437 
National Marine 
Fisheries Service 
NOAA 
Fishery Bulletin 
established in 1881 •<?. 
Spencer F. Baird 
First U.S. Commissioner 
of Fisheries and founder 
of Fishery Bulletin 
Spring occurrence of fish and macro-invertebrate 
assemblages near designated wind energy areas on 
the northeast U.S, continental shelf 
Email address for contact author: harvey.walsh@noaa.gov 
Abstract— Fish and macro-inverte¬ 
brate assemblages were examined 
in the vicinity of 5 wind energy 
areas on the northeast U.S. conti¬ 
nental shelf by using 2 sampling 
gears. Collections of fish and macro¬ 
invertebrates during the spring of 
2014 with a 2-m beam trawl and a 
standard bottom trawl were com¬ 
pared. Correspondence analysis of 
proportions of taxa in the catch at 
sampling stations and estimated in¬ 
dividual weights, averaged by taxon, 
were used to describe the composi¬ 
tion of assemblages, and composition 
of the catch was compared between 
collections made with the 2 differ¬ 
ent gears and among different wind 
energy areas. These comparisons 
indicated that the 2 gears collected 
different fish and macro-inverte¬ 
brate communities. Analysis of the 
collections by gear type indicated 
that assemblages varied across sev¬ 
eral spatial scales. Canonical cor¬ 
respondence analysis was used to 
examine the relationship between 
assemblages, sampling programs, 
and environmental variables to de¬ 
termine which variables and Cor¬ 
respondence analysis dimensions 
were aligned with stations and were 
related to the assemblages. Environ¬ 
mental variables explained 20.5% 
of the variation for the beam trawl 
stations and assemblages and 28.8% 
of variation for the bottom trawl sta¬ 
tions and assemblages. Our results 
indicate that assessments of wind 
energy areas on the northeast U.S. 
shelf should be conducted by using 
multiple gear types across multiple 
spatial and temporal scales. 
Manuscript submitted 7 March 2016. 
Manuscript accepted 29 June 2017. 
Fish. Bull. 115:437-450 (2017). 
Online publication date: 26 July 2017. 
doi: 10.7755/FB. 115.4.1. 
The views and opinions expressed or 
implied in this article are those of the 
author (or authors) and do not necessarily 
reflect the position of the National 
Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA. 
Harvey J. Walsh (contact author ) 1 
Vince G. Guida 2 
1 Northeast Fisheries Science Center 
National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA 
28 Tarzwell Drive 
Narragansett, Rhode Island 02882 
2 Northeast Fisheries Science Center 
National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA 
74 Magruder Road 
Highlands, New Jersey 07732 
Offshore wind farms have been gain¬ 
ing increased interest as a potential 
source of renewable energy (Wilson 
et al., 2010; Tabassum-Abbasi et al., 
2014). The Bureau of Ocean Energy 
Management (BOEM) has designat¬ 
ed 8 wind energy areas (WEAs) on 
the northeast U.S. continental shelf 
between North Carolina and Massa¬ 
chusetts (Bailey et al., 2014). These 
wind energy areas comprise lease 
blocks that will be made available 
for commercial leases and limited 
research leases (BOEM 1 ). Commer¬ 
cial leases allow the leaseholder to 
ask BOEM for the right to develop 
wind energy production facilities on 
the leasehold and undertake a 4-step 
process of planning and analysis, 
lease issuance, site assessment, and 
construction and operations. Limited 
research leases allow the leaseholder 
to conduct technological testing and 
gather data for 5 years. Assessing 
the environmental impact of offshore 
1 BOEM (Bureau of Ocean Energy Man¬ 
agement). 2017. Renewable energy on 
the Outer Continental Shelf, 1 p. [Fact 
sheet; available from website.] 
wind production is part of the per¬ 
mitting process and is led by BOEM 
(Federal Register, 2014). 
Assessment of the impacts of the 
location, construction, and energy 
production of offshore wind farms on 
fish and macro-invertebrates on the 
northeast U.S. shelf is in the early 
stages. However, European coun¬ 
tries have been conducting environ¬ 
mental assessments since the early 
1990s that have resulted in review 
articles on the general impacts of, 
and long-term research needs for, off¬ 
shore wind farms (Wilson et al., 2010 ; 
Lindeboom et al., 2011 ; Bailey et al., 
2014; Bergstrom et al., 2014 ; Dai et 
al., 2015; Lindeboom et al., 2015 ). 
The reviews have generally concluded 
there are potentially minor to moder¬ 
ate effects on fish and macro-inverte¬ 
brate communities. These effects may 
result from increased anthropogenic 
noise and electromagnetic fields, in¬ 
creased turbidity, loss or degradation 
of existing bottom habitats, gains in 
hard bottom and structural habitats, 
and the limitation or exclusion of 
fisheries (Wilson et al., 2010; Berg¬ 
strom et al., 2014; Dai et al., 2015; 
