OCS Study BOEM 2013-0113 OREGON MARINE RENEWABLE ENERGY ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS George W. Boehlert Caren Braby Ann Scarborough Bull Mary Elaine Helix Sarah Henkel Paul Klarin Donna Schroeder U.S. Department of the Interior Cooperative Agreement Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Hatfield Marine Science Center Pacific Region Oregon State University Page left intentionally blank OREGON MARINE RENEWABLE ENERGY ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS FINAL REPORT APRIL 2013 Editors George W. Boehlert1 Caren Braby2 Ann Scarborough Bull3 Mary Elaine Helix4 Sarah Henkel1 Paul Klarin5 Donna Schroeder3 1Oregon State University Hatfield Marine Science Center, Newport, OR 2Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Newport, OR 3Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Camarillo, CA 4Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, San Francisco, CA 5Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development, Salem, OR Prepared under BOEM Cooperative Agreement No. M12ACOOOI2 by Oregon State University Hatfield Marine Science Center Newport, OR 97365 Published by U.S. Department of the Interior Cooperative Agreement Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Hatfield Marine Science Center Pacific Region Oregon State University i DISCLAIMER This report had been reviewed by the Pacific Outer Continental Shelf Region, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, U.S. Department of Interior and approved for publication. The opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations in this report are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation for use. This report has not been edited for conformity with Bureau of Ocean Energy Management editorial standards. REPORT AVAILABILITY Extra copies of this report may be obtained from: Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Pacific OCS Region 770 Paseo Camarillo Camarillo, CA 93010 805-389-7823 This document is also available in a permanent archive along with background documents including the presentations made at the workshop. See: http://hdl.handle.net/1957/36597. It is also available at http://www.data.boem.gov/homepg/data_center/other/espis/espismaster.asp?appid=1. CITATION Suggested citation: Boehlert, G., C. Braby, A. S. Bull, M. E. Helix, S. Henkel, P. Klarin, and D. Schroeder, eds. 2013. Oregon Marine Renewable Energy Environmental Science Conference Proceedings. U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Cooperative Agreement with Oregon State University M12AC00012. OCS Report BOEM 2013-0113. 134 pp. COVER ART ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Cover photo credits: Top left: Ocean Power Technologies PowerBuoy, Ocean Power Technologies, Inc. (manipulated by N. Steinberg); Top right: Principle Power’s WindFloat, Principle Power, Inc. (manipulated by N. Steinberg); Bottom left (wave): Candace Rogers, HMSC; Bottom right: WET-NZ wave energy test device, Nancy Steinberg. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This conference would not have been possible without the work of many individuals, groups, and organizations. First, discussions at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Oregon Outer Continental Shelf Renewable Energy Task Force and a letter of request from Patty Snow of the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development to BOEM stimulated the development of the conference. BOEM stepped forward with funding to Oregon State University (Cooperative Agreement M12ACOOOI2) through the Pacific Northwest Cooperative Ecosystem Study Unit. Members of the Steering Committee took time from busy schedules to meet seven times in person or by teleconference between July 11, 2012 and January 8, 2013, with multiple communications in the interim. The Oregon Wave Energy Trust contributed funds to help with food and refreshment costs for the evening poster reception. Of course the conference would not have been possible without the participants, who provided the many intellectual contributions that form the basis for this report, and we appreciate their time and effort. Finally, we thank Nancy Steinberg for editing the many components of this report and OSU Conference Services, particularly Carly Weber and Michelle Rucker, for great organizational skills that assured smooth operation of the conference. iii Page intentionally left blank iv TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures………………………………………………………………………………...vii List of Tables…………………………………………………………………………………viii Executive Summary………………………………………………………………………….. 1 1. Introduction, Background, and Conference Objectives……………………………………. 5 2. Agency Perspectives and Information Needs……………………………………………… 8 2.1. Federal/BOEM Perspective…………………...…………………………………. 8 2.2. Using Environmental Information in Decision Making at BOEM ...……...…....10 2.3. State Perspective on Marine Renewable Energy Development………………....12 2.4. Managing Marine Resources in Oregon’s Territorial Sea and Stewardship Area: The Importance of Environmental Information in Planning and Decision Making……………………………………………………………………….…..14 3. Synthesis Papers: Current State of Applied Research……………………………………. 17 3.1. Effects of Altered Habitats and Fishing Practices in Wind and Wave Farms….. 17 3.2. The Interaction of Pelagic, Migratory and Protected Fishes with Marine Renewable Energy Projects: Recent Studies and Knowledge Gaps……………………………...…………………………………………..…. 20 3.3. Available Information and Data Gaps: Birds, Bats, Marine Mammals, Sea Turtles, and Threatened and Endangered Species………………………...….…. 22 3.4. Physical-Environmental Effects of Wave and Offshore Wind Energy Extraction: A Synthesis of Recent Oceanographic Research……………………………...… 24 3.5. A UK perspective on Marine Renewable Energy Environmental Research: Keeping up with a “Deploy & Monitor” Philosophy………………………..…...26 4. Contemporary Research Studies……..…………………………………………………… 28 4.1. Linking Habitat and Benthic Invertebrate Species Distributions in Areas of Potential Renewable Energy Development……………………………………... 28 4.2. Pacific Continental Shelf Environmental Assessment (PaCSEA): Seabird and Marine Mammal Surveys off the Northern California, Oregon, and Washington Coasts…………………………………………………………………………… .30 4.3. Wave Energy Development and Gray Whales in Oregon: Potential Risk and Mitigation………………………………………………………………………... 32 4.4. Potential Impacts of Ocean Energy Projects on Migration and Habitat Use of Green Sturgeon (Acipenser medirostris)……………….....…………………….. 34 4.5. EMF and Marine Organisms……………………………………………..…….. 36 4.6. Oregon Data Integration: A Perspective on Information Networking……………………………………………………………………… 37 5. Gap Analysis: Marine Renewable Energy Environmental Effects on the U.S. West Coast………………………………………..………………………………... 39 v 6. Breakout Sessions………………………………………………………………………… 40 6.1. Introduction to Breakout Sessions………………………………………..…... 40 6.2. Breakout Session Reports………………………………………………..…… 41 6.2.1. Baseline……….……………………………….………………………..… 41 6.2.2. Impact/Short Scale Studies ........................................................................ 46 6.2.3. Monitoring……….....………………………………………………..…… 58 7. Next Steps and Concluding Remarks……………………………………………………. 66 7.1. A Federal Perspective…………………………….………………..…………… 66 7.2. A State of Oregon Perspective…….……………………………………………. 67 8. Literature Cited…………………………………………………………………………… 68 Appendix A: Workshop Agenda…………………………………………………………….. 69 Appendix B: Gap Analysis………………………………………………………………….. 73 Appendix C: Contributed Poster Abstracts…………………………………………………103 Appendix D: Conference Participants……………………………………………………... 123 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Adaptive Management Schematic (Thornhill)… ……………………………………10 Figure 2: Map of Oregon's Territoral Sea and Ocean Stewardship Area (Snow) ......................... 15 Figure 3: Fish aggregating around anchor (Wilhelmsson) ........................................................... 17 Figure 4: Schematic of interactions between ecology and technology (Nelson) .......................... 20 Figure 5: Photo of marine mammals and seabird foraging assemblage at sea (Adams) .............. 31 Figure 6: Gray whale migration patterns Yaquina Head, Oregon (Mate & Lagerquist) .............. 33 Figure 7: Map of planned acoustic receiver array off Reedsport, Oregon (Erikson et al.) ........... 35 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Recommendations from Baseline Breakout Group on priority data gaps ...................... 45 Table 2: Recommendations from Impacts Breakout Group on priority data gaps (relevant to wave energy development) ....................................................................................... 48 Table 3: Recommendations from Impacts Breakout Group on priority data gaps (relevant to offshore wind energy development) ......................................................................... 51 Table 4: Recommendations from Monitoring Breakout Group on priority data gaps .................. 60 viii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Development of wave and offshore wind-based marine renewable energy is anticipated on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) off Oregon and much of the Pacific Northwest in the coming decade. Multiple issues related to environmental considerations and information needs remain for these emerging industries. The Oregon Marine Renewable Energy Environmental Science Conference was held 28-29 November 2012, at Oregon State University (OSU) in Corvallis, Oregon. The conference brought together experts to outline research and monitoring needs to assess environmental impacts of these technologies. It has been over five years