Abstract
Scheduled offshore wind development in the United States will alter the surrounding ecosystem, potentially impacting the species that co-occur there. A lasting effect will be scour protection; the large volume of stones placed around each turbine structure. This will turn soft sediments into complex habitats, possibly preferable to structure-oriented species. To establish a year-one baseline for a before-after-control-impact (BACI) survey within the Vineyard Wind (VW) 501N lease area, we employed coastwide ventless trap survey protocol that is also utilized by the Northeast states in the U.S. The 501N (impact) area and an adjacent control site were sampled for American lobster and Jonah crab relative abundance and size structure. An influx of smaller males influenced the size distribution of Jonah crab in the 501N area, but lobster sizes were similar between areas. The relative abundance of both species was greater in the 501N area but exhibited seasonal patterns. Ventless trap catch per unit effort (CPUE) observed in RI and MA surveys exceed vented trap CPUE; the opposite was observed in the VW survey. Generalized linear models (GLMs) were used to relate environmental and survey characteristics to American lobster and Jonah crab catch rates. Time, depth, and temperature explained the seasonal variability for lobsters caught in vented traps, while trap saturation by C. irroratus bycatch negatively affected the abundance of lobster in ventless traps. Trap type, time, temperature, depth, latitude, and an interaction between temperature and depth best described C. borealis catch throughout the survey. Varying temperatures corresponded to changes in abundance for both species, but an affinity for greater depths explained localized distribution and contributed to the difference in abundance between the 501N and control area.