Pacific Offshore Wind Environmental Research Recommendations

Collect data on species distributions and variability, including times of high risk for migratory species. Studies should include surveys of all marine taxonomical groups and be conducted in locations that include under-sampled areas, ecologically important areas, nearshore locations, and potential wind energy development areas. Studies should also fill data gaps and improve data quality for distributions of rare or endangered species. Conduct studies in all seasons and monitor changes over time to maintain relevant data that reflects changing climate conditions. These baseline data can be used to develop fine scale species distribution models, identify biological hotspots, contribute to cumulative impacts assessments, and support offshore wind energy siting activities.

Identify baseline ecological drivers that help predict habitat use, distribution, and abundance or marine mammals and seabirds. These environmental predictor variables can be used to improve habitat-based predictive models, particularly in areas with little or no survey information. Ecological variables may include prey availability or weather patterns, for example.

Understand potential behavioral responses from disturbance, displacement, or avoidance, through to physiological effects, and all the way to population-level impacts. Investigate spatial-temporal contextual conditions associated with potential longer-term responses (e.g., avoidance or attraction) to OSW development areas. Assess individual energetic consequences of behavioral changes due to OSW development activities. Evaluate trends in fitness (survival, reproduction) and abundance for populations that are regularly exposed to OSW stressors.

Conduct biological surveys of benthic habitat to determine species composition and distribution, in particular in potential offshore wind areas. In addition, evaluate abundance and density of species in deep-sea benthic ecosystems such as corals and sponges. Use these data to identify areas of high ecological importance.

Evaluate cumulative environmental effects of offshore wind energy development across lifecycle (pre-construction to decommissioning), including the effects of multiple offshore wind farms in a region and onshore impacts. The cumulative impacts analysis should include an evaluation of physical processes, habitat, climate, behavioral changes, and changes to populations, abundance, distribution, and migration of wildlife species.

Develop a better understanding of cumulative impacts between offshore wind energy and fisheries, including future climate conditions. Identify sources and severity of conflicts between offshore wind energy and other ocean uses to ensure transparent and equitable marine spatial planning. Better understand interactions between fisheries with seabird and invertebrate populations.

Better understand the impact of climate change on marine resources, their habitat, and oceanographic processes (such as ocean heat waves and upwelling). Understand impacts to the extent that we can distinguish reasonably foreseeable impacts caused by climate changes from impacts with a reasonably close causal relationship to proposed offshore wind energy development.

Develop and implement standardized procedures and survey protocols that ensure high-quality datasets and comparability between survey efforts. For example, develop standardized methods for acoustic data for fishes and aquatic invertebrates; seabird surveys; and benthic data collection. Coordinate data collection activities across different geographic and time scales such that data collected can be leveraged by different projects and researchers. Ensure monitoring done by developers and through longer-term surveys are compatible and supports knowledge transfer between different data sources without making impediments to gather long-term scientific data sets and surveys, such as those conducted by the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service. Compile data into a publicly accessible, centralized, online repository. Use standardized protocols for collection and storage of data so information can be compared across different projects or surveys. Maintain the integrity, relevance, and accuracy of data that are hosted in the current and future locations, such as the California Offshore Wind Energy Gateway.

Collect area-specific stock distribution, status, and habitat data for fish species (e.g., sharks, billfish, hagfish) at different life stages to identify important habitat areas such as key migratory routes, feeding areas, and pupping areas, and improve understanding of deepwater fish species status and lifecycle.

Address the potential removal or alteration of sensitive and important habitat for important species (i.e. ESA, commercially, recreationally, and ecologically valuable species). Document existing conditions for comparison with monitoring results of habitat changes related to offshore wind farms.

Investigate whether heat emitted by offshore wind farm cables effects benthic communities. Understanding is needed of how the position of the cable (e.g., buried, exposed, protected with concrete mattressing/rock armor) will influence the rate of heat dissipation. Heat generation and dissipation is not well defined and requires data collection prior to assessing the effects on benthic communities and biogeochemistry. Note that heat generation and dissipation will be specific to the cable characteristics and the environment (e.g., ambient temperature, porosity of seabed/protection) and that heat and EMF may be a potential multi-modal stressor.

Investigate effects of wind energy structures on ocean current changes to determine impact on larval/plankton transport and communities due to these

structures. Such effects can vary among designs of individual technologies, and the number and distance between units and complexes. Models of nearshore oceanography will assist efforts to estimate larval transport effects.

Collect fine spatial and temporal scale data on marine mammal species distribution, abundance, behavior, and habitat use. Data on migratory patterns; ecosystem and prey conditions; diving, foraging, and reproductive behavior; vocalization behavior (seasonality and acoustic characteristics); and residency is needed for species of interest that are relevant to potential offshore wind energy development, such as killer whales, beaked whales, fin whales, and minke whales. Development and verification of predictive models incorporating oceanographic data and habitat conditions will be essential to identifying current and potential areas of importance.

Collect data to verify and improve understanding of the spatial and temporal characteristics of migratory patterns of birds, marine mammals, and fish, with a particular focus on species of interest. Use these baseline data to evaluate the impacts to migratory routes caused by offshore wind energy development and to identify times of high risk for migratory species.

Develop new technologies to improve monitoring and reduce wildlife impact from offshore wind energy. Technology development should monitor and reduce impacts to biodiversity, habitat, and coastal upwelling, through new technologies that may include, but are not limited to smart curtailment and deterrence, integration of bat monitoring with turbine manufacturing, and automated sampling methods for benthic habitats. Research should explore use of novel techniques like eDNA, which are capable of detecting the presence of underwater wildlife including rare, cryptic, or vulnerable species. Expand networked wildlife tracking network, including Motus stations, using a geographically phased approach along the Pacific Coast.

Examine behavioral and physiological changes in relation to sound exposure (e.g., geophysical/technical surveys, pile driving, operational noise, etc) that may have implications for fitness, including individual survival, predator–prey relationships, and/or breeding success. Investigate detection of sound pressure, particle motion, and vibration, including bandwidth of detection, minimal level of signal detectable at each frequency (threshold, or sensitivity), and behavioral responses. Understand hearing thresholds for sensitive marine species.

Work collaboratively with stakeholders to conduct risk assessments to identify vulnerability, sensitivity, knowledge gaps in the early planning stages to inform the location of call areas, and for macro, meso, and micro siting decisions. Develop a decision support tool to support planning, analysis, and siting of wind energy areas. Integrate ongoing analysis to existing decision support tools, such as the California Offshore Wind Energy Gateway, to allow users to simultaneously overlay and analyze multiple data sets. Improve fine-scale resolution of the data sets in areas of interest.

Assess potential entanglement risks (primary and secondary) to fish, marine mammals, and sea turtles during activities to support offshore wind projects. Understand multiple entanglement sources documented in a region and then assess elevated risk areas to support development of best management practices or regulatory conditions to be applied to the environmental analysis of proposed developments.

Determine fine-scale patterns of sea turtle movements, distributions, and habitat use, including changes in relation to offshore wind development. Assess existing tracking and survey data across all sea turtle species, identify environmental drivers of distribution and habitat use patterns, update abundance estimates, and determine possible data compilation and modeling approaches for using these data collectively to inform decision making.

Collect fine spatial and temporal scale data on seabird distribution, abundance, behavior, and habitat use to inform project siting, improve model predictions, and quantify potential population-level consequences. Data on colony location and size; migratory patterns; foraging grounds; and bird activity during nonbreeding seasons, at night, and during storms is needed for species of interest that are relevant to potential offshore wind energy development, including rare, threatened, endemic, and locally breeding species.

Improve information on flight height patterns for seabird species of interest (e.g., albatrosses, loons, grebes, shearwaters, and petrels) in relation to environmental conditions such as wind speed and visibility. Flight reconstructions from bio-logging technology, such as GPS devices, altimeters, and accelerometers, can also provide information on fine-scale flight differences and regional use between day and night to assess collision risk with offshore wind energy projects. Improve information on flight height patterns for seabird species of interest (e.g., albatrosses, loons, grebes, shearwaters, and petrels) in relation to environmental conditions such as wind speed and visibility. Flight reconstructions from bio-logging technology, such as GPS devices, altimeters, and accelerometers, can also provide information on fine-scale flight differences and regional use between day and night to assess collision risk with offshore wind energy projects.

Evaluate ambient sound levels (soundscapes) in offshore wind farm development areas prior to development (baseline) activities, as well as during all development phases. Understand sound propagation at varying distances from lease sites to understand how sound moves in certain areas, and across different frequencies for OSW turbines. Incorporate the Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) Framework that NMFS and BOEM recently jointly developed for monitoring for underwater sounds related to offshore wind development activities.

Identify maintenance procedures to regularly remove derelict gear to reduce the risk of entanglement of marine organisms. Monitor tension of lines and cables used to identify if derelict gear or material is entangled, and otherwise develop strategies for reducing entanglement risk (e.g., color of mooring lines, pingers, acoustic deterrents, various mooring line configurations, etc).

Understand co-occurrence of transit routes with whale habitat, including krill hotpots, and subsequently limiting the number of vessels and reducing vessel speeds should be considered as a means to reduce potential impacts. Develop real-time forecasting of krill hotspots to establish dynamic management areas for vessel traffic.

Assess existing seabird data (e.g., tracking, diet) across all taxa for the offshore region of interest, and determine possible data compilation and analytical approaches for using these data collectively to inform siting decisions and risk assessments, as well as to identify gaps in data for priority species. For example, evaluate whether the spatial resolution of existing data are sufficient and incorporate existing data layers into online data tools and models.