Download or read book Oregon Marine Renewable Energy Environmental Science Conference Proceedings written by George W. Boehlert and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 133 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Development of wave and offshore wind-based marine renewable energy is anticipated on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) off Oregon and much of the Pacific Northwest in the coming decade. Multiple issues related to environmental considerations and information needs remain for these emerging industries. The Oregon Marine Renewable Energy Environmental Science Conference was held 28-29 November 2012, at Oregon State University (OSU) in Corvallis, Oregon. The conference brought together experts to outline research and monitoring needs to assess environmental impacts of these technologies. It has been over five years since the last workshop on marine renewable energy (Boehlert et al. 2008) examined the environmental effects of wave energy off the Oregon coast; there has been no comprehensive evaluation of data needs for offshore wind energy on the West Coast to date. New research, technology development, and other activities in the intervening five years create a need to assess the current research inventory and identify information gaps and priorities for future research associated with marine renewable energy. The conference was organized via a partnership between the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and several entities within the state of Oregon. The primary goal of the conference was to evaluate environmental research needs associated with wave and offshore wind energy development in the Pacific Northwest. The conference had three major objectives: i) showcase research recently completed or currently underway that addresses environmental questions associated with marine renewable energy; ii) synthesize new research and existing information with the aim of distilling it into products that agencies and resource managers could use to carry out their planning and management duties; and iii) identify gaps in our understanding of the technologies and potentially affected systems useful to scientists, managers and funders to determine where to focus future research efforts ... The principal research priorities identified were specific to the three breakout groups. The highest-priority projects recommended by each group were as follows: Baseline: [1] Seafloor characterization at a broad-scale resolution, especially 3-10 miles offshore, in presumed sedimentary areas, with the goal of identifying sensitive unidentified ecological resources in areas that might be desirable for renewable energy development. [2] Distributions of non-commercial species (i.e., forage fish species) integral to ecosystem dynamics and indicative of system vulnerability. [3] Identification of ecological hotspots (including temporal variability, and especially winter and/or off-season sampling months). [4] Multiple aspects of basic seabird biology and ecology need to be characterized, including mapping of at-sea migratory corridors, basic distribution information, and behavioral studies. [5] Information is needed about marine mammal distribution, including temporal (inter-annual) variability, distribution in winter and/or off-season sampling months, diel distribution (as day/night distributions are likely to differ for some species), and decadal scale variation in distribution. Impact/Short-term: [1] Determine the far field and near field impacts on sediment transport induced by energy reduction. [2] Measure acoustic energy transmitted by wave energy converters (WECs) and evaluate impacts by comparing to baseline ambient levels. [3] Determine the electromagnetic field impacts on sensitive or migrating species, e.g., sturgeon, elasmobranchs, salmonids, crustaceans, and resident fish species. [4] Evaluate thresholds for EMF detection in key species using behavioral or other approaches. [5] Evaluate the impacts of WEC-produced noise on marine mammals. [6] If collision risk for marine mammals exists with WECs, determine whether acoustic deterrence devices can reduce collision risk. [7] Evaluate bird and bat distribution and migration patterns (including fine-scale nearshore surveys), flight altitude, and nocturnal flight characteristics. [8] Determine whether and how artificial reef/FADs will impact out-migrating salmonid smolts. [9] Determine the impacts of structures on green sturgeon. [10] Assess the scaling impacts on benthic communities/benthic habitat, especially with respect to sediment transport and settling (based on possible circulation changes). [11] Collect baseline data about noise from wind devices, including assessments of how those noise levels will exceed ambient levels, in order to determine impacts of device noise (for offshore wind only). [12] Assess the potential collision impacts of cetaceans with wind energy devices/structures/mooring cables (offshore wind only). Monitoring: [1] Improve acoustics receiver network for fishes, especially listed sturgeon (which already have acoustic tags implanted in a large number of fishes). [2] Conduct studies to understand habitat utilization of seabirds foraging offshore in three-dimensional air space. [3] Determine methodology to confidently monitor bird strikes, including during severe weather. [4] Initiate and continue long term monitoring of distribution of endangered fish, mammals, and birds (marbled murrelet, Stellar sea lion, whales, salmon, sturgeon). [5] Determine encounter rates of whales for these types of facilities. Monitor opportunistic projects (e.g. Pacific Marine Energy Center, to be sited off of Newport) or existing tension leg projects and sperm whale data in GOM to gain a better understanding ... "--Exec. Summary.