TY - RPRT
TI - Digital Aerial Baseline Survey of Marine Wildlife in Support of Offshore Wind Energy Third Interim Report 
AU - Normandeau Associates Inc
AB - In support of New York State’s commitment to incorporating offshore wind into its energy portfolio, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) embarked on a multi-year ultra-high resolution aerial digital survey of marine resources in a 43,745.20 km2 (12,754.06 mi2) offshore planning area (OPA) in 2016. The OPA encompasses the waters of the New York Bight from Long Island southeast to the continental shelf break. Surveys are conducted on a quarterly basis, timed to coincide with periods of abundance of avian and marine species that could be vulnerable to impacts from offshore wind activities. This report summarizes the results of six surveys conducted during Summer 2016 through Fall 2017. Each survey collected images covering at least 7% of the OPA.  For each survey, approximately 300,000 images were collected within the OPA using a transect design. During the first survey year, special attention was also paid to the wind energy area (WEA) using a more detailed grid survey design, collecting around 100,000 images. Each survey collected images covering at least 10% of the WEA. Information on the WEA surveys may be found in the second interim report. There was some variation in sampling effort between surveys as a different camera system that captured a larger footprint was used after the Summer 2016 survey. Across all surveys, 98% of images did not contain any target species groups, vessels, or structures. Less than 2% of images contained target taxonomic groups. During the first six surveys, biota included  66 species of birds  16 species of sharks  10 species of dolphins  9 species of whales  4 species of sea turtles  6 species of rays  2 species of seals Some seasonal patterns were evident. During the Summer surveys, the vast majority of the organisms observed were rays (60% of images) followed by birds (18% images), mammals (9%), sharks (7%), and turtles (5%). During the Fall surveys the vast majority of organisms observed were birds (90% of images) followed by mammals (9% of images), and <1%) of all other organisms. Winter very much followed the pattern of Fall with 93% of organisms observed being birds, 1% mammals, and <1% of all other organisms. In the Spring survey, birds again predominated, appearing in 66% of images, followed by mammals (30% of images), sharks (3%), and <1% turtles.  Bird species abundance varied widely across seasons with storm-petrels and shearwaters being dominant in the Summer surveys, gulls and gannets dominant in the Fall surveys, auks and gulls most abundant in Winter, and Sterna terns and gulls most abundant during the Spring. Sea ducks were present in all but the Summer surveys. Peak numbers for ducks were in the Fall and Winter surveys.  Spatial patterns in bird abundance were apparent for some taxonomic groups, but absent for others. Cory’s shearwaters tended to cluster in the northeast corner of the OPA, while sooty shearwater was found primarily in the northeast portion of the OPA in Summer and in the southern portion in the Spring. Gull observations occurred throughout the OPA, but some concentrations were found nearshore. Royal terns and least terns were primarily observed nearshore while black terns were primarily observed >50 km offshore, and roseate terns were found at the shelf break. Scoter species and long-tailed duck were primarily found nearshore. Phalaropes were generally found beyond the ≈60-m isobath.  The dominate flight direction for most bird species groups was from west-to-east and east-to-west; although, ducks tended to show a more south-to-north trend. Across all seasons, 53% of birds were recorded sitting on the water, 8% were observed flying in the rotor-swept zone (RSZ), and 17% were observed above or below the RSZ; flight height could not be calculated for the remaining 20% of individuals. Sensitivity indices showed that collision-sensitive species occurred most often near shore and along the western edge of the OPA. Displacement-sensitive species were most numerous in Winter and were found in the central and eastern portions of the OPA. Population-sensitive species most often congregated in the northeastern portion of the OPA in Summer and Winter, but this trend was not apparent in the other seasons.  The majority of shark observations (71%) were not classified to the species level. Most (98%) shark observations occurred during the Summer and Spring surveys. There were no spatial patterns of shark distributions evident in the OPA. Travel direction was highly variable but showed some WNW and ESE tendencies in the Summer 2017 survey. Dolphins were the most abundant of the marine mammals consisting of 96% of the observations followed by 1% seals and 1% whales; unidentified mammals consisted of 2% of the total mammal observations and these animals were either dolphins or seals. Dolphins were abundant in all seasons, particularly in Spring and Summer surveys. With the exception of unidentified dolphins, common dolphin was the most abundant species in all seasons with 41% of the total dolphin observations. Pilot whale, Risso’s dolphin, striped dolphin, Atlantic white-sided dolphin, Atlantic spotted dolphin, and rough-toothed dolphin all showed a definite preference for deeper water at the shelf break throughout the year. Dolphins were most frequently traveling in an ESE to WNW direction. Whales occurred during all seasons and fin whales were the most abundant overall with 29% of the observations. Whales showed a preference for the shelf break, although fin, humpback, minke, and north Atlantic right whales were also found elsewhere in the OPA. No spatial distribution patterns by season were evident. Whales were most frequently traveling in an ESE to WNW direction. Turtles were most frequently observed in the Summer surveys with 96% of the observations occurring during this season. Loggerhead turtles were the most frequently found representing 79% of the total observations. Most turtles observed during the Summer, along with leatherback turtles observed during the Fall, occurred inside the 70-m isobath. Outside these findings, there were no obvious spatial patterns among species or seasons. Turtle travel direction followed primarily a WNW to ESE direction.  Rays only occurred during the Summer and Fall surveys, and >97% of observations occurred in the Summer surveys. Cownose and cownose/bullnose rays were the most abundant with 81% of the total observations. Cownose and cownose/bullnose rays were most frequent in the northwestern portion of the OPA, while unidentified rays were found throughout the OPA. Devil rays and manta rays were concentrated along the shelf break. Travel direction was highly variable for rays and showed no distinct patterns.  Seals were difficult to identify to the species level and 88% of seals were classified as unknown. Of the seals that could be classified at the species level, gray seals were the most abundant with 8% of the observations. Fourteen positively identified threatened and endangered species were recorded within the OPA during the first six surveys not including species groups that may include listed species. Our categorization of threatened and endangered species was conservative and included species groups: “Sterna tern” (possibly representing roseate tern), “hammerhead shark (unid.)” (possibly representing scalloped hammerhead), and “turtle species unknown” (possibly representing all endangered turtles). Over 75% of listed species observations occurred in the Summer and Spring surveys, dominated by numbers of Sterna terns and loggerhead turtles.  Results from aerial high-resolution surveys can provide insight into spatial and temporal animal distributions within a surveyed area. Data from these surveys can be used to inform wind turbine siting decisions at a high-level and site-level through better understanding of species composition, relative abundance, and animal movements. This information can also be used in developing project-specific environmental documents such as Environmental Assessments and Environmental Impact Statements should the need arise. 
DA - 2019/05//
PY - 2019
SP - 145
PB - Normandeau Associates Inc
UR - https://remote.normandeau.com/aer_docs.php?pj=6
LA - English
KW - Birds
KW - Marine Mammals
KW - Reptiles
KW - Sea Turtles
ER -