ABSTRACT Aim With the development and operation of offshore wind farms along the United States East Coast, it is imperative that we understand the distributions of vulnerable species so we can track and predict potential interactions. We focused on leatherback sea turtles ( Dermochelys coriacea ) as they depend on this region for important stages of their life history. Our research aimed to determine leatherback distributions, the environmental predictors associated with them, and how they currently overlap with active areas dedicated to offshore wind energy. Location United States Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). Methods Satellite transmitters were affixed to 74 leatherbacks off the coasts of North Carolina and Massachusetts between 2017 and 2023. Location data from these transmitters were implemented in boosted regression tree models to predict leatherback distributions in relation to a suite of static and dynamic environmental covariates. We used the model predictions to categorise core habitat and determine its overlaps with active wind energy leases. Results The final model predicted a higher probability of leatherbacks in the Mid‐Atlantic Bight (MAB) in May and June and Southern New England (SNE) and Nova Scotia in the late summer. We predicted an increased probability of leatherbacks south along the coastline and off the shelf along the Gulf Stream in the winter. We observed notable overlap between core habitat and offshore wind areas in the MAB and SNE peaking in the late summer. Main Conclusions Our results highlight the importance of coastal habitat for leatherback sea turtles along the OCS. Conservation efforts that focus on examining direct effects of wind farm construction and operation on leatherbacks in the MAB and SNE are warranted, especially given the proximity between lease areas and key foraging areas.
Rider et al. (Thu,) studied this question.