South Fork Wind Fisheries Research and Monitoring Plan September 2020 Prepared by: South Fork Wind, LLC and INSPIRE Environmental 513 Broadway, Suite 314 Newport, Rhode Island 02840 South Fork Wind: Fisheries Research and Monitoring Plan – September 2020 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................................ iii LIST OF ACRONYMS .................................................................................................................................... iv 1.0 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Monitoring Plan Development .................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Overview of Fisheries Monitoring for South Fork Wind ............................................................ 5 2.0 Demersal Fisheries Resources Survey - Gillnet ............................................................................ 7 2.1 Survey Methods ........................................................................................................................... 8 2.2 Proposed Sampling Stations ...................................................................................................... 8 2.3 Gillnet Methods ......................................................................................................................... 12 2.4 Environmental Data .................................................................................................................. 14 2.5 Gillnet Station Data .................................................................................................................. 14 2.6 Data Entry and Reporting ........................................................................................................ 15 2.7 Data Analysis ............................................................................................................................. 15 3.0 Demersal Fisheries Resources Survey – Beam Trawl ................................................................. 18 3.1 Survey Design/Procedures ....................................................................................................... 18 3.2 Proposed Sampling Stations .................................................................................................... 19 3.3 Beam Trawl Methods ................................................................................................................ 21 3.4 Environmental Data Collection ............................................................................................... 23 3.5 Station Data ............................................................................................................................... 23 3.6 Data Entry and Reporting ........................................................................................................ 23 3.7 Data Analysis ............................................................................................................................. 24 4.0 Demersal Fisheries Resources Survey – Ventless Trap, Lobster ............................................... 27 4.1 Survey Design/Procedures ....................................................................................................... 27 4.2 Sampling Stations ...................................................................................................................... 28 4.3 Ventless Trap Methods ............................................................................................................. 31 4.4 Environmental Data .................................................................................................................. 33 4.5 Ventless Trap Station Data ....................................................................................................... 33 4.6 Data Management and Analysis ........................................................................................... 34 5.0 Demersal Fisheries Resource Survey – Ventless Fish Pot .......................................................... 35 5.1 Survey Design/Procedures ....................................................................................................... 36 5.2 Sampling Stations ...................................................................................................................... 37 5.3 Fish Pot Methods ....................................................................................................................... 38 5.4 Environmental Data .................................................................................................................. 40 5.5 Fish Pot Station Data ................................................................................................................. 40 5.6 Data Entry and Reporting ........................................................................................................ 40 5.7 Data Analysis ............................................................................................................................. 41 6.0 Acoustic Telemetry ...................................................................................................................... 43 6.1 Ongoing Telemetry Research ................................................................................................. 44 6.2 Acoustic Telemetry Methods ................................................................................................... 46 6.3 Data Analysis and Data Sharing ............................................................................................. 47 i South Fork Wind: Fisheries Research and Monitoring Plan – September 2020 7.0 Benthic Survey – Sediment Profile Imaging – Plan View and Video ...................................... 47 7.1 Soft Bottom Monitoring ............................................................................................................. 49 7.1.1 Survey Design/Procedures ............................................................................................... 49 7.1.2 Sampling Stations – Turbine Foundations ....................................................................... 50 7.1.3 Sampling Stations – South Fork Export Cable ................................................................ 54 7.2 Hard Bottom Monitoring ........................................................................................................... 58 7.2.1 Survey Design/Procedures ............................................................................................... 58 7.2.2 Sampling Stations .............................................................................................................. 59 7.3 Field Methods General ............................................................................................................. 62 7.3.1 SPI/PV Field Data Collection ............................................................................................ 62 7.3.2 Acoustic and Video Data Collection ............................................................................. 62 7.4 Data Entry and Reporting ........................................................................................................ 63 7.5 Data Analysis ............................................................................................................................. 64 7.5.1 Soft Bottom SPI/PV ............................................................................................................ 64 7.5.2 Hard bottom Video .......................................................................................................... 65 7.5.3 Regional Comparable Datasets ..................................................................................... 66 8.0 Data Sharing Plan ........................................................................................................................ 67 9.0 References .................................................................................................................................... 68 ii South Fork Wind: Fisheries Research and Monitoring Plan – September 2020 LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1. Location of South Fork Wind Farm .................................................................................. 4 Figure 3. Northeast lease areas including the South Fork Wind Farm with Gillnet Survey Areas. ................................................................................................................... 11 Figure 4. Northeast lease areas including the South Fork Wind Farm with Beam Trawl Survey Areas. ................................................................................................................... 20 Figure 5. Northeast lease areas including the South Fork Wind Farm with Ventless Trap Survey Areas. .......................................................................................................... 29 Figure 6. Example of the station selection method employed during the Southern New England Cooperative Ventless Trap Survey. The study area was stratified into 24 sampling grid cells, and each grid cell was further divided into aliquots. One aliquot from each grid was randomly selected for sampling in each year. Figure from Collie and King (2016)....................................... 30 Figure 7. Study site for the Atlantic cod acoustic telemetry study,