TY - RPRT
TI - Digital Aerial Baseline Survey of Marine Wildlife in Support of Offshore Wind Energy Second Annual Report Fourth 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 eight surveys conducted during Summer 2016 through Spring 2018. 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. All referenced data in this report do not include the WEA. There was some variation in sampling effort among 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 eight surveys, biota included 68 species of birds 15 species of sharks9 species of dolphins9 species of whales 4 species of sea turtles6 species of rays 3 species of seals Some seasonal patterns were evident. In the Summer 2016 and Summer 2017 surveys, ray encounters were the most frequent. In the Summer surveys, after rays, the most frequently encountered groups were birds, marine mammals, sharks, and turtles. During the Fall 2016 and Fall 2017 surveys bird encounters were the most frequent, followed by marine mammals. The Winter 2016–2017 and Winter 2017–2018 surveys were also dominated by birds followed by marine mammals. In the Spring 2017 surveys, birds still dominated the samples, and there was a higher proportion of marine mammals, but the Spring 2018 survey was quite different, with sharks representing most of the sample followed by birds. No bats were found in imagery. Species composition and abundance varied throughout the year and between years. The Summer 2016 and Summer 2017 surveys were dominated by storm-petrels and shearwaters. The Fall 2016 survey was dominated by gulls and gannets, and the Fall 2017 survey by phalaropes and gulls. Winter 2016–2017 was dominated by auks, gulls and gannets, and Winter 2017–2018 by shorebirds and gulls. Spring 2017 was dominated by Sterna terns and gulls, whereas Spring 2018 was dominated by phalaropes, ducks, and gulls.  Spatial patterns in bird abundance were apparent for some taxonomic groups, but absent for others. Black-capped petrels and Audubon’s shearwaters did not show any substantial differences in distribution among the seasons, but both species clustered near the shelf break and in the northeast corner of the OPA. Sooty shearwaters were also in the northeast corner of the OPA and beyond the -70 m isobath in the Spring surveys during which they were most frequently encountered, and Cory’s shearwaters also showed a tendency to cluster in the northeast corner of the OPA, with fewer observations in the Fall dispersed along the eastern edge of the OPA and a more southward shift in distribution in the Spring 2017 survey. Gull observations occurred throughout the OPA, but most gull species tended to show nearshore tendencies in the Spring and Summer surveys. Black-legged kittiwakes, Bonaparte’s gulls and small unidentified gulls were fairly evenly distributed. Nearshore tendencies for least and royal terns were evident in the Summer and Spring surveys and black terns were more offshore. Other tern including Sterna tern species also showed nearshore preferences in the Summer surveys but also occurred throughout the OPA with some confidently identified roseate terns found past the shelf break. Scoter species and long-tailed duck were primarily found nearshore. Phalaropes were generally found beyond the ≈60-m isobath. Loons were not encountered in the eastern area of the OPA, but were encountered elsewhere in the OPA. Common loons showed a tendency to be found beyond the -70 m isobaths, but redthroated loons appeared to be less depth associated. The dominant 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, 73% of birds were recorded sitting on the water, 6% were observed flying in the rotor-swept zone (RSZ - defined as 25 m to 195 m in this report), and 9% were observed above or below the RSZ; flight height could not be calculated for the remaining 12% of individuals.  Although population sensitive species were distributed across the OPA, timing of aggregations varied with some spatial concentrations in the northeastern section during Summer 2016 and less so in the Summer 2017 survey. Species primarily driving these areas of sensitivity are Cory’s shearwater, Sterna terns and black-capped petrel. The occurrence of population sensitive species during the Fall and Winter were sparse. Collision sensitive species were few in the Summer surveys, only occurring near shore during Summer 2016 survey and absent in Summer 2017 survey. Nearshore sensitivity is mostly driven by common terns, herring gulls, great black-backed gulls and gannets However, they occurred throughout the OPA during other seasons. There were some collision sensitive species nearer shore and near the shelf in the Fall 2016 survey, less so in the Fall 2017 survey, and in the Winter surveys the Winter 2016–2017 survey showed more collision sensitivity nearer the western edge of the OPA and nearer the shelf, whereas there was very little collision sensitivity in the Winter 2017–2018 survey. Displacement sensitive species were found primarily near shore throughout the year, although the Winter 2016–2017 aggregations were generally dense in the central and eastern portions of the OPA. Species driving these areas of displacement sensitivity are alcid species.  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.  Seals were difficult to identify to the species level with 16% identified to species. Gray, harp and harbor seals were identified. Data were too sparse to define any patterns of activity for seals. Dolphins were the most abundant of the marine mammals consisting of 96% of the observations followed by 1% whales and 0.5% seals; unidentified mammals consisted of 2% of the total mammal observations and based on size, 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 NYSERDA Digital Aerial Baseline Survey of Marine Wildlife in Support of Offshore Wind Energy    Summer 2016–Spring 2018 Fourth Interim Report xiv  was the most abundant species in all but one seasonal survey; in the Summer Summer 2016 survey had more Risso’s dolphin encounters. 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. Fin whales were the most abundant species during the 2016 and 2017 Summer and Fall surveys, while common minke whales were the most abundant species during the Winter 2016–2017 and Spring 2017 and 2018 surveys. Humpback whales had the same relative abundance as common minke whales in Spring 2017, but were outnumbered by minke and sei whales in the Spring 2018 survey. North Atlantic right whales were present in the Winter 2016–2017 and Spring 2017 surveys. 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. 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 for rays showed some preference for a WNW to ESE direction in the Summer surveys.  The majority (91%) of shark observations occurred during the Spring 2018 survey. The remaining shark observations were mainly in the Summer surveys across the OPA. Only blue sharks, basking sharks, great white shark, scalloped hammerhead, smooth hammerhead, tiger sharks, hammerhead (unid.), and unknown shark species were observed during the Fall 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. Fifteen species positively identified as threatened and endangered species were recorded within the OPA during the first eight 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). Summer surveys recorded over 64% of listed species observations occurred, followed by Spring surveys representing 34% of observations. Both of these seasonal surveys were dominated by numbers of Sterna terns and loggerhead turtles. Roseate terns identified to species comprised only 0.4% of observations. 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 - 2019/09//
PY - 2019
SP - 164
PB - Normandeau Associates Inc
UR - https://remote.normandeau.com/aer_docs.php?pj=6
LA - English
KW - Wind Energy
KW - Fixed Offshore Wind
KW - Birds
KW - Fish
KW - Marine Mammals
KW - Reptiles
KW - Sea Turtles
ER -