Sea Grant, DOE, NOAA Fisheries fund six projects for the coexistence of offshore energy with Northeast fishing and coastal communities

Contacts: 

Lily Keyes, MIT Sea Grant, E: keyes@mit.edu
Scott Smullen, NOAA Communications, E: scott.smullen@noaa.gov
Chris Vacarro, NOAA Communications, E: christopher.vaccaro@noaa.gov
DOE, Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, E: EE.Media@ee.doe.gov

New York, NY, May 19, 2022 - The Northeast Sea Grant Consortium—in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Wind Energy Technologies Office and Water Power Technologies Office, and NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center—today announced six projects to advance social science and technology research on offshore renewable energy in the Northeast United States.

This funding opportunity, first announced in March 2021, seeks to catalyze research for the coexistence of marine energy—including wind, current, tidal, and wave energies—with Northeast fishing and coastal communities. The innovative funding partnership applies the Sea Grant model to connect science and tools directly with communities and ocean users.
 
The selected projects were collectively awarded over $1.1 million in federal funds, with each project matching 50% in non-federal funds. The two-year projects have roots across the Northeast:

•  Building Capacity for Participatory Approaches to Community Resilience and Ocean Renewable Energy Siting (Project Lead: Heather Leslie, University of Maine, Orono, ME) will characterize values and beliefs in three communities to understand where ocean renewable energy is a good fit for people and place, and develop a community toolkit with maps, surveys, and participatory practices that can be applied across the Northeast.
  
  
• Can Proprietary Commercial Lobstering Data be Used to Inform Offshore Wind Development? (Project Lead: Kate Beard-Tisdale, University of Maine, Orono, ME) will create a standardized procedure for constructing representations of the Maine lobster fishery using data and knowledge from individual fishermen, and develop data product models and sample products that will inform fisheries management and marine spatial planning.
  
  
• Community Engagement and Stakeholder Perceptions of Floating Offshore Wind (Project Lead: Alison Bates, Colby College, Waterville, ME) will develop a stakeholder database, survey tools, and holistic outreach strategy to evaluate community perceptions of offshore wind, identify the capacity and necessary conditions for stakeholders to coexist with offshore wind, and present recommendations for equitable solutions.
  
  
• Evaluating Messaging, Communication Networks, and Public Engagement on Offshore Wind Development in Southern New England (Project Lead: Emily Diamond, University of Rhode Island, South Kingstown, RI) will analyze public engagement strategies, messages, networks, and sources used to communicate and engage communities and stakeholders in decision-making for proposed offshore wind projects, and incorporate community perspectives to make recommendations for effective and equitable messaging and strategies.
  
  
• Regional Community Attitudes Regarding Procedural and Distributive Justice Dimensions of Southern New England Offshore Wind Development (Project Lead: David Bidwell, University of Rhode Island, South Kingstown, RI) will assess community concerns and research questions regarding procedural, distributive, and recognitional justice dimensions of offshore wind projects in southern New England, and work to address barriers within and among communities to ensure equity and well-being for a just energy transition.
  
  
• Achieving Community Resilience by Optimizing Symbiotic Offshore Renewable Energy and Food Systems (Project Lead: Maha Haji, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY) will develop a mapping tool for spatial planning allowing for the integration of multiple ocean uses in the same area. The goal is to enable symbiosis between renewable energy and food systems and empower stakeholders, fishers, aquaculture farmers, and developers to make informed decisions for long-term resilience. 

 “The United States has abundant wind and water power resources along our coastlines that can help our nation, and our coastal and marine communities in particular, reach a 100% clean energy economy with net-zero emissions no later than 2050,” said Kelly Speakes-Backman, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy. “At the same time, we recognize communities and local economies depend on the ocean for their livelihoods and way of life. Through this research partnership with the Northeast Sea Grant Consortium and NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center, we can better understand and optimize these shared uses of the ocean.”

“The Northeast Sea Grant programs are pleased to be partnering with the DOE’s Wind Energy Technologies Office and Water Power Technologies Office, and NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center to fund research on this timely topic, which we hope will provide decision makers with guidance on how different users of resources in the marine environment in our region can coexist,” stated Matt Charette, Director of the Woods Hole Sea Grant program.

As the United States continues developing and deploying offshore renewable energy technologies, the Northeast Sea Grant Consortium and federal partners will continue to engage the public and decision makers in collaborative research that supports resilient communities and economies. 

“NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center has joined Northeast Sea Grant Programs and Department of Energy to advance needed socio-economic research,” said Jon Hare, Science and Research Director of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center. “Understanding the social and economic connections between offshore wind energy and existing ocean users such as commercial and recreational fisheries is critical to supporting coastal communities.”

To effectively translate the results of the funded research for use by communities, NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center designated $350,000 in federal funding in parallel with the research projects. As part of these efforts, Northeast Sea Grant program extension staff will work directly with fishing communities and other stakeholders to provide scientific, legal, and policy research support in response to fishing community needs.

This research and extension will benefit a variety of ocean users and stakeholders by providing the community-focused tools required for equitable and sustainable development of the Northeast’s coastal and ocean resources.

More Information: Partners

The Northeast Sea Grant Consortium consists of the Connecticut, Maine, MIT, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and Woods Hole Sea Grant Programs. Sea Grant’s mission is to enhance the practical use and conservation of coastal, marine and Great Lakes resources in order to create a sustainable economy and environment.

NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center works with the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office to ensure informed management decisions based on sound science, promoting sustainability of marine life, supporting fisheries and coastal communities, and generating economic opportunities and benefits from the use of these resources. 

DOE’s Wind Energy Technologies Office and Water Power Technologies Office are committed to developing and deploying innovative technologies for clean, domestic power generation from natural renewable resources such as wind, hydropower, waves, and tides. The mission is to enable energy science research, development, and testing of new technologies to advance innovative energy systems in the United States.

More Info: New York Sea Grant

New York Sea Grant (NYSG), a cooperative program of Cornell University and the State University of New York (SUNY), is one of 34 university-based programs under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Sea Grant College Program.

Since 1971, NYSG has represented a statewide network of integrated research, education and extension services promoting coastal community economic vitality, environmental sustainability and citizen awareness and understanding about the State’s marine and Great Lakes resources.

Through NYSG’s efforts, the combined talents of university scientists and extension specialists help develop and transfer science-based information to many coastal user groups—businesses and industries, federal, state and local government decision-makers and agency managers, educators, the media and the interested public.

The program maintains Great Lakes offices at Cornell University, University at Buffalo, SUNY Oswego and the Wayne County Cooperative Extension office in Newark. In the State's marine waters, NYSG has offices at Stony Brook University and Cornell Cooperative Extension of Nassau County on Long Island; at Brooklyn College, with New York City Department of Environmental Protection in Queens and at Cornell Cooperative Extension in NYC and Elmsford and Kingston in the Hudson Valley.

For updates on Sea Grant activities: www.nyseagrant.org has RSS, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube links. NYSG offers a free e-list sign up via www.nyseagrant.org/nycoastlines for its flagship publication, NY Coastlines/Currents, which is published quarterly.