Abstract
The South Fork Wind Farm (SFWF) benthic fish jigging survey was conducted to collect post-construction data on the feasibility of developing a benthic fish monitoring program using mechanical jigs within the SFWF area. Specifically, the survey seeks to see if jigging can replace a gillnet survey targeting monkfish, flatfish, and skates. Broadly, using jigs as an alternative to traditional trawling methods would allow for the continued sampling of benthic fish species in and around newly constructed offshore wind farms. The efforts undertaken in the fall of 2023 were preliminary to familiarize ourselves and the fishermen working with us in operating the automatic jigging machines and fishing techniques. Sampling in the spring and fall of 2024 was conducted utilizing the gear and methods refined during the fall. During the fall of 2023, we successfully deployed and tested 2 different mechanical jigging machines of the Waterman and DNG brands. During this time, we emphasized developing an experimental design and fishing techniques. Each fishing vessel and crew partook in 6 field sampling days (12 total) between October and December 2023. Both crews had the opportunity to test the Waterman machines twice and the DNG machines twice. Once we had gotten a feel for the gear, we started testing alternative jig configurations, one of which works best for our overall project goals. Additionally, upon consulting the captains and crews, we decided to finish the fall sampling season (2 trips per vessel; 4 total) using only the DNG jig machines.
The spring sampling period of 2024 ran from April to June, with sampling occurring twice monthly. We employed 3 DNG machines aboard each vessel using the technique and gear configuration selected during the fall 2023 sampling period. Each vessel fished in the SFWF area and adjacent reference areas. In each area, we randomly selected 5 predetermined sampling sites (15 total) for 20 minutes. During the 2024 sampling season, we also began deploying conductivity, temperature, and dissolved oxygen (CTD) readers. The CTD data loggers were deployed at every sampling event during this period.