Abstract
Beginning in 2013, the Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management (BOEM) designated two wind energy areas in New England: one offshore of Massachusetts and the other offshore of both Rhode Island and Massachusetts (together, the WEA). Currently, four offshore wind developers have lease agreements to build projects in the BOEM designated Massachusetts (MA) and the Rhode Island/Massachusetts (RIMA) wind energy areas. In August 2016, the Governor of Massachusetts, Charles Baker, signed energy diversity legislation that requires Massachusetts utilities to initiate a procurement of up to 1,600 megawatts of offshore wind energy by June 30, 2017. The procurement amount was increased to 3,200 megawatts in 2019. As of July 2020, utilities in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York have contracted to purchase the output from over 4,000 megawatts of offshore wind from the WEAs, with additional procurements planned and in process.
Under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4371 et seq.), BOEM and other relevant federal agencies are required to integrate environmental assessments into offshore development and construction plans. Offshore wind energy planning and development requires comprehensive assessments of biological resources within suitable development areas to identify and mitigate any potential effects of that development on marine species.
In anticipation of these requirements, the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC), used a competitive procurement process in early 2011 to select a team led by the New England Aquarium (NEAq) to conduct aerial and acoustic surveys of endangered whales and turtles in the MA WEA. Upon conclusion of these initial surveys (Campaign 1), MassCEC and BOEM extended the surveys for an additional two years and expanded the geographic scope of the survey area to include the RIMA WEA (Campaigns 2 and 3). For these three survey campaigns, 76 aerial surveys were conducted between October 2011 and June 2015.
The final report summarizing Campaigns 1-3, released on October 25, 2016, showed that the study area included seasonal aggregations of protected species of whales, sea turtles, and seabirds. It also showed that North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis), a critically endangered species, occurred in the study area during winter and spring, with a peak in March. Based on these findings, the report provided recommendations for managing geological surveys and construction by scheduling those activities during off-peak right whale seasons to mitigate or avoid impacts. The 2016 final report also provided recommendations for additional surveys to address information gaps and for the collection of additional baseline data.
Acting upon the recommendations in the 2016 final report, MassCEC contracted with NEAq to conduct additional surveys for the period February 2017 through July 2018 (Campaign 4). A further report summarizing Campaign 4 was released in fall of 2018. This report showed continued usage of the study area by protected species of whales and sea turtles. The Campaign 4 report also showed an increase in the number of right whales in the study area and that right whales occurred in the study area throughout the year. To further understand species distribution and abundance patterns in the study area, additional aerial surveys using both observer sightings and automated vertical photography were conducted from October 2018 to August 2019 (Campaign 5).
As part of Campaign 4 and under sub-contracts to NEAq, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), in coordination with the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies, conducted oceanographic surveys from February to May 2017 to assess the physical and biological characteristics of waters used by right whales in the study area. Right whales visit the study area annually during winter and spring, but little is known about why they come to this region. One hypothesis is that they use the region as a feeding habitat, but very few zooplankton samples have been collected in the area for the express purpose of determining right whale prey species and the life history, distribution, and abundance of those prey species. In response to this knowledge gap, WHOI conducted oceanographic and zooplankton sampling in the northern region of the study area during the winter and spring of 2019.
Data are available upon request via email to offshorewind@masscec.com.