Scientific Research and Monitoring
RODA works to increase collaborative research and monitoring in order to: (1) improve overall understanding regarding siting and operations of new offshore activities; (2) support mitigation requirements in terms of informing and minimizing impacts to users and resources, including the development of standardized mitigation frameworks; and (3) inform agency decision-making and industry engagement through existing consultative processes.
RODA is working to design and implement new models for persistent, long-term, holistic, and collaborative research programs that effectively gather and communicate fishery-dependent and -independent data and expertise. It is approaching this through two channels: facilitating grassroots, fishing industry-driven efforts to enhance fishermen’s ability to effectively bring their own expertise to the table, and—separately but relatedly—working in partnership with regulators and other ocean use proponents to ensure that fishermen are fully included in appropriate efforts to assess interactions between fisheries stocks and new ocean use and development.
To develop the best long-range solutions to offshore development, fishermen’s knowledge must be directly included in study identification, prioritization, design, and execution of well-coordinated scientific research at the proper geographic scales.