Abstract
Beginning in 2013, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) designated two wind energy areas (WEAs) in New England: one offshore of Massachusetts and the other offshore of both Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, BOEM and other relevant federal agencies are required to conduct environmental assessments for offshore wind construction and operations plans. Offshore wind energy planning, development, and ongoing operations require comprehensive assessments of biological resources within suitable development areas to identify and mitigate any potential effects on marine species. To contribute to meeting this requirement, the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) and BOEM, under Cooperative Agreement M17AC00002, jointly funded the New England Aquarium (NEAq) to conduct aerial surveys from 2011-2020, and 2022. In 2020, four wind energy developers (Vineyard Wind, Mayflower Wind, Ørsted, and Equinor) contributed funding for Campaign 6B aerial surveys, which were conducted from fall 2020 through fall 2021. Analyses of the survey data have shown that the study area includes seasonal aggregations of protected species of whales and sea turtles. This report, “Megafauna Aerial Surveys in the Southern New England Wind Energy Areas with Emphasis on Large Whales: Final Report Campaign 7, 2022”, summarizes results from February 2022 through August 2022. This report contains summaries of survey effort, summaries of sightings (e.g., sightings maps), and analyses of effort-corrected data, including sighting rates and calculations of density and abundance.