TY - RPRT
TI - Cross-Shelf Habitat Suitability Modeling: Characterizing Potential Distributions of Deep-Sea Corals, Sponges, and Macrofauna Offshore of the US West Coast
AU - Poti, M
AU - Henkel, S
AU - Bizzarro, J
AU - Hourigan, T
AU - Clarke, M
AU - Whitmire, C
AU - Powell, A
AU - Yoklavich, M
AU - Bauer, L
AU - Winship, A
AU - Coyne, M
AU - Gillett, D
AU - Gilbane, L
AU - Christensen, J
AU - Jeffrey, C
AB - Through the passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) acquired responsibilities for overseeing development of renewable energy in US federal waters in an economically and environmentally responsible manner. As part of these management responsibilities, BOEM must evaluate possible direct, indirect, and cumulative impacts of renewable energy activities to disclose and minimize their negative impacts on human, coastal, and oceanic communities. To accomplish this, the agency requires up-to-date information to address such potential impacts when developing environmental analysis documents and outreach under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and other consultation regulations. Along the continental US West Coast, the states of California, Oregon, and Washington are also evaluating siting alternatives for developing offshore energy projects within their state waters and adjacent BOEM Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) regions (Porter and Phillips 2016). In fact, in situ tests of commercial-scale wave energy converters began in Oregon in 2012, and the first utility-scale marine wave energy converter to be connected to the grid via an underwater cable in US federal waters is on schedule to be permitted in 2020 (ODOE 2018, US DOE 2020). Offshore energy projects include activities that physically disturb the seafloor. At a commercial scale, the intensity and extent could have profound consequences for deep-sea corals, sponges, benthic macrofauna, commercially fished species, and other ecological marine resources (i.e., benthic habitats) associated with the seafloor. For example, installation of anchors and energy transmission cables for wind turbines as well as the altered hydrodynamic flow caused by wave generators redistribute sediments around these projects and likely alter biological species and abundance near the area. Many corals and sponges add structural complexity to seafloor habitats, provide refuge and substrate, increase the number and availability of microhabitats for other organisms, and thereby create hotspots of biological diversity that serve as foraging oases for pelagic species in deep sea areas (Roberts et al. 2009). The Food and Agriculture Organization considers deep-sea corals and sponges (DSCS) to be vulnerable marine ecosystems in need of protection from adverse impacts of deep-sea bottom fishing on the high seas (FAO 2009). They also have been identified as key components of “Ecologically and Biologically Significant Areas” in the deep sea that need protection under the auspices of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (Convention on Biological Diversity 2009). Thus, BOEM has a critical need for information on the spatial distribution of these organisms and benthic habitats to make enviornmetnally responsible decisions regarding offshore energy projects. 
DA - 2020/10//
PY - 2020
PB - Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM)
SN - BOEM 2020-021 
UR - https://coastalscience.noaa.gov/project/predictive-benthic-habitat-suitability-modeling-of-deep-sea-biota-on-the-us-pacific-outer-continental-shelf/
LA - English
KW - Wind Energy
KW - Invertebrates
ER -