Dear colleagues, We still have some spots available in our full-day workshop at the SMM Conference in Perth, Australia on Saturday, 09 November 2024 titled, “Navigating Safe Waters: Unveiling a Novel Risk Assessment Tool for Vessel Operations Impacting Marine Mammals”. This workshop will focus on understanding vessel strike risk associated with offshore wind vessel operations in U.S. outer continental shelf waters and evaluating assessment of that risk in the form of a new risk assessment tool. Please note that part of the workshop will be devoted to testing an early version of the new online vessel strike risk assessment tool. Therefore, participants should bring their own laptop or other wifi-enabled device. Navigating Safe Waters: Unveiling a Novel Risk Assessment Tool for Vessel Operations Impacting Marine Mammals https://www.smmconference.org/workshops/#1718132289356-cbc79593-2e03 CSA Ocean Sciences (CSA) and the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) developed a publicly available and easy to use risk assessment tool to model the potential strike risk associated with offshore wind vessel operations on large whale species in U.S. outer continental shelf waters. The latest generation of this model is in final development and is being presented publicly for the first time at this conference. The general purpose of this workshop will be to introduce the model to users who require assessment of vessel strike risk. Participants will have input on its usability and application related to vessel strike risk reduction methodologies and technologies for marine mammals. The targeted audience includes both biologists and regulators that need a practical and straight foreword approach to understanding and quantifying vessel strike risk. The following topics will be covered: 1) discuss data inputs and limitations; 2) discuss applicability outside the U.S. and alternative data set usage from managers and researchers; 3) identify strike risk reduction or mitigation recommendations that could influence the model and transfer that information to end users (i.e. vessel operators); 4) brainstorm how model may be integrated into a broader suite of vessel strike avoidance technologies; and 5) obtain feedback on the user experience and utility of the model. These topics will be covered through a series of brief presentations, round-table discussions, and hands-on use of the model itself. The final activity will involve participants running the model based on a hypothetical scenario. The information generated through this workshop will be used to refine how the model is used and presented in the U.S. offshore wind industry while also providing the foundation for users who want to build similar models for other global regions or activities. Please reach out with any questions and we hope to see you soon in Perth! Thank you, Tara Tara S. Stevens Senior Scientist Protected Species Risk Assessment Lead CSA Ocean Sciences Inc. Northeast Regional Office 42 Ladd Street, Suite 316 | East Greenwich, Rhode Island 02818 tarastevens@conshelf.com<mailto:tarastevens@conshelf.com> Mobile: +1 401-500-0182 [cidimage001.jpg@01D76826.14652D60] www.csaocean.com<http://www.csaocean.com/>
