Abstract
The overall objective of this project was to use passive acoustic telemetry to monitor the baseline location (presence) and persistence of HMS in popular recreational fishing areas within southern New England wind energy lease areas while describing the environmental conditions potentially associated with their presence in this region. Passive acoustic telemetry is a popular and powerful tool for studying the movement patterns and habitat use of marine fish over fine- and broad-scale spatial extents (e.g., Heupel et al. 2006, Kneebone et al. 2014abc, Bruce et al. 2019) and has been used previously to document baseline animal presence in WEAs along the U.S. East Coast (e.g., Frisk et al. 2019. Haulsee et al. 2020, Secor et al. 2020). Our specific objectives were to:
- Conduct for-hire trips on charter sportfishing vessels to tag HMS, with particular focus on Atlantic bluefin tuna, shortfin mako, and blue shark, with acoustic transmitters within three areas that support the highest level of recreational fishing effort for HMS within southern New England WEAs,
- Work cooperatively with commercial fishermen to deploy and maintain an array of 15 acoustic receivers that will monitor the presence and persistence of HMS within those popular recreational fishing areas in the WEAs,
- Use receiver ‘detection’ data to establish baseline information on the presence, persistence, and habitat use of key HMS (and other opportunistically detected marine species) in these popular recreational fishing areas that may be impacted by offshore wind development,
- Use receiver detection data obtained from acoustic receivers deployed throughout the broader Atlantic (obtained through partnerships with regional telemetry data sharing programs) to collect information on spatial distributions of HMS beyond the confines of the WEAs,
- Opportunistically monitor the presence and persistence of other acoustically-tagged marine species within the acoustic receiver array through cooperation with other project Principal Investigators (PIs) and regional acoustic telemetry data sharing programs, and
- Evaluate the efficacy of passive acoustic telemetry as a method for monitoring the presence of HMS, and other marine species, both prior to (i.e., baseline) and during the construction and operation phases of wind energy projects in southern New England.