2026 State of the Science

On November 20, 2024, 43 stakeholders, including representatives from the fishing industry, state and federal agencies, academic research, offshore wind (OSW) energy development, NYSERDA, ROSA, and Tetra Tech staff, convened to discuss the potential for a stock enhancement-based program as a mitigation strategy for offshore wind energy impacts on the surfclam fishery. Focus was placed on actionable items and strategies developed from workshop-generated key insights on the subject matter provided by conference attendees. As a result of this workshop’s proceedings, NYSERDA created a Regional Surfclam Specialist Committee as a subcommittee of NYSERDA's F-TWG comprised of representatives from the sectors referenced above. The Committee’s deliverables include the development of a comprehensive surfclam monitoring plan for the New York Bight along with standardized data collection and analysis methods in addition to recommendations for coordinating existing and/or future monitoring efforts. This Committee plans to meet four or five times over the year as the Plan develops. This Side Meeting was considered one of the working meetings for the Specialist Committee.​

New York’s ocean and estuarine ecosystems are dynamic and interconnected but also face a range of systemic environmental and developmental pressures. This session took a deep dive into the State’s offshore planning efforts. The New York State Ocean Action Plan is a 10-year plan, spanning from 2017 – 2027, developed with extensive input from a variety of ocean user and interest groups so that the State’s management decisions for offshore habitats are informed by the best available science. As we approach the conclusion of the first planning cycle, it is essential to assess progress to date and begin identifying future actions and priorities to inform the next 10-year planning horizon. The session explored the effect of changing energy policies, emerging fields including deep sea mining and carbon capture, as well as how to best leverage regional data and monitoring efforts. Participants in this side meeting were a part of an informative and engaging session to chart a path forward that upholds shared priorities of ensuring ecological health, promoting sustainable growth, increasing resilience, and empowering public stewardship of our shared ocean and coastal resources. The NYS Ocean Action Plan Side Meeting aimed to: assess progress on current actions and prioritizing future actions; refine goals for next 10-year planning horizons; and gather feedback on opportunities for collective action and partners for progress. There is extensive overlap between the target audience of the conference and Ocean planning. We solicited input on strategic planning and partnerships for New York’s Ocean resources from diverse interest groups attending the Symposium.  A report from the side meeting will be developed to summarize input received and discussions on priorities that will be used to inform planning and create a framework for the next 10-year OAP. The report will be published on the Ocean Action Plan website. ​Meeting format consisted of an introduction to the OAP and progress along with a mix of full group and break-out discussions covering the OAP’s four goals (ecological integrity, sustainable growth, adapting to change, and public stewardship). Additionally, world café style discussions to gather feedback and consensus tools, such as online polling (e.g., Mentimeter), were used for prioritizing actions. Breaking up the topic-specific sessions facilitated efficient participation and reduced conflicts with other side meetings enabling participants to strategically share their expertise.

Across the globe, the use of aquaculture for stock enhancement is a common strategy to mitigate natural variability in wild capture fisheries and provide stability in fishery yields. Recently, stock enhancement has been explored as a potential strategy to compensate for impacts to commercial fisheries arising from offshore wind energy development. In federal waters of the U.S., this approach is challenged by a number of technical, economic, and regulatory issues. Ongoing research seeks to identify legal and policy avenues for facilitating aquaculture-based stock enhancement in federal waters for two bivalve species for which stock enhancement could support fishery stability: the Atlantic surfclam (Spisula solidissima) and the Atlantic sea scallop (Placopecten magellanicus). Understanding the regulatory options for promoting aquaculture-based stock enhancement in federal waters is critical, as changing environmental conditions and the spatial extent available to prosecute these fisheries are resulting in considerable uncertainty regarding future fishery yields. Building off the findings of two separate workshops held in 2024 and supported by a recently funded multi-institute Sea Grant research project, this side meeting provides an opportunity to convene a working group that represents a critical element of the project. The Shellfish Enhancement Advisory Committee (SEAC), while still in the process of being formed, will be comprised of relevant industry and regulatory stakeholders. This meeting represented an opportunity for members of the project team and the SEAC to interact in person and define the research questions for subsequent investigation. The ultimate goal of the side meeting at the State of the Science conference was to define the landscape of legal, regulatory, and policy considerations and identify the relevant challenges and opportunities for stock enhancement efforts for these two species. The identification of these challenges and opportunities serves to refine the research direction of the project.

As of Spring 2026, the U.S. has seven offshore wind facilities in operation or under construction and passive acoustics has been a required method for monitoring and mitigation for all seven projects. In addition, passive acoustics is a requirement for all other projects that have been approved for construction. In an effort to educate stakeholders on this complex topic, the two part meeting was as follows: Part 1: Introduction to Passive Acoustics (~2 hours with Q&A). A series of educational presentations to provide a basic introduction to the science and application of passive acoustics use in the marine environment. While open to all attendees, it was intentionally geared towards parties who are interested in introductory information. Part 2: A review of the application of passive acoustics for U.S. Offshore Wind Projects (~4 hours). A comprehensive review the role of passive acoustics has played (or is anticipated to) in the execution of offshore wind projects. Specifically, we stepped through the application of passive acoustics for assessing noise from activities to detecting presence of marine species and how information is used for real time mitigation and long-term monitoring of effects and species responses. Results from constructed projects were shared where publicly available. We further reviewed the range of technology currently utilized for conducting the activities and highlight emerging innovations in the area of passive acoustic research. We invited regional experts in passive acoustics to a panel discussion to provide recommendations for refinements in passive acoustic monitoring requirements for future offshore wind projects. We followed this session with an open discussion with attendees.

Effects of offshore energy development on birds are often predicted by overlaying real or modeled species exposure data with numeric approaches for assessing potential impacts. Vulnerability assessments, which quantify the likelihood of impacts from specific stressors on species, provide a standardized framework for evaluating and comparing the anticipated effects of stressors, such as offshore wind energy, on individual species and, by extension, communities. They can also serve as input data for spatially explicit assessments that combine vulnerability with spatial distribution data to calculate potential exposure and overall risk. Historically, these assessments have focused primarily on comparing vulnerability across location-specific suites of species. However, the physiological and life-history traits driving differences in vulnerability among species and taxa have rarely been systematically assessed and are notable data gaps. This meeting brought together researchers who have thought extensively about the traits that contribute to vulnerability, developed approaches to trait-based analysis, and have been at the forefront of recent spatial analyses that combine traits and exposure to assess risk, thus informing high-level siting decisions for offshore energy projects. The speaker lineup was as follows: Catha Auchincloss: Avian Sensitivity Index at Wind Farms: A Novel Trait-Based Approach to Estimate Seabird Vulnerability. This presentation focused on a new approach to calculating the sensitivity index for seabirds, illustrated by Australian avifauna. Greg Forcey: Evolution of Vulnerability Assessments For Birds and Offshore Energy Projects. This talk compared a vulnerability assessment for Atlantic birds completed 13 years ago with an updated version currently underway. Juliet Lamb: An Approach to Trait-Based Analyses For Informing Species Vulnerability and Risk From Offshore Wind Development. This talk outlined the approach currently being developed to assess the traits driving among-taxa differences in collision and displacement vulnerability along the Atlantic coast of North America, and how results can be applied to novel species and geographic contexts. Michaela Peterson: A Quantitative Assessment of Risk to Seabirds and Landbirds From Energy Development. This talk described an approach to combining exposure and vulnerability assessments for seabirds and migratory birds, with a case study in the Gulf of Mexico (America), to give an overall assessment of risk that is spatially explicit and can be implemented at varying spatial scales. The goals of this meeting were to allow the audience a better understanding of the metrics that inform a vulnerability assessment, the methodology that informs bird vulnerability offshore, and how vulnerability assessments inform risk assessments for birds offshore.

Avian collision risk models (CRMs) are used to inform risk assessments for wind energy development as well as informing potential mitigation needs. However, there is substantial uncertainty surrounding the inputs to these models and the accuracy of their predictions, emphasizing the importance of transparent, collaborative, and publicly-available science-based best available information. The mission of the International Collision Risk Modeling Working Group is to promote information exchange and lessons learned about avian CRMs and identify avenues for improving CRM structure and application. While CRM practitioners are key participants in the working group, these annual meetings provide the opportunity for engagement of a broader suite of CRM users, including regulators, offshore wind energy developers, and resource managers, and thus provide a valuable opportunity to share ideas and communicate key concerns and advancements. The meeting focused on two main topics: (1) How to determine when CRMs are appropriate and useful tools to estimate risk and inform decision making (i.e., based on data availability and regulatory context), and (2) Considerations for the use of CRMs to inform cumulative assessments of collision risk across wind farms or regulatory jurisdictions. Part One of the meeting agenda included the following presentations: The Evolution and Intent of Collision Risk Models (Aonghais Cook; David Wilson, The Biodiversity Consultancy) Recognizing Data Thresholds—When Do You Have Enough? (Grant Humphreys, Black Bawks Data Science) Alternate Methods for Evaluating Risk to Support Mitigation (Jennifer Stucker, WEST) Collision Risk for All: The Australian Collision Risk Framework (Elizabeth Stark, Symbolix) Following these presentations, there was a Q&A and panel discussion among speakers, focusing on identifying criteria to help determine when CRMs are viable or useful approaches to risk assessment and on ways to communicate uncertainty and data limitations to stakeholders and regulators. In the second half of the meeting, we built off these discussions to focus on a draft framework for using CRMs to assess cumulative effects of collisions from wind facilities. Organizers presented a draft framework to the full group that suggests a research question and spatiotemporal scale, specifies data and models that would be needed to answer the question at that scale, and poses specific questions for feedback, such as: (1) Is there a meta-analytical approach that could be defensible for combining existing CRM estimates across projects?, and (2) How (or if) could we correct for risks that may not be purely additive across wind energy projects? Attendees broke into small groups for discussion, followed by further feedback as a full group.

​​As offshore wind development (OSW) progresses in the New York Bight (NYB), considerable resources have been directed towards collecting pre-construction data to better understand impacts to marine ecosystems and inform best practices. However, these datastreams remain largely siloed, limiting their usefulness for informing risk assessments. OSW developers, agencies and regional collaborators have identified the need for integrated efforts to better understand the interplay between the environment, species distribution and behavior, and anthropogenic activities. Here, we focused on integrating multiple datastreams for improved risk assessments that meet developer needs and minimize environmental impacts. The goals were to: (1) explore spatiotemporal variability in oceanographic parameters; (2) assess how this variability influences marine mammals and other species; (3) evaluate how integrated data can aid in risk assessment; and (4) improve understandings of developer needs in the NYB. Together, these perspectives will advance efforts for effective monitoring and mitigation measures for OSW development, lay the groundwork for new collaborations, and facilitate future research. Meeting outline: Short introduction on the importance of data integration and collaboration: The development of OSW spurred numerous monitoring efforts to establish baselines for marine mammal presence. Here, we outlined potential benefits of collating and integrating multiple datastreams and incorporating dynamic environmental variables for improved estimates of habitat use.  Variability in oceanographic parameters and indices: Oceanographic conditions in the NYB vary across multiple scales due to the confluence of numerous water masses, variable winds and currents, seasonal blooms in primary producers, and ocean warming. These features result in interannual trends in oceanographic conditions that can have bottom-up effects on marine wildlife.   Variability in whale presence/absence from multiple datastreams: For over a decade, WCS has monitored whales using multiple datastreams. We presented a case study to illustrate how integrating data horizontally across datastreams and longitudinally across years provides a more comprehensive understanding of large whale spatiotemporal presence in the NYB.  Incorporating and evaluating risk: Risk assessment frameworks do not typically incorporate real-world development scenarios or the unique biology of target species. Here, we presented a tool that evaluates risk taking into account the specific needs of development projects and the biological and life-history traits of target species in the NYB. How will integrated datastreams improve efficiencies and improve mitigation around development activities in the NYB: The pause in OSW development provides an opportunity to optimize the data that have been collected in the NYB and explore how data integration improves decisions around mitigation in a dynamic environment.

The Regional Wildlife Science Collaborative (RWSC) had a workshop to address critical gaps in understanding the effects of offshore wind infrastructure on marine ecosystems. Technical discussions stemming from recent proposal reviews associated with both RWSC and Responsible Offshore Science Alliance (ROSA) highlighted an opportunity to coordinate across research teams implementing modeling-observational approaches to understand hydrodynamic and atmospheric changes due to offshore wind infrastructure and implications for ecology. Multiple groups are working with different model types, each with their own strengths, weaknesses, and applications for decision-making. Because teams are working independently and are funded by different entities, and because each approach has its own technical considerations and applications, there is a risk that model outputs and analysis results become disconnected and incomparable. To ensure that modeling-observational approaches are tuned to both advance the best science and answer the questions that decision-makers need while using the latest observational and data collection technology, this workshop was in coordination with MTS’s TechSurge and Tech Café, which is organized in coordination with NYSERDA. The TechSurge and Tech Café themes were steered toward innovative technologies to collect the oceanographic and ecosystem data that can initialize and validate models and provide the observations needed to characterize any impacts to the ecosystem from offshore wind infrastructure. The overall workshop goals were to (1) connect researchers who are using complementary approaches to leverage each other’s activities by facilitating validation/assimilation data sharing, coordination of modeling parameters and scenarios, and comparison of results from different types of models; and (2) inform researchers of decision-makers’ questions and data needs that coupled modeling-observational approaches can address. The workshop opened with a brief overview from RWSC on regional oceanographic monitoring and modeling efforts, followed by a series of facilitated breakout groups. These groups reviewed and refined RWSC’s characterization of existing oceanographic monitoring and modeling and identified areas of opportunity, overlap, and ways to leverage existing data and data products. The outcome was two lists: one of actions for researchers (i.e., what data are needed, and where, to validate and/or improve models and update understanding of oceanographic processes), and another, informed by decision-makers and researchers, outlining priority areas needing funding (i.e., what questions are still not being answered, or need more attention?). This workshop was an ideal fit for the 2026 State of the Science: by connecting researchers, the workshop builds on a more cohesive and collaborative scientific foundation with direct implications for decision-making, and enable future, collaborative research for ocean management.

The MTS Offshore Renewable Energy Committee, in partnership with New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and the Regional Wildlife Science Collaborative (RWSC) hosted a Mini TechSurge and Tech Café focused on advancing innovation in offshore energy monitoring and environmental data. This convening brought together researchers, technology developers, regulators, and end users to exchange ideas, showcase emerging solutions, and build cross-sector partnerships that accelerate responsible offshore energy development. This event was designed to facilitate partnerships among researchers, technology developers, and regulatory bodies to accelerate solutions addressing environmental data and monitoring activities in offshore energy, and to provide a platform for technology companies to network and demonstrate their innovations to customers, regulatory bodies, decision-makers, and scientists. The program included: Mini TechSurge Panel: A focused cross-sector discussion designed to explore future needs and solutions in offshore monitoring. Tech Café: An interactive exhibit hall featuring technology providers showcasing cutting-edge tools and solutions. The Tech Café included rapid-fire lightning talks and live desktop demonstrations, as well as dedicated networking opportunities connecting developers, researchers, and end users.