New Studies Highlight Offshore Marine Wildlife, Economics in the Mid-Atlantic

Two recent studies raise new awareness on offshore marine wildlife and the economy of the Mid-Atlantic ocean, respectively.

The report Mid-Atlantic Wildlife Studies: Distribution and Abundance of Wildlife along the Eastern Seaboard 2012-2014 was released in October 2015 as part of the Mid-Atlantic Baseline Studies (MABS) project (2012-2015) and provides new insight on offshore wildlife populations. The project was led by the Biodiversity Research Institute and funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and a wide range of other partners, including the State of Maryland.

Project activities contributing to the report included boat surveys, high resolution digital video aerial surveys, tracking of focal species, nocturnal avian migration monitoring, and development of analytical and modeling approaches for studying wildlife in the offshore Mid-Atlantic.

The goal of the MABS Project was to provide comprehensive baseline ecological data and associated predictive models and maps to resource managers, developers and other stakeholders. This knowledge on wildlife distributions, movements, and habitat use will help inform the siting and permitting of offshore wind facilities on the Mid-Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf. These studies also contribute valuable wildlife data for other management purposes, including conservation and ocean planning.

Additional reports from the project can be downloaded below.

Ocean Economics

Another report, released in February 2016 by the National Ocean Economics Program (NOEP) features the latest data and analysis on the health of the ocean and coastal economies.

This report, the State of the U.S. Ocean and Coastal Economies – 2016 Update includes:

New and updated 2005-2013 ocean economy data
New and updated coastal economy data through 2014
New 2012-2014 coastal demographics
New 2012-2014 marine fisheries
New and updated 2011-2014 marine shipping volumes and values
Just released federal oceans and coasts related expenditures through 2016

The findings of the report include recent figures on the economic value of the Mid-Atlantic ocean. For example, in 2014 Mid-Atlantic coastal counties employed 12.23 million people and contributed $1.8 trillion to the national GDP, a rise of 1.6% since 2010. Of this, $426.6 million came from fisheries landings with $136.6 million of that coming from the Hampton Roads, Virginia area alone, making Hampton Roads the 4^th most important commercial fishing port in the United States in terms of landed value. The Mid-Atlantic also places in the top 5 commercial fishing ports – via Reedville, Virginia – in terms of landed weight.

An additional report, Coastal States Summaries – 2016 Update, takes a state-by-state look at the many of same ocean economic factors discussed in the main update.

Download all reports:

Download State of the U.S. Ocean and Coastal Economies – 2016 Update.

This latest update report features highlights from the CBE-NOEP collection of data compiled since the 2014 full Ocean & Coastal report showing the value of the oceans, Great Lakes and coasts of the U.S.

Download the Coastal and Ocean Economic Summaries of the Coastal States – Update 2016 – These two page ocean and coastal economic summary reports are provided for each of the 30 coastal states with data complementing the CBE and NOEP’s latest State of the U.S. Ocean and Coastal Economies – Update 2016 report.

Download Mid-Atlantic Wildlife Studies: Distribution and Abundance of Wildlife along the Eastern Seaboard 2012-2014.
This 32-page publication is a full-color summary of project goals, activities, and findings, and represents an overview of results from the final technical report for the Mid-Atlantic Baseline Studies Project (below). This communications piece explores aspects of the mid-Atlantic ecosystem; describes our survey and analytical approaches; and presents a range of results, featuring several case studies on specific species or phenomena. Each case study includes the integration of data from multiple study components, providing a comprehensive view of wildlife distributions and movement patterns in the mid-Atlantic study area.

Download Wildlife Studies Offshore of Maryland.
This 8-page publication is a full-color summary of project goals, activities, and findings for the Maryland-funded expansion of the Mid-Atlantic Baseline Studies Project. This communications piece represents an overview of results from the final technical report for the Maryland-focused study (below), and features survey results and case studies on marine mammals, sea turtles, and wintering seabirds. Waters offshore of Maryland’s Atlantic coast are important for many species year-round, including breeding, nonbreeding, and migration periods. Baseline knowledge of wildlife distributions and habitat use is key to understanding conservation and management needs.