Learn more about ROSA Regional Research & Monitoring projects in each topic area. View the project fact sheet for a brief overview of each project.
Projects awarded from ROSA’s first Regional RFP titled Advancing Regional Solutions for Fisheries and Offshore Wind. More information on the RFP can be found here.
Supporting Fisheries Access
Supporting Fisheries Access in the Gulf of Maine through Scenario-testing and Visual Simulations of Floating Offshore Wind and Fishing Operations
Gulf of Maine Research Institute
Advanced virtual simulations will be used to understand how fishing operations, using a variety of fishing gear types, can be co-located with different floating offshore wind mooring systems. The fishing industry will have an opportunity to help build and refine virtual scenarios by identifying key operational challenges and proposing alternative solutions.
Evaluation of Technologies for Trawl and Dredge Vessels to Safely Operate within Offshore Wind Farms
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth SMAST
This project aims to test equipment/technologies that will enable mobile fishers (primarily bottom trawlers and dredge operators) to safely coexist with offshore wind farms, ensuring they can continue fishing using traditional fishing gear while minimizing risks and disruptions from wind farm infrastructure.
Understanding Potential Impacts to Larval Fish
Connectivity and Dispersal of Black Sea Bass, Centropristis striata, in Southern New England
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth SMAST
The overarching objective of this proposal is to identify if windfarms in Southern New England change the dispersal and connectivity of eggs and young black sea bass (BSB) at scales from within individual turbines to across windfarm leases and the broader region.
Fisheries Monitoring
An Analytical Framework to Assess the Regional Impacts of Offshore Wind Farms and Evaluate Fisheries Monitoring Plans
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth SMAST
This project will test a new method to see how offshore wind development affects important commercial and recreational fish species, and to improve the design of fisheries monitoring plans.
Disentangling Environmental Variability and Offshore Wind Activity on Fish Presence
Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium
Offshore wind development in the Massachusetts/Rhode Island area may affect highly migratory pelagic species (HMS) like sharks, tunas and swordfish. The team will develop a model to better understand how wind farm construction and operation affect where HMS are found. The tool will also test whether food species presence, derived from environmental DNA (eDNA), is helpful for predicting HMS movement.
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.
Explore ROSA’s Fish and Fisheries Offshore Wind Research Database (FishFORWRD) to view how these projects complement other offshore wind fisheries research.
Additional projects will be added as contracts are signed and projects officially awarded. A full list of selected projects can be found here.
Special thanks to former Summer Intern Tori Newton for her help in designing the project fact sheets featured on this page.