NEWPORT – The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute a $2 million grant to collect data about distribution and density of marine mammals and seabirds that will be used to help make decisions about offshore wind energy development.
The grant is one of four announced this month on wind energy research. Starting next spring, the surveys of seabirds, whales, dolphins and porpoises will allow Oregon State’s scientific team to develop species distribution models. These will be used to construct density and distribution maps of the species surveyed.
Marine Mammal Institute Director Lisa T. Ballance is the lead investigator on the project, which includes visual and acoustic surveys in a region of the west coast from Cape Mendocino, California, to the mouth of the Columbia River on the Oregon/Washington border and west to the continental slope.
“We are excited about this opportunity,” Ballance said. “This funding will support strong basic science that will undoubtedly lead to new discoveries. Equally important, our science will be used to inform the wind energy industry.”
The environmental and wildlife data gathered through the research is critical for decisions about locating and permitting offshore wind energy development projects and will be used to help assess impacts as offshore wind development increases. Development of offshore wind energy is a priority of President Biden and the departments of Energy, Commerce and Interior have set a goal to develop 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy – enough to power more than 10 million homes – by 2030.
The four-year project will include visual surveys and passive acoustic monitoring of seabirds, whales, dolphins and porpoises during all seasons. The researchers also will collect identification photographs of individual baleen whales, data from satellite-tagged whales and DNA profiles. The data will provide detailed insight into whale behavior, population identity and site fidelity, meaning likelihood the animals will return to the same location each year.
— OSU News Service
