Offshore Wind Energy: Understanding Impacts on Great Lakes Fishery and Other Aquatic Resources

Abstract

This document summarizes discussions from the workshop Offshore Wind Energy – Understanding Impacts on Great Lakes Fishery and Other Aquatic Resources. Organized by the Great Lakes Commission (GLC), through the Great Lakes Wind Collaborative (GLWC), the workshop took place on November 28-29, 2012, at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Primary funding support for the workshop came from the Great Lakes Fishery Trust. 

The need for the workshop grew out of a 2011 report by the Great Lakes Wind Collaborative (State of the Science Report: Ecological Impacts of Wind Energy in the Great Lakes Region). That report noted that Great Lakes region-specific research, particularly as it relates to offshore wind, is notably lacking. Additional research and studies are needed to direct how wind projects are planned, sited and operated in the region. As such, the November 2012 workshop aimed to build knowledge about the potential impacts of offshore wind energy on the Great Lakes fishery and related aquatic resources by:

  • sharing scientific and related policy and management information about what is known about the impacts of offshore wind farms on aquatic resources;
  • identifying the most important questions that need to be addressed to effectively review permit applications for offshore wind development; and
  • identifying knowledge gaps and priority areas for future research to answer the most important questions that decisionmakers face when determining whether and how wind projects are planned, sited and operated in the waters of the Great Lakes.

Contents:

  1. Background and Introduction
  2. Offshore Wind in the U.S. and Canada
  3. Status of OSW in the Great Lakes
  4. Workshop Discussion and Findings
    • Physical and Biological Context
    • Potential Impacts on Fish
      • Noise
      • Electromagnetic Fields
      • Turbidity
      • Fish Movement
      • Lakebed Habitat
      • Fishing
      • Artificial Reefs
    • Potential Impacts on Other Aquatic Resources
      • Ice
      • Bathymetry
      • Wind Climate
      • Waves
      • Sediment Transport
      • Circulation Patterns
  5. Research Needs
  6. Summary and Conclusions
  7. Appendix A - Workshop Agenda
  8. Attendee list
  9. References