Ocean Career: Ocean Associates Inc. Spatial Fisheries Management Modeling Support

Offshore Wind Development Impact Analysis Scientist

OAI is a Virginia corporation established in 2003 that provides consulting and technical services to the US government, non-governmental organizations, international organizations, and the private sector. We specialize in scientific program and project management, strategic planning, professional and technical services, and stakeholder engagement, supporting government contracts.

NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is responsible for the conservation and management of our Nation's living marine resources and their habitats. By developing high quality science and supporting an ecosystem-based approach to management, NMFS provides important services to the Nation, including sustainable fisheries, healthy ecosystems, safe seafood, and protected species recovery. In the Pacific Northwest Region of the US, the Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC) provides science in support of managing living marine resources along the US West Coast, including those that use interior watersheds that support anadromous fish such as salmon and steelhead.

The development of the offshore wind energy sector promises to create an entirely new use of the ocean and coastal ports along the US West Coast. The Federal government and the states of California and Oregon are pursuing an ambitious schedule for development of offshore wind. The Biden-Harris Administration set a goal of tackling the climate crisis by deploying 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind energy nationwide by 2030 "while protecting biodiversity and promoting ocean co-use", and this is intended to be a pathway to developing 110 gigawatts by 2050.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is the lead federal agency for offshore energy development and leasing. BOEM seeks consultation from NMFS under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act or MSA) for essential fish habitat. Developers seek incidental take authorizations from NMFS under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). Given their unique expertise in fisheries, living marine resources and their habitats, and the ecosystems in which they live, NMFS also may review and provide comments on potential impacts to our trust resources included in BOEM's Environmental Assessments and Environmental Impact Statements prepared under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

Development of the offshore wind energy sector creates the need for a unique set of scientific research objectives to support NMFS' management mandates and inform responsible and sustainable development of this new ocean-use sector. One of the groups best poised to support this research is the California Current Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (CCIEA), an interdisciplinary research effort led by NMFS and fueled by many staff  CCIEA program's goal is to provide science support for ecosystem-based management of the California Current, the productive large marine ecosystem along the US West Coast.

Because the effects of offshore wind development will change over time, cross-cut multiple sectors, and span the full social-ecological system there is a need for strategic, ecosystem-scale science to inform decision makers and proactively deconflict ocean uses. The CCIEA provides a framework and delivery system for co-developed, integrative science products to inform management decisions that intersect ocean-use communities.

At NMFS, a major question emerging from offshore wind development is: how will the population dynamics of commercial fisheries species change due to fisheries closures associated with wind energy areas? More to the point, there is concern about how changes in population and ecosystem dynamics caused by wind energy development will affect the reliability of decision support tools such as stock assessments, which underpin harvest advice to fisheries managers.

The focus of this position is to address these questions and concerns by improving knowledge around how offshore wind (OSW) development will affect fisheries stocks and ecosystem dynamics, including fisheries and fishing communities.

The scope of this work is to lead activities and development of products that will improve our understanding of how offshore wind (OSW) development will affect fisheries stocks, in collaboration with CCIEA scientists. These activities and deliverables should result in better service to the public through analyses that inform stock assessments and harvest management advice. Focal activities will include:
1) identifying species most likely to be affected by OSW development through the displacement of commercial fishing;
2) developing population, multispecies and/or ecosystem models for species-of-interest;
3) developing spatial scenarios of current and likely areas for OSW development across the U.S. West Coast; and
4) simulating population, multi-species and/or ecosystem dynamics using the OSW development…