SFWF Fish Pot Survey

Purpose of work

The SFWF fish pot survey will be conducted to determine the spatial scale of potential impacts on the abundance and distribution of juvenile and adult fish, particularly structure associated finfish species such as black sea bass, scup, and tautog, within the proposed SFWF site. The main question to be addressed is whether the relative abundance and distribution of these three species changes before and after construction. In particular, we are interested in determining whether the areas closest to the turbine foundations demonstrate increased relative abundance of these structure-oriented species following construction. An increase in abundance would be suggestive of a ‘reef effect’, whereby the addition of offshore wind foundations and scour protection creates new habitat for fish, which leads to subsequent increases in abundance in the SFWF site.

Project Team

N. David Bethoney, PhD, Executive Director, CFRF
Noelle Olsen, Research Biologist, CFRF
Luca McGinnis, Research Biologist, CFRF
Joe Baker, Owner/Operator, F/V Harvest Moon, Point Judith RI

Participant Vessels

F/V Harvest Moon, Point Judith, RI

Data To be Recorded

Station Information: Location (start and end of string), water depth (start and end of string), date, and time
Environmental data: Wind direction, sea state, air temp, and bottom temp with a logger attached to on each string of fish pots
Catch Data: Number of individuals and total weight of each species is recorded for each pot in the string of gear
Biological Sampling: Individual lengths are recorded for a subset of all species per pot and every individual of the three main target species, individual weights are also recorded for a subset of the three target species per pot, sex of commercially important and dominant invertebrate species is recorded for a subset of individuals from each pot
Hydrographic Data: CTD cast to collect vertical profile of temp, and salinity at each sampling location

Survey Dates

The pre-construction survey will occur once per month June through December 2021 through 2022. The construction and post-construction surveys will occur during the same months from 2023 through 2026.

Survey Gear

The fish pot survey uses 8 strings of, ventless, lobster trap style scup pots. Each string of gear is 18 ventless pots long with about 50 meters of spacing between each pot. The length of each string of gear was chosen to effectively sample the half the distance between turbines. Squid was chosen to be the primary bait for the fish pots and a standard 24 hour soak will be given prior to sampling each month.