Mitchell Center faculty receive funds to research the coexistence of offshore energy with fishing and coastal communities
Mitchell Center Faculty Fellows Heather Leslie and Kate Beard-Tisdale have received funding from the Northeast Sea Grant Consortium to advance social science and technology research on offshore renewable energy in the Northeast.
Leslie’s project, “Building Capacity for Participatory Approaches to Community Resilience and Ocean Renewable Energy Siting” will characterize values and beliefs in three communities to understand where ocean renewable energy is a good fit for people and place, and develop a community tool kit with maps, surveys and participatory practices that can be applied across the Northeast.
Beard-Tisdale’s project, “Can Proprietary Commercial Lobstering Data be Used to Inform Offshore Wind Development?” will create a standardized procedure for constructing representations of the Maine lobster fishery using data and knowledge from individual fishermen, and develop data product models and sample products that will inform fisheries management and marine spatial planning.