Fishing Industry Perspective Bonnie Brady, Long Island Commercial - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Fishing Industry Perspective

Bonnie Brady, Long Island Commercial Fishing Association

Impacts Of Offshore Wind Turbines

• Environmental Damage To Ocean Sea Floor
• Heavy Industrial Construction (is it an appropriate use?)
• Negative Operational Consequences (Co-Existence Planning)
• Habitat, Nursery and Forage Degradation (53 Fin Fish Species)
• Migratory Changes of Key Regional Species (Mammals, Schooling

Fish)

• Vast and Sustainable Organic Protein Sources Put at Risk
• Regional Economic Consequences

Construction Methodology Turbine Bases

Piling Driving and Noise Generation

• "Pile-driving during the construction of offshore wind farms produces an

incredible amount of noise," said Helen Bailey, one of a group of scientists at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science who are studying the impacts of wind turbines on the environment. "This is potentially harmful to marine species and has been of greatest concern to marine mammal species, such as protected populations of seals, dolphins and whales.“

• Creating up to 220 db, which can injure and kill. Causing permanent

temporal shifts in hearing in marine mammals and in fish, through swim bladder destruction, and particle wave pressure.

• https://m.phys.org/news/2013-11-noise-impact-offshore-farm-

marine.html

Transmission Cable Methodology (35 Miles)

• Jet plowing is considered a Level B harassment of marine mammals, and fish, masking

communication, and can disrupt migration, breeding, feeding or sheltering.

• Jet plowing has “the potential to cause harassment as defined by the MMPA includes the

noise associated with the use of DP vessel thrusters during cable installation activities (120 dB).”

• For the Block Island wind turbine project, the 120 db Zone of Influence was 9.7 miles

from the jet-plowing cable laying, throughout. That means that the jet-plowing at 120 db could be heard underwater for 9.7 miles from the actual site of cable trenching, at a level that is considered a Level B harassment of marine mammals, and fish.

• Jet plowing will cause displacement or loss of benthic habitat and finfish resources in the

immediate areas of disturbance

http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/permits/incidental/energy/biwf_cables_2016iha_app.pdf

Sound is Essential to Marine Species

• Communication - Individual Recognition, Predator Avoidance, Prey

Capture, Orientation, Navigation, Mate Selection, Mother-Offspring Bonding.

• Effects of Anthropogenic Sounds (Mammals, Fish)
• Physical injury - Temporary or Permanent loss of hearing sensitivity
• Behavioral modification - Changes in foraging or habitat-use patterns
• Masking - The prevention of marine mammals from hearing important
• sounds. (Family and Schooling)
• http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/permits/biwf_iha_application2014.pdf

Noise Concerns – Industrial Construction

Noise Levels and Impacts

Site Area Survey Noise Impacts

• Site surveys

Site Area Survey Noise Impacts (Cont.)

Site Area Survey Noise Impacts (Cont.)

Operational Noise Generation Wind Turbines

• Operational sound of wind turbines: sound estimated to be 120 db

continuous, 200 meters from monopoles, based on model results.

• 120 db continuous sound is considered a Level B harassment:

potential to disturb a marine mammal or marine mammal stock in the wild by causing disruption of behavioral patterns, including, but not limited to, migration, breathing, nursing, breeding, feeding, or sheltering, but does not have the potential to injure a marine mammal or marine mammal stock in the wild

Dbs and Particle wave pressure

• http://www.subacoustech.com/information/downloads/reports/534R1231.pdf Noise causes both auditory and non-

auditory effects. The non-auditory effects of noise may be obvious, for instance when underwater blast results in floating dead fish. Other injuries, such as swim bladder rupture in fish, may be observed by observation and dissection of exposed

• individuals. These effects only occur at high levels of sound, for instance typically within tens of, or at most a few hundred

metres from underwater blast, and hence affect relatively small areas and numbers of individuals (Nedwell and Edwards 2004).

• The auditory effects of sound comprise temporary or permanent noise induced deafness, and the behavioural effects of

underwater noise, typified by a species avoiding an area of high noise. Both of these are poorly understood, yet behavioural effects may have an influence over great ranges, often kilometres or tens of kilometres, reaching very much larger numbers of individuals. High noise levels have been cited as having the potential to impede communication amongst groups of animals, to drive them away from feeding or breeding grounds, to cause strandings, or to deflect them from migration routes.

• http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/2041-210X.12544/full Deviations between sound pressure and particle motion

can be high in the near field (near sound sources), meaning sound cues such as vocalizations are likely to be detectable at different ranges via particle motion compared with sound pressure. This is also the case for anthropogenic noise sources, such as pile driving and shipping, which may have near-field effects on fishes and invertebrates that scale with particle motion rather than sound pressure. Methods to measure and model the particle-motion field at close ranges are needed to understand better the behavioural and evolutionary implications for acoustic communication, and the potential effects

• f noise on aquatic fauna. A related subject is the role of directionality in these effects: sound pressure signals do not

contain directional information, whereas particle motion is inherently directional, which gives information about source direction.

Conclusions On Wind Energy Related Noise

• There is a need to examine more closely those sound exposure

response patterns that give rise to significant detrimental effects on fish populations before a more complete risk assessment approach can be developed and incorporated into environmental statements.

• The development of specific sound exposure criteria, whether

weighted or unweighted, is only the first step in performing risk

• assessment. It is important to specify in greater detail the

characteristics of those sounds that result in effects.

Impacts of Wind Energy Related Noise

• It is also necessary to describe the behavioural responses of the animals in greater detail and to

assess the implications of those responses in terms of risks to populations.

• Significant changes in behavior might include abandonment of spawning behavior or spawning

sites, movement away from preferred habitats, disruption of feeding, increased energy consumption, and diversion or delay of migrations.

• Sounds we make in the sea may interfere with the ability of fishes to detect and use sounds of

biological relevance, and could have a substantial impact on their fitness and survival.

• http://acousticstoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Assessing-the-Impact-of-Underwater-

Sounds-on-Fishes-and-Other-Forms-of-Marine-Life-Anthony-D.-Hawkins-and-Arthur-N.-Popper.pdf

Biofouling and Displacement of Biodiversity

https://tethys.pnnl.gov/sites/default/files/publications/Fouling_Community_on_Turbine_Foundation s_and_Scour_Protections.pdf

• Follow-up Seven Years after Construction (2011)
• Highest numbers of Whiting were found before the construction.
• Multiple Sites Monitored and Surveyed
• Whiting Numbers declined significantly (Figure 17a).
• Severe Impact on School Fisheries
• https://oregonwave.org/oceanic/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/246-

2011_effect-of-the-horns-rev-1-offshore-wind-farm-on-fish- communities1.pdf

Horns Rev 1O shore Wind Farm

Whiting Survey Data 17a.

EMF During transmission of the

produced electricity, the cables will emit low-frequency electromagnetic fields (EMFs; Figure 2). At present, the industry standard for design of the cables requires shielding, which restricts the directly emitted electric fields but cannot shield the magnetic component of an EMF. The movement of water and organisms through the emitted magnetic field will then induce localized electric fields (Ohman et al., 2007). If AC cables are used, the magnetic field associated with the cable has a rotational component, which also induces electric fields in the surrounding environment (CMaCS, 2003). EMFs emitted by the marine renewable energy harnessing process is most likely to affect animals that use EMFs for spatial location, largescale movement, small-scale

• rientation, feeding, or mate finding.

http://tos.org/oceanography/article/environmental-and-ecological- effects-of-ocean-renewable-energy-development- https://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/bitstream/1826/8235/1/Effects_of_P ile-driving_Noise-2010-2.pdf

Identification of Outer Continental Shelf Renewable Energy Space-Use Conflicts and Analysis of Potential Mitigation Measures Urban Harbors Institute Publications http://scholarworks.umb.ed u/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article =1038&context=uhi_pubs

Identification of Outer Continental Shelf Renewable Energy Space-Use Conflicts and Analysis of Potential Mitigation Measures- 2012 Urban Harbors Institute

• The broad purpose of this study was to begin to fill this gap by (1) identifying potential space- use

conflicts between OCS renewable energy development and other uses of the ocean environment, and (2) recommending measures that BOEM can implement in order to promote avoidance or mitigation of such conflicts, thereby facilitating responsible and efficient development of OCS renewable energy resources. The result is a document intended to serve as a desktop resource that BOEM can use to inform its decision making as the agency carries out its statutory and regulatory responsibilities.

• A comprehensive program of ethnographic data collection through direct interaction with

representatives of important stakeholder communities, with a focus on fishing (commercial, recreational, and charter) and boating (commercial and recreational)

• 2.3.2.1 Atlantic coast commercial fishing
• Commercial fishing-related interests included permit owners, captains, crewmembers, their

associations and shore-support industries, as well as charter boat owners and captain, processors and aquaculture. In the Northeast, the study team engaged stakeholders currently employing the major commercial fishing gear: scallop dredges, trawls, pots, and gillnets

METHODOLOGY http://scholarworks.umb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1038&context=uhi_pubs Identification of Outer Continental Shelf Renewable Energy Space-Use Conflicts and Analysis of Potential Mitigation Measures Urban Harbors Institute Publications What’s wrong with this analysis? NY wasn’t even interviewed

Speci cies landed by New York fishermen within the Rh Rhode I Island W Wind E Energy Ar y Area

• Cod- $1.3 million dollars worth landed by NY since 2000
• Butterfish
• Squid
• Fluke
• Haddock
• Winter Flounder
• Yellowtail flounder
• Black Sea Bass
• Scup
• Lobster
• Scallops
• Monkfish

VTR= Vessel Trip Reports, required by the National Marine Fisheries Service, for all commercial fishing vessels detailing their species and pounds of catch per fishing trip. This poundage reflects regulatory catch, the amount of fish that are allowed to be caught per fishery through quotas, not the biomass of fish that exist in that area at any one time. VTR Data shows fishing activity, but does not specify from which state. Rhode Island and Massachusetts had a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and a Fisheries Advisory Board, (FAB) through the SAMP process New York had nothing, zero input, into the SAMP process on the regionally important fisheries area of the RI-WEA

These figures were pulled from the Northeast Fishery Science Center, the scientific arm

• f National

Marine Fisheries Service in the Northeast.

Commercial fishing via trawl, dredge, pot, and gillnet, and recreational fishing use in the area of the Deepwater Wind Ri- Wind Energy Area lease combined. This map was created prior to choosing an area of interest from the SAMP process, these maps were part

• f the SAMP
• verview.

Where is the NY Representation?