Digital Aerial Baseline Survey of Marine Wildlife in Support of Offshore Wind Energy - WEA 2016

NYSERDA, APEM, Normandeau Associates

In support of New York State's commitment to incorporating offshore wind into its energy portfolio, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) embarked on a multi-year ultrahigh-resolution aerial digital survey of marine resources in a 12,650 square nautical mile offshore planning area (OPA) in 2016. The OPA encompasses the waters of the New York Bight from Long Island southeast to the continental shelf break. Surveys are conducted on a quarterly basis, timed to coincide with periods of abundance of avian and marine species vulnerable to impacts from offshore wind activities. This report summarizes the results of the first two surveys conducted in July–August and November 2016. Each survey collected images covering at least 7% of the OPA.

Of the more than 700,000 images collected within the survey area during these two surveys, 3.8% (27,135 images) contained organisms, including 38 bird, 17 fish, 5 whales, 7 dolphin, 1 seal, and 4 sea turtle species. Some seasonal patterns were evident. During the summer survey, the vast majority of the organisms observed were rays (8,388 images) or birds (1,893 images). During the fall survey, birds predominated (12,352 images). Shearwaters, storm-petrels, and terns were substantially more abundant in the summer while ducks, gannets, gulls and phalaropes were substantially more abundant in the fall. Turtles, sharks, and large bony fishes were all most abundant in the summer, though present in the fall. Number of images with marine mammals was similar in both surveys.

Spatial patterns were apparent in some taxonomic groups. A number of species tended to occur in nearshore waters including large gulls and least, royal and Sterna terns. Turtles typically occurred inshore of the 70 m isobath. Audubon's, sooty, and Cory's shearwaters clustered in the northeast corner of the OPA. Whales, Audubon's shearwaters, and black-capped petrels were most common near the shelf break. While sharks exhibited no clear patterns, rays showed some tendency to cluster off the mouth of New York Harbor. Large bony fishes typically occurred in deeper waters.

Results from the surveys will be incorporated into efforts to identify suitable areas for development of offshore wind projects.

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The dataset has been updated over time as outlined below. Each entry includes the version number, release date, type of change, and a short description.

Overview

This section explains attributes included in the original dataset. OBIS-SEAMAP restricts the attributes available to the public to date/time, lat/lon and species names/counts only. Should you need other attributes described here, you are encouraged to contact the data provider.

Attributes described below represent those in the original dataset provided by the provider.
All attributes are included in the downloadable file (CSV or ESRI File Geodatabase) for "Complete Set of Dataset".

Attributes in dataset

Attribute (table column)	Description
oid	Unique ID number (generated by OBIS-SEAMAP)
snag_id	Unique ID for target Each entry is 1 individual (except for Fish Shoals which is one entry per 1 shoal encompassing uncounted number of fish)
surveyid
datetaken	Date image taken, in local time (EST/EDT)
timetaken	Time image taken, in local time (EST/EDT)
id_type	1st level of identification
id_subtype	2nd level of identification Target group type if identified Needs id = Target has not been reviewed for ID Unid. Type = Target has been reviewed and cannot be identified to a subtype
id_species	3rd level of identification Common Name if identified Needs id = Target has not been reviewed for ID species unknown = Target has been reviewed and cannot be identified to species
sp_tsn	ITIS Taxonomic Serial Number added by OBIS-SEAMAP
obs_count	Number of animal. Always 1
id_confid	Confidence level of ID: Definite Probable Possible blank = not rated
lengthcm	Generally, head-to-tail length in cm. This is NOT turtle carapace. Ignored for non-animal & fish shoal. NULL = not determined
wingspancm	Wing span tip to tip in cm. 0 = wings are folded up/bird is sitting on surface. Applies to avian only
altitudem	Altitude above sea level in meters of flying birds. 0 = non-flying bird; unk = unable to calculate altitude of flying bird. Applies to avian only
alterror
surface	Depth rating. blank = not rated
headingdeg	Direction of target (in degrees)
listed	Yes = Species/Species Group status is listed (as of 2016)
parentimg	Image name where target is located
latitude	Latitude in decimal degrees (WGS84)
longitude	Longitude in decimal degrees (WGS84)
sargassum
area	Survey area: Always OPA (Offshore Planning Area)
scientific	Scientific name if species is identified
family	Family if species is identified
transectid	Corresponding transect number in format Area-SurveyDateYYYYMMDD-Transect# (e.g. OPA-20160827-101)
transectno	Corresponding transect number only
shoalid
shlareasqm
shlextend
visibility
seastate
glint
turbidity
precipdura
cloud
airtemp_c
pressure
windspeed
winddirect
geom	Geometry field added by OBIS-SEAMAP