Peer Review: Proposed NEFSC Protected Species Survey Mitigation Plans

NOAA Fisheries shares a commitment with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to develop offshore wind energy, while protecting biodiversity and promoting ocean co-use. One element of this shared commitment includes mitigation of the impact of offshore wind energy development on NOAA Fisheries surveys.

The Federal Survey Mitigation Implementation Strategy describes the impacts of offshore wind energy development on protected species surveys. It also outlines goals, objectives, and actions to guide development and implementation of a program to mitigate the impacts on protected species surveys over the expected duration (30+ year) of offshore wind energy development in the Northeast U.S.

The panel will be reviewing draft mitigation plans for each of our long-term, recurring Northeast protected species surveys that will be impacted by offshore wind development. Each draft plan includes descriptions of the impacted survey, specific stakeholders for the data collected, impacts of offshore wind development, and planned measures to address the impacts of wind energy development on scientific surveys.

Panel Review Charge

Objective 3.3 of the federal survey mitigation implementation strategy includes a transparent peer-review process for all survey-specific mitigation plans to ensure elements of the Northeast Survey Mitigation Program represent the best science available. To this end, our science center requested the expertise of the Atlantic Scientific Review Group to review our plans.

The reviewers will evaluate each survey mitigation plan following a consistent Terms of Reference . They will evaluate the relative effectiveness of proposed survey mitigation responses to the four impacts of offshore wind energy development which have previously been evaluated and reported by the NEFSC in various regulatory review documents, including the strategy. These impacts are:

1. Preclusion of NOAA Fisheries sampling platforms from the wind development areas
2. Impacts on the statistical design of surveys
3. Alteration of benthic and pelagic habitats and airspace
4. Reduced sampling productivity

Furthermore, the panel will assess the plans effectiveness of addressing six key elements of survey mitigation, as described in the Strategy:

1. Evaluation of survey designs
2. Identification and development of new survey approaches
3. Calibration and integration of new survey approaches
4. Development of interim provisional survey indices
5. Wind energy monitoring to fulfill regional scientific survey data needs
6. Development and communication of new regional data streams

Survey Mitigation Plans to be Reviewed

• North Atlantic Right Whale Aerial Survey
• Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Aerial Survey
• Marine Mammal, Sea Turtle, and Seabird Vessel-based Abundance Survey
• Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Ecology Vessel-based Survey
• Seal Aerial Abundance Survey

New/Expanded Survey

• Passive Acoustic Monitoring Survey

Review Panelists

• Atlantic Scientific Review Group - Dr. Richard Merrick (co-chair), Dr. Francine Kershaw (co-chair)