Project Description
Monitoring endangered Atlantic sturgeon and commercial finfish habitat use in offshore New York waters
The New York Wind Energy Area (NY WEA) off the coast of New York and New Jersey comprises important marine habitat that may be used by federally protected Atlantic sturgeon and other commercially and ecologically significant finfish species. The timing and extent that these fish use the NY WEA is unknown; however, scientific and commercial fisheries data suggest these species spend significant time in the area.
The overall goal of the project is to utilize acoustic telemetry methods to analyze habitat use of Atlantic sturgeon and other important commercial finfish species in the NY WEA with the specific objectives of: (1) estimating total numbers and proportions of individuals present in the proposed wind farm area; (2) determining occurrence as a function of distance from shore; (3) mapping array use and general habitat associations; (4) determining residency; and (5) determining movement rates.
Major tasks for this two-year project include the design and deployment of an offshore acoustic receiver array and the collection and tagging of Atlantic sturgeon and other species of importance. In order to estimate habitat use of Atlantic sturgeon within the NY WEA, a large acoustic receiver array will be deployed within and in a linear transect to the NY WEA. The array will feature a minimum of 31 VEMCO VR2AR receivers that will actively monitor animal use of the area. Atlantic sturgeon (100 individuals) and other species (118 individuals) such as black sea bass, winter flounder, and summer flounder will be captured by bottom trawl using an 80′ otter trawl aboard the RV Seawolf and tagged with surgically implanted acoustic transmitters.
Funding for this project is administered on behalf of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYDEC) for the award period of April 1 2016-April 30 2018.
A no-cost extension for this project was approved in May 2018.
