylon liner, and the monthly survey samples three twenty-minute tows in each area for a total of nine tows per month. For each tow, the entire catch is enumerated and weighed, and size measurements are taken of individual fish and selected invertebrate species. Stomach samples are collected from select commercially valuable fish species for prey composition analysis. Oceanographic conditions including salinity, water temperature, and weather conditions are recorded each haul. Preliminary results from the first year of sampling suggest the eastern reference area has been dominated by crabs, skate, and a handful of flatfish, the western reference area was rocky with many small invertebrates, high catches of scallop and skate with a few summer and winter flounder and the proposed wind farm area had the highest biodiversity with predominantly little skate, scup, and sea robins, with few scallops.