Central Atlantic 2 Public Meetings

The Call Area is more than 13 million acres located off the coasts of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. BOEM removed only a limited number of areas from the Call Area, including existing BOEM lease areas, Traffic Separation Schemes (TSS), fairways, or other internationally recognized navigation measures. The Central Atlantic 2 Call Area is broad to provide flexibility to minimize conflicts with other uses, such as commercial fisheries, military activities, and vessel traffic. 

This early step in the Central Atlantic 2 process allows BOEM to obtain information from and engage with ocean users and stakeholders as the bureau seeks to identify areas of least conflict for offshore leasing and wind energy development. This information will be used to narrow the area to be considered for offshore wind development leasing as BOEM seeks to identify draft wind energy areas.

BOEM will collaborate with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) to conduct a spatial analysis of the Call Area, building upon the ecosystem-wide suitability model developed to inform the first Central Atlantic lease sale.  BOEM anticipates information from this comprehensive model will help identify where conflicts may exist and inform decisions regarding potential Wind Energy Areas (WEAs).  

BOEM intends to further consider feedback previously provided through public comments, government and Tribal consultations, and the Task Force. BOEM has developed a series of maps that convey an aggregation of this previous feedback that is under further consideration for Central Atlantic 2, as well as a marine spatial data inventory. Within the Call, BOEM has included a series of questions to gauge further public input on these known concerns.