Advancing Innovative Convergence Between Fisheries and Offshore Energy to Drive Adaptive Stewardship of Fisheries Habitat in a Dynamic Blue Economy

几十年来，墨西哥湾的渔业和海上能源同时发展，海上石油和天然气平台为许多商业和休闲渔民提供了渔业栖息地和捕鱼机会。该项目将量化渔业如何利用海上石油和天然气平台上高产的人工珊瑚礁生态系统，并生产工具，以更好地了解未来海上开发（如风力装置）对渔业的影响。该项目将建立一个生态经济渔业模型框架，该模型将整合商业和休闲渔业的空间数据以及生态参数（包括多样性、丰度和连通性）的数据，以实现海上平台为墨西哥湾渔业提供的直接和间接价值。目标是促进退役和未来海上能源开发的决策，考虑到拆除或增加人工结构对渔业的生态、经济和社会影响。该项目的更广泛影响将改善渔业资源的可持续利用，促进经济增长，创造利用现有海洋资源的精简途径，改善蓝色经济中与海洋相关的不相关部门之间的互动，同时还为墨西哥湾地区提供教育机会。

For decades, fisheries and offshore energy in the Gulf of Mexico have developed concurrently, with offshore oil and gas platforms providing fisheries habitats and fishing opportunities for many commercial and recreational fishers. This project will quantify how fisheries use the highly productive artificial reef ecosystems found on offshore oil and gas platforms and produce tools to better understand the impacts of future offshore development (e.g., wind installations) on fisheries. This project will establish the framework for an ecological-economic fisheries model that integrates spatial data from commercial and recreational fisheries and data from ecological parameters, including diversity, abundance, and connectivity, to realize the direct and indirect value that offshore platforms provide for fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico. The goal is to facilitate decision-making for decommissioning and future offshore energy development that considers the ecological, economic, and social implications of the removal or addition of artificial structures on fisheries. The broader impacts of this project will improve sustainable use of fisheries resources for economic growth, create streamlined pathways to capitalize on existing ocean resources, and improve interactions between disconnected ocean-related sectors in the Blue Economy, while also providing educational opportunities in the Gulf of Mexico region.