As part of RWSC’s mission to facilitate coordinated research and analysis for wildlife, marine ecosystems, and offshore wind, the Data Governance Subcommittee has been working with other taxa- and habitat-focused RWSC Subcommittees to identify and recommend long-term storage options for each type of data described in RWSC’s Science Plan. In addition, entities that fund and/or require offshore wind and wildlife or environmental data collection and research have described a need for simple, long-term storage and access to data that they have funded, as well as easy and… [More]

View the recording of the Introduction to the RWSC Research Planning Map Webinar, held on August 14, 2024. The RWSC has launched “version 1.0” of a Research Planning Map that displays the locations (points, transects, areas) where wildlife and environment data are being collected to support offshore wind research. This version of the map is incomplete and does not represent all the ongoing research and data collection activities with respect to offshore wind. Learn more about the plan to build and maintain this tool. RWSC develops and maintains several resources… [More]

The RWSC Subcommittees will be on vacation during the month of July! In the meantime, here’s a quick rundown of their progress implementing Science Plan recommendations. For a full update, attend the RWSC Symposium on Day 1 of NYSERDA’s State of the Science Workshop on Offshore Wind Energy, Wildlife, and Fisheries (July 16-19): Across all Subcommittees: Advancing the development of the RWSC Research Planning Map, with public launch planned this summer. Reviewing, updating, and maintaining the Offshore Wind & Wildlife Research Database with the best available information… [More]

RWSC is in the process of developing a web-based map to support offshore wind research planning. The development of the map and initial set of data layers is funded by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and is being conducted in collaboration with the Northeast Regional Ocean Council (NROC), Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean (MARCO), and Responsible Offshore Science Alliance (ROSA). The project leverages the considerable expertise and existing infrastructure within NROC and MARCO related to ocean data development and management associated with the regional… [More]

On March 4th, RWSC hosted a Stochastic Collision Risk Assessment for Movement (SCRAM) Tool Webinar. Lead investigators from USFWS, BOEM, and Biodiversity Research Institute gave an overview of their stochastic collision risk (SCRAM) model that uses movement data from automated radio telemetry to estimate avian collision risk. Read more about the model here. Topics covered included: – Explained why BOEM developed SCRAM and how they are using SCRAM outputs to inform EIS determinations – Introduced how SCRAM incorporates the best available science on collision risk modeling… [More]