While offshore wind energy has been operational in Europe for more than 20 years, new offshore wind developments are proceeding rapidly and at large-scales in both the United States and Europe. The coexistence of offshore wind energy with fisheries is critical for the future of energy, food production, and cultural traditions.
Offshore wind activities in Europe and the United States have been challenged to effectively address fisheries considerations, including evaluating and addressing impacts on fishery operations and fishing communities, fishery-independent surveys and fishery-dependent data, and marine habitat alterations. WGOWDF will focus on these and other key interactions and will generate review papers, methods publications, and recommendation reports.
To address its charge, WGOWDF membership requires a diversity of expertise, including fisheries economists and social scientists, fishery/fishing operational experts, marine biologists, oceanographers, survey design and statistical methods experts, and ecosystem scientists from government, academia, and industry.
WGOWDF activities link closely to other ICES expert groups, including Working Group on Marine Benthal and Renewable Energy Developments, Working Group on Offshore Renewable Energy, and Working Group on Spatial Fisheries Data.