Offshore Wind Energy

NOAA Fisheries is dedicated to ensuring the nation’s robust deployment of offshore wind energy is done in a manner that avoids and minimizes risks to protected resources, habitats, and managed fisheries.

What We’re Doing

Conservation and Management Regulations

We are responsible for several regulatory processes that help reduce impacts to marine animals and their habitats from human activities, including during offshore wind development.

• Reviewing requests from offshore wind developers for Marine Mammal Protection Act incidental take authorizations
• Conducting consultations under the Endangered Species Act, Magnuson-Stevens Act, and Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act
• Cooperating with Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) on National Environmental Policy Act requirements

We also provide recommendations to minimize the impacts of wind development on protected resources and essential fish habitats as part of the regulatory consultations process. 

Science to Support Decisions

We provide the BOEM with the best available science on the interactions between offshore wind energy projects and protected resources, habitats, and managed species. Examples of research efforts that can help inform offshore wind siting, construction, and operations include:

• Synthesis of the Science projects, a partnership with BOEM and the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance
• Atlantic Marine Assessment Program for Protected Species
• Gulf of Mexico Marine Assessment Program for Protected Species
• International Council for Exploration of the Sea’s Working Group on Offshore Wind Development and Fisheries
• Studying the impacts of offshore wind development on Southern New England Atlantic cod and other fish that use sound to communicate

We are particularly interested in understanding how wind projects may affect endangered species that live in or migrate through offshore wind areas, such as the North Atlantic right whale. We are investigating how they use habitats in proposed wind energy areas and how offshore wind developments could impact their population.

Advancing the Science

NOAA Fisheries and BOEM have developed a passive acoustic monitoring framework. It outlines minimum procedures, system requirements, and other components for effectively designing and implementing passive acoustic monitoring. This will help wind developers reduce the impact of offshore wind energy projects on marine animals. The national framework applies before, during, and after project construction.

In collaboration with the Regional Offshore Science Alliance, we also worked with researchers, wind developers, and state and federal agencies to develop an offshore wind project monitoring framework and guidelines. This could help developers nationwide effectively characterize, evaluate, and monitor the potential impacts of their proposed projects on marine life and fishing operations. The guidelines will also help ensure that the data collected through project-specific monitoring efforts can be integrated into regional scientific surveys.

Through research efforts and NOAA’s Ocean Noise Strategy, we work to better understand how marine animals use sound and the potential impacts of man-made noise on the underwater environment, including from offshore wind energy development.

Offshore Wind Development's Potential Impacts

Scientists around the world are still investigating the potential impacts of offshore wind energy development on marine life. Site assessment, construction, and operations could interact with marine life on the seabed, in the water, and at the surface. For example, offshore wind energy projects could:

• Increase ocean noise, which could affect the behaviors of fish, whales, and other species
• Introduce electro-magnetic fields that impact navigation, predator detection, communication, and the ability for fish and shellfish to find mates
• Change existing habitats by altering local or regional hydrodynamics
• Create a “reef effect” where marine life cluster around the hard surfaces of wind developments
• Impact organism life cycle stages, including larval dispersal and spawning
• Change species composition, abundance, distribution, and survival rates
• Increase vessel traffic, which could lead to more vessel strikes
• Release contaminants that can be consumed or absorbed by marine life

Offshore wind is a new use of our marine waters, requiring substantial scientific and regulatory review. We are committed to careful review and use of the best available scientific information in satisfying the requirements of the Marine Mammal Protection Act for offshore wind energy projects.

NOAA Fisheries is committed to helping improve the compatibility of offshore wind energy with fishing, aquaculture, and other ocean uses. The construction and operation of wind turbines could impact commercial, recreational, and tribal fishing in a variety of ways, including:

• Displacing fishermen from traditional fishing areas
• Changing the distribution, abundance, and species composition of fish in an area
• Causing economic losses
• Increasing vessel traffic and competition for support services on shore
• Disrupting vessel radar systems
• Damaging or destroying fishing gear
• Reducing safety at sea from increased vessel traffic and navigation challenges

In particular, fishermen using trawl, dredge, and other mobile gear may have to significantly change their operations to avoid interacting with turbines and underwater cables. Longline, gillnet, and fixed gear fisheries could also be displaced by offshore wind projects or affected by ecosystem and navigation changes triggered by the operations.

What We’re Doing

We provide data and information to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on historic fishing operations and coastal communities' reliance on fishing operations. We also provide information on the potential socioeconomic impacts of offshore wind projects on the commercial and for-hire fishing industries.

For example, we developed or provided data to several resources to support responsible offshore wind energy development in the Atlantic:

• Online data query tools
• Reports on the socioeconomic impacts of offshore wind development
• Maps of where commercial fishing activity has occurred
• Regional data portals summarizing fishery operations data
  • Mid-Atlantic Ocean Data Portal
  • Northeast Ocean Data Portal
  • Ocean Reports

We worked with the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance and other partners on a peer-reviewed report to improve understanding of existing science and data gaps related to offshore wind energy interactions with fish and fisheries. We are also working with RODA on questions specific to new floating offshore wind energy technology.