Regional Leadership on Science
The Responsible Offshore Science Alliance (ROSA) collaborates with fishermen, offshore wind energy developers, fisheries scientists, federal and state management experts, and others to:
- Identify regional research and monitoring needs.
- Coordinate existing research and monitoring.
- Advance understanding through collaboration, partnerships, and cooperative research.
- Administer research.
- Improve access to scientific data.
- Share learnings.
Visit the Leadership page to learn about staff and governing body roles and responsibilities in executing ROSA’s work.
To learn more about projects under way, visit the Advisory Council Priorities and Meetings page, Advisory Council Committee Projects page, and Research Advisor Projects page.
Research Priorities
ROSA staff and the advisory council worked together to define short-term research priorities, which serve as the North Star for ROSA’s agenda:
- Data sharing and compatibility to enable data integration into regional studies.
- Regional framework that guides funders and others in prioritizing research.
- Standardization of sampling gear for monitoring and baseline data collection.
- Incorporation of fishermen’s ecological knowledge into research studies.
Progress To Date
Since ROSA’s inception in 2019, we have been laying the groundwork for effective regional science: defining research priorities, creating tools, and developing the structures to enable collaboration. Key initiatives have included:
- Establishing the advisory council and research advisors.
- Outlining short-term research priorities.
- Generating the Offshore Wind Project Monitoring Guidance and Framework, which outlines fundamental elements to include in monitoring plans.
- Engaging closely with fishermen on gear standardization for offshore wind monitoring surveys.
- Undertaking the Fisheries Resource Data Project to better understand types of fisheries research data being collected, sampling gear and monitoring methods being used, and gaps that need to be addressed.
- Developing a regional research framework that will help prioritize research and direct resources toward key research questions.
- Partnering with others regionally, nationally, and internationally.
Collaborative Engagement
ROSA’s executive director and research director are working closely with organizations, agencies, and thought leaders who are involved in science related to the potential impacts of offshore wind on fisheries. These engagements include:
State Initiatives
- Maine Offshore Wind Roadmap Advisory Committee (observer).
- Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries/Vineyard Wind Fisheries Innovation Panel (advisor).
- Massachusetts Fisheries Working Group on Offshore Wind Energy (observer).
- Massachusetts Habitat Working Group on Offshore Wind Energy (member).
- New Jersey Environmental Resources Offshore Wind Working Group (member).
- New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) Regional Synthesis Workgroup (member).
- New York State Fisheries Technical Working Group (member).
Regional Initiatives
- Regional Wildlife Science Collaborative Protected Species, Habitat & Ecosystem, and Data Governance Subcommittees
- Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM)/National Oceanic and Atmospheric (NOAA) Fisheries Survey Simulation Experimentation and Evaluation Project (steering committee member).
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL’s) Technical Review Committee Atlantic Offshore Wind Transmission Study (member).
- National Sea Grant Offshore Wind Energy Liaison Initiative (advisory partner).
- New England and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council Northeast Trawl Advisory Panel (member).
- Responsible Offshore Development Alliance/National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (steering committee member).
- Synthesis of Science: Fisheries and Offshore Wind Energy (member of planning team and facilitator of peer review of final report)
International Initiatives
- International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) Working Group on Offshore Wind Development and Fisheries (member).
- ICES Working Group on Size and Species Selection Experiments (chair).
- Joint ICES/Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Working Group on Fishing Technology and Fish Behaviour (member).
- MULTI-FRAME (advisory board member).
Symposia and Meetings Co-Hosted by ROSA
- Symposia on at the American Fisheries Society 2022, 2023, and 2024 Annual Meetings (co-organizer).
- Meeting on non-extractive sampling techniques for resource assessment at the 2022 NYSERDA State of the Science Workshop (host/moderator).
- Collaborative meeting, co-hosted by the Regional Synthesis Workgroup of the Offshore Wind Environmental Technical Working Group (E-TWG) and ROSA, with the Regional Wildlife Science Collaborative (RWSC) as a collaborator, to discuss criteria for prioritizing research related to offshore wind environmental impacts, 2022 (co-leader).
- Symposium on Interactions Between Offshore Wind, Fisheries, and Fisheries Resources at the 2021 American Fisheries Society Annual Meeting (co-leader).
- Synthesis of the Science: Fisheries and Offshore Wind Energy Workshop, 2020 (member of planning team and facilitator of peer review of final report).