On Thursday, January 28, RUCOOL co-hosted (with Rutgers Cooperative Extension) its 2021 Partners in Science Workshop: Identifying Ecological Metrics and Sampling Strategies for Baseline Monitoring During Offshore Wind Development. The workshop, sponsored by the NJ Board of Public Utilities, virtually brought together over 80 individuals representing federal and state agencies, the commercial and recreational fishing industries, the offshore wind industry, environmental groups, and academics throughout the region. It aimed at serving as a follow up to the 2019 workshop on the Mid-Atlantic Bight Cold Pool, by advancing the vital discussion of how best to conduct baseline and continuous monitoring studies of the environment (physical, chemical, and biological) as offshore wind is developed along the U.S. East Coast.

Stay tuned for a complete report on the workshop in the coming weeks! In the meantime, feel free to review the Final Report from the 2019 workshop, along with the agenda from this year’s workshop.

photo is “Courtesy of Deepwater Wind”