MARCH 2022 NEWS
Dear ROSA Community,

I am pleased to present our 2021 Year in Review, which outlines all that we as a community accomplished last year – from establishing research advisors to hiring our research director to working on data sharing, a regional framework, and gear standardization. Thank you to everyone who contributed to ROSA’s mission. The number of volunteer hours that were committed is immense and much appreciated – and we are making great progress on laying the groundwork for conducting research at the intersection of offshore wind and fisheries. 

We have a big agenda for 2022, including developing the regional framework and strategies to improve data sharing, and look forward to collaborating across sectors to bring these and other projects to fruition.

If you have ideas for advancing ROSA’s key initiatives or suggestions on how we can most effectively work together, or know of others with whom we should be partnering, I would love to hear from you. Please reach out to me at lyndie@rosascience.org. It would be wonderful to connect with you.

Please read other announcements related to ROSA work below.

Plans for a Productive Spring

Due to the depth of work that we will be undertaking on a number of projects in coming months, we will not be holding an Advisory Council meeting this spring. Instead, Advisory Council subcommittees will collaborate with ROSA staff on gear standardization, fishermen’s ecological knowledge, data sharing, and the regional framework, and Research Advisors will provide input to the subcommittees, as well as continue to review sections of the Synthesis of the Science report.

Staff will send updates via email to members of ROSA’s governance bodies, and we will look forward to convening for a rich discussion at the next Advisory Council meeting, to be held in May or June.

ROSA Executive Director Co-Authors Article on OSW Research Priorities

In conjunction with other experts in the field, I co-authored the article “Offshore wind energy development: Research priorities for sound and vibration effects on fishes and aquatic invertebrates,” published in the January 11 issue of The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.* This article outlines seven short-term research priorities that would help stakeholders better understand the potential cumulative biological effects of offshore wind sound and vibration on fishes and aquatic invertebrates.

These research priorities were developed by a workgroup of the NYSERDA 2020 State of the Science Workshop on Wildlife and Offshore Wind Energy. It was fantastic to work with such knowledgeable colleagues on this project.

AFS, NYSERDA, and ICES Call for Abstracts

In conjunction with BOEM, NOAA, NYSERDA, Tetra Tech, and RODA, ROSA will be co-hosting a symposium, Offshore Wind, Fish, and Fisheries – Emerging Knowledge and Applications, at the American Fisheries Society (AFS) annual meeting, August 21-25. Abstract submissions on a variety of topics are welcome and must be submitted by April 8 on the AFS website. Please reach out to ROSA Research Director Mike Pol, Ph.D., at mike@rosascience.org if you have questions.
 
NYSERDA has announced that the next State of the Science Workshop on Wildlife and Offshore Wind Energy will be held July 26-28 and is seeking abstracts and symposia for this workshop.
 
The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) will be holding its third Annual Science Conference this summer, featuring a session on methodologies to assess the impact of offshore wind development on fishery data collections. The deadline for submitting abstracts is March 10.
 
I look forward to working with many of you this spring – and advancing progress on ROSA’s priorities. Thank you again for your commitment to our research agenda.
Best Regards,

Lyndie Hice-Dunton, Ph.D.
Executive Director, ROSA

*Copyright 2022 Acoustical Society of America. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the Acoustical Society of America.