With funding from BOEM and NOAA Fisheries’ Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC), NEFSC partnered with the University of Rhode Island and RODA to conduct an integrated ecosystem assessment (IEA) to address tradeoffs between fisheries production and offshore wind development in the Gulf of Maine and associated management implications. An IEA is an approach to integrate all components of an ecosystem, including humans, into decision making processes.
Steps of an IEA include (1) set ecosystem goals and objectives, (2) identify what data to monitor, (3) assess changes in the system and tradeoffs between management goals. Our approach to these steps are:
- Identify important links between fishing, the environment, and offshore wind in the Gulf of Maine.
- Discuss links, indicators, and data needs with the fishing industry, regulators, developers, and scientists.
- Gather indicator data and knowledge to understand current conditions and monitor the potential future effects of offshore wind on fishing, and produce an IEA for stakeholder use and decision-making.
