Wildlife and Offshore Wind Development

This fact sheet presents efforts to protect wildlife before, during, and after construction. Specific approaches using a floating LiDAR buoy have included NanoTag antennas, bird acoustic sensors, bat acoustic sensors, and a measuring device that detects passing tagged fish. Data collection has also been performed by Protected Species Observers who are on duty during surveys or when vessels are passing through the area, and with bat acoustic detectors deployed on the survey vessels to record bat calls. Field surveys for data collection have included underwater sample and video collection throughout the Lease area and relevant corridors, digital aerial surveys to detect birds, and shellfish density surveys. Whale, dolphin, and fish monitoring have included deployment of a near real-time whale buoy that provides timely alerts on the presence of baleen whales, a passive acoustic monitoring array will be deployed for about six years, and fisheries resource monitoring.