An Ecological and Oceanographic Baseline to Inform Offshore Wind Development Over the Continental Shelf Off the Coast of New Jersey

Abstract

New Jersey has set a goal to procure half of its energy from renewable resources by 2030, which includes the development and operation of offshore wind energy.1 Offshore energy developments would occur in a coastal shelf that is characterized by remarkable variability across time scales from days and weeks to seasons, years, and decades. This intense ocean variability drives an equally variable ecosystem from the primary producers to the highly migratory fisheries and marine mammals found throughout the existing and planned lease areas. The tight coupling between the ocean conditions and the habitat preference of local and migratory species leads to distributions that can significantly vary from season to season and year to year. Furthermore, the Mid-Atlantic Bight (MAB) is situated in one of the most rapidly warming regions in the world and is vulnerable to both ocean and coastal acidification. These long-term environmental trends are associated with observed and projected changes in species distributions, biomass, and diversity. Therefore, it is critical to monitor ongoing oceanographic and ecological change in New Jersey’s productive coastal waters to support an environmentally responsible offshore wind (OSW) planning process and examine potential effects during development, operation, and decommissioning phases. The oceanographic and ecological effects of OSW development are likely to be complex and vary at different spatiotemporal scales which, without long-term regional monitoring programs, would make it difficult to tease apart OSW effects from other natural and anthropogenic effects.