ROSA Announces over $3 Million for Regional Offshore Wind Fisheries Research

10 Projects will Advance Regional Solutions for Fisheries and Offshore Wind

June 18, 2025

The Responsible Offshore Science Alliance (ROSA) announces over $3 million in funding to advance understanding of regional and cumulative effects of offshore wind on fish and fisheries and support meaningful solutions to the challenges surrounding responsible ocean co-use. ROSA is funding 10 projects across three different themes that address key regional research questions identified as high priority by the ROSA organizational structure and the broader fisheries and offshore wind community. Research needs were considered and prioritized from those included in ROSA’s Fish and Fisheries OffshoRe Wind Research Database (FishFORWRD). More information can be found on ROSA’s website here.

Selected Projects

Three selected projects will support fisheries access by enhancing our understanding of the ability of existing fisheries to operate within or near offshore wind farms and to foster the development of industry-supported innovations.

  • University of Maine and fishing partner will assess the compatibility of fixed gear fisheries with floating offshore wind infrastructure in the Gulf of Maine using the VolturnUS+, a 1:4 scale floating offshore wind turbine, as a test site to quantify fishing gear interactions with mooring systems and develop safe operating procedures for fishermen.
  • University of Massachusetts Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology and fishing partners will test commercially available technology, including chartplotting software and gear monitoring systems, that will enhance the situational awareness of mobile fishers operating within wind farms, thereby minimizing risks.
  • Gulf of Maine Research Institute and partners will identify and address key operational challenges by simulating various floating offshore wind mooring designs and diverse fishing gear types at the United States Maritime Resource Center (USMRC) maritime simulation center with fishing industry participants.

One selected project will advance the current state of knowledge on the potential of offshore wind development to impact the survival, transport, settlement, and distribution of commercially important fish and invertebrate larvae.

  • University of Massachusetts Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology and partners will address dispersal and connectivity of black sea bass early life stages on the southern New England shelf at wind turbine, wind farm and regional scales using field surveys, genetic analyses, and an individual-based model coupled with the FVCOM hydrodynamic model.

Six selected projects will explore the use of available data and/or conceptual frameworks to inform regional fisheries monitoring and cumulative assessments through data integration, evaluation, and analysis.

  • Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium and partners will develop and implement a spatially explicit species distribution model framework to discriminate the localized effect of construction and operation of wind infrastructure from the influence of environmental conditions on highly migratory species presence in wind energy areas using acoustic telemetry and eDNA.
  • University of Massachusetts Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology will investigate the applicability of modern spatiotemporal models to integrate data from existing local and regional monitoring programs for evaluating fisheries monitoring plans and assessing the regional and cumulative impacts of wind farm development on marine biodiversity and fisheries productivity.
  • Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and partners will identify the most effective deployment locations for acoustic receivers that will increase the capacity of acoustic telemetry to produce usable and actionable data at the project and regional scales for assessments and decision making.
  • University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and partners will use a framework, the Flyway construct, to develop baseline migrations for several species using historical telemetry data to enable measurement of cumulative offshore wind and climate impacts.
  • ASA Analysis & Communication, Inc. and partners will process, integrate, and analyze wideband and narrowband sonar data collected from different acoustic technologies deployed from an uncrewed surface vessel (USV) to demonstrate the utility of a novel survey approach to develop regional-scale fisheries survey methods and analytical techniques to detect and monitor potential impacts of offshore wind installations.
  • INSPIRE Environmental will develop an interactive mapping tool (data layer) that depicts the spatial extent of current offshore wind developer monitoring surveys by gear type and focal species.

Funding for projects selected from the ROSA Regional Request for Proposals are provided by the Empire Wind 1 project, developed by Equinor, LLC, as included in the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) New York 4 solicitation for awarded Offshore Wind Renewable Energy Certificates.

Please note that the selected projects are not considered formally awarded until a contract has been fully executed by ROSA and the selected research entities, therefore the project awards and obligation of funds is not final.

Learn More

  • Sign up for our Newsletter to be notified of project updates and future funding opportunities.
  • The previously issued Request for Proposals is available here.
  • The previously issued Notice of Intent is available here.