| Summary: | This accession contains analyses and data products used in a marine biogeographic assessment of the main Hawaiian Islands. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) regulates the leasing, construction and operation of renewable energy projects in federal waters, and is required to evaluate potential human, coastal and marine impacts from these projects. In 2013, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) partnered with BOEM to support their review of renewable energy lease requests offshore of the Main Hawaiian Islands (MHI). Collaborations with a variety of local federal, state, academic and non-governmental organizations were crucial for this work. NCCOS compiled existing, readily-available spatial data and synthesized new products around the MHI, describing the physical and biological marine environment, benthic habitats, fishes, sea turtles, marine mammals, and seabirds. Analyses and data products were specifically tailored to meet BOEM’s needs, and to fit within BOEM’s framework of offshore lease blocks. Data products range from simple animal distribution maps to mathematical models depicting the predicted distributions of animals. For some animals, this assessment marks the first time that their space-use patterns were mapped or modeled in the MHI, and made available online. These datasets are one component of the larger BOEM and State of Hawai‘i processes to evaluate offshore renewable energy proposals around the MHI.
|
|---|