Venterra Group launches new market leading Marine Acoustics services for offshore wind industry

Venterra Group, the global offshore wind services company, has today announced the launch of its expanded marine acoustics offering, underpinned by the expert capabilities of its Engineering companies INSPIRE Environmental, Gavin & Doherty Geosolutions (GDG), and Partrac.

Building on INSPIRE and GDG’s established foundation of providing marine acoustics measurement, modelling and marine mammal exposure assessments to offshore wind clients, Venterra’s new integrated offering delivers one of the most comprehensive marine acoustics services available in the market. This also includes leveraging the metocean and marine expertise of Partrac, which has extensive experience with buoy and sensor deployment and enables the ability for joint acoustic and metocean campaigns.

Across Venterra’s team, key marine acoustics project experience includes co-leadership of the award-winning educational website “Discovery of Sound in the Sea” (dosits.org), acoustics measurements for offshore surveys, as well as more recently sound source, noise exposure and animal behavior modeling for an offshore wind installation company.

Ensuring the development of offshore wind is delivered in an environmentally friendly way, including maintaining marine mammal health and fisheries sustainability, is a top priority for the industry. With a team of leading marine scientists and offshore wind engineers specializing in acoustics, Venterra’s offering will help developers and tier one contractors to support critical decision-making as well as mitigating and managing noise impacts on underwater ecosystems.

Paul Doherty, Venterra’s Executive Vice President for Engineering said: “With the global drive for more sustainable offshore wind development and enhanced environmental considerations, reducing the amount of noise emitted from construction and installation activities is of paramount importance. Modeling, measuring and understanding this noise is critical to the success of our industry, and this underpins Venterra’s enhanced marine acoustics capabilities. It’s also central to our build and construction offering with CAPE Holland, our market leading vibro-driving company, delivering low noise emission monopile installation through its specialist vibro technology.”

Venterra was formed to create a global services champion supporting the offshore wind industry’s rapid expansion and leading role in the energy transition. It is building a service offering across the wind farm lifecycle, comprising Engineer, Build and Support services. It is expanding by both acquisition and investing for accelerated organic growth.

Venterra’s Marine Acoustics Leadership

Dr. Kathleen Vigness-Raposa, who joined INSPIRE in 2020, is a marine scientist with expertise in bioacoustics, spatial modeling, and impact assessments of anthropogenic activities in the marine environment. Over the course of her career, she has authored numerous reports assessing the impacts of anthropogenic activities on marine mammals, sea turtles, and fishes; predicted marine mammal distributions and abundances; led passive underwater acoustic monitoring teams on research cruises; and taught graduate-level courses at the University of Rhode Island. Dr. Vigness-Raposa participated in the acoustics and electromagnetic studies for the Rhode Island Ocean Special Area Management Plan (Ocean SAMP), as well as the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management studies of the underwater sound from construction and operation of the Block Island Wind facility. She uses innovative techniques to model and predict environmental impacts and co-created the “Discovery of Sound in the Sea” website. Dr. Vigness-Raposa has more than twenty years of experience in environmental modeling and fieldwork.

Principal Acoustic Modeler Dr. Andrew Millar joined the GDG Offshore Marine Advisory Team in November 2023. He has over 10 years’ experience working in the energy sector. Prior to joining GDG, Dr. Millar was a Principal Environmental Engineer at a market leading advisory company where he was responsible for managing and conducting underwater noise modeling studies, environmental impact assessments, and permit applications for offshore oil and gas and wind farm projects. He has conducted noise modeling and impact assessments for a variety of activities associated with oil and gas and offshore wind farm developments including seismic surveys, geophysical site surveys, piling, drilling, and unexploded ordnance removal. Since joining GDG, Dr. Millar has developed the GDG proprietary underwater noise modeling software for estimating potential impacts to marine receptors from offshore activities.

Senior Scientist Dr. Cristian Graupe joined INSPIRE in January 2024. Dr. Graupe has extensive knowledge simulating acoustic propagation in complex environments to characterize unique sound sources and environmental influence on the sound field. He also has a comprehensive skill set in signal processing, analyzing acoustic measurements to detect, characterize, and track acoustic source signatures. He has over five years experience deploying stationary and autonomous systems to collect calibrated acoustic measurements for sound field analysis and passive acoustic monitoring. As an adjunct professor at the University of Rhode Island, Dr. Graupe is a motivated educator in underwater acoustics and signal processing. In support of the offshore wind industry, He has performed data collection, analysis, and authored sound field verification reports for acoustics associated with impact hammer piling operations. At INSPIRE, Dr. Graupe joins our team of marine acoustic experts, expanding the scope of acoustic services INSIRE offers our clients. 

Media Enquiries:

Anntonette Zembrzuska, Vice President of Strategic Growth, INSPIRE Environmental

+1 518-369-2100; [email protected]

Stiofáin MacDáibhéad, Head of Venterra Engineering Communications

+00 353 86 3298700; [email protected]

Katie Rogers, Communications Manager

+44 7463 110 249; [email protected]

Leading Offshore Firms Integrate Marine Archaeology with Benthic, Fisheries, and Data Visualization Services

INSPIRE Environmental (INSPIRE), Full Fathom Five Marine (FF5), and RECON Offshore (RECON) have formed a team to add marine archaeology and cultural resources services to INSPIRE’s benthic, marine ecosystem, fisheries, and acoustic service offerings. All services lines are supported by INSPIRE’s robust, interactive data visualization tools. FF5 and RECON bring deep experience in enhanced archaeological services to support cultural resource assessments, agency review, and tribal engagement and support. These services are geared toward the development of offshore wind and other marine renewables, integrated sediment management, and other offshore infrastructure projects. 

INSPIRE, FF5, and RECON are natural partners to provide comprehensive multidisciplinary siting and permitting services to marine infrastructure projects, as well as monitoring and adaptive management during construction and operations. Our combined team allows for increased efficiency and rigor across multiple specialties, leading to the seamless articulation of both environmental and cultural resource evaluations. 

INSPIRE, a Venterra Group Company, is a marine science consultancy based in Newport, RI. INSPIRE is known for providing credible, defensible science in support of offshore infrastructure development, with a particular focus on offshore wind and integrated sediment management. We are experts at making seafloor health visible. We offer agency consultation, resource surveys, assessment, impact analysis, reporting, mitigation and monitoring plans, and implementation of such plans for benthic resources and fisheries. We also offer marine acoustic modeling, assessment, impact analysis and mitigation and monitoring planning. INSPIRE has a diverse global portfolio and has worked on over one third of all US offshore wind projects. INSPIRE’s expertise and experience complements the other ‘Engineering’ phase companies within Venterra Group, which is a strategic partner to wind energy developers and contractors, providing services across the full lifecycle of offshore wind assets. www.INSPIREenvironmental.com  

Venterra Group was formed in 2021 as a dedicated offshore wind services platform, supporting the industry’s rapid expansion and leading role in the clean energy transition. Comprised of nine sector-leading service providers with expertise and experience across engineer, build and support phases of the offshore wind farm lifecycle, Venterra Group and its 600+ global workforce is helping developers and tier one contractors to bring wind power capacity online more quickly, competitively and sustainably. For further information please visit www.venterra-group.com

FF5 was founded in 2022 by Jessica Cook Hale, RPA, PhD, to offer critical services for cultural resource management needs in submerged contexts. FF5’s capabilities include Section 106 cultural resource consultation, historical research, report production to specific agency standards, and data analysis. FF5 focuses primarily on pre-contact archaeology and Quaternary geology, to ensure that these components of environmental impact assessments for undertakings conform to the highest scientific standards. https://fullfathomfivemarine.com/  

RECON, is a U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) certified Veteran Owned Small Business (VOSB) that specializes in all aspects of Submerged Cultural Resource Management (SCRM) and Maritime Archaeology.  RECON’s mission is to provide clients with the most reliable and accurate results utilizing cutting-edge technologies.  The staff bring over two decades of expertise providing professional services worldwide ranging from diver investigations, Section 106 compliance, remote sensing surveys, to predictive site modeling and risk assessment (utilizing GIS). https://reconoffshore.com/ 

To arrange a consultation, please email [email protected].  

INSPIRE Environmental Joins Venterra in First United States Acquisition

Venterra Group Plc, the offshore wind energy services business, today announces its entry into the United States with the acquisition of INSPIRE Environmental, a leading marine environmental consultancy with expertise in the acquisition and interpretation of data that determines the health of the seabed and the resources that rely on ocean habitats.

Founded in 2015 by Drew Carey and Joe Germano, INSPIRE services clients in the offshore wind, ports and marine construction sectors. Located in Newport, Rhode Island, USA, INSPIRE’s integrated team of marine environmental scientists collects, interprets and visualises seafloor data. INSPIRE is known for implementing innovative and cost-effective approaches that combine state-of-the-art field equipment, focused sampling designs, and innovative data visualisation techniques. This approach has been applied during the development phase of eleven offshore wind projects along the east coast of the US to de-risk project permitting and accelerate development timelines.

INSPIRE has completed over 275 projects worldwide for blue chip clients such as Orsted, Shell, Equinor, Siemens Gamesa, Mayflower Wind, Ocean Winds, BP, ExxonMobil, NYSERDA, NOAA, USACE, and USEPA.

Venterra was formed to create a global services champion supporting the offshore wind industry’s rapid expansion and leading role in the energy transition. It is building a service offering across the wind farm lifecycle, comprising services through the Engineer, Build and Support phases of an offshore wind farm lifecycle. This is being achieved through a combination of acquisition and investment, assembling urgently needed capabilities to help the offshore wind industry meet its potential.

Rob Jewkes, Chief Executive Officer of Venterra Group, said; ‘INSPIRE is our first North American acquisition and adds new capability to both clients worldwide and existing US clients of our UK and European based member companies. Drew and his team are an impressive and experienced group of scientists who add significant value to the critical early stages of wind farm site appraisal. Protecting the marine environment is crucial, and the building of renewable energy needs to be done with full consideration to the environmental effects. INSPIRE further enhances our fast-growing early stage ‘Engineer’ phase as we build a comprehensive set of services for developers in the US and worldwide.’

Paul Doherty, Executive Vice President of Engineering at Venterra Group, said; ‘We are delighted to add INSPIRE to our front-end Engineer offering as we build a comprehensive set of services. They complement our powerful grouping of GDG, Ordtek and Partrac who together offer a highly relevant set of services to support early stage development of offshore wind in the global market.’

Drew Carey, CEO of INSPIRE, said: ‘Combining our environmental focus with Venterra’s offering means we will be able to offer a more comprehensive set of services with greater international reach as the global market accelerates. Venterra member companies already operate in the US and we will now open Venterra’s US headquarters on the East Coast to be close to the offshore wind industry as it grows across the US northeast and beyond. As a team, we are excited to join Venterra, focused on making a real contribution to the health of marine ecosystems while reaching net zero carbon targets.’

Preparing for Offshore Wind

The ninth annual International Offshore Wind Partnering Forum (IPF) concluded last week with record-high attendance and though-provoking discussions about the booming offshore wind market. Such conversations come at a critical time as the U.S. hopes to generate 30 gigawatts (GW) of energy from offshore wind by 2030. To succeed at scale, the U.S. is already enhancing its port infrastructure, electric grid, and transmission planning process at coastal “hubs” in New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. These offshore wind hubs have the potential to boost local economies and infrastructure by creating “…distributive renewable energy ecosystems in the same way that Silicon Valley and the semiconductor industry shaped the modern world.”

To learn more, please view the original article at The Climate Capitalist – Offshore Wind: Prepare for Impact

Live and In-Person: INSPIRE Attends the 2022 International Partnering Forum in Atlantic City

Live and In-Person: INSPIRE Attends the 2022 International Partnering Forum in Atlantic City

The 2022 International Partnering Forum (IPF), the premier offshore wind energy conference in North America, takes place this week in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Come visit our INSPIRE Environmental attendees, including Dr. Drew Carey, Jeanine Boyle, Dr. Kathy Vigness-Raposa, Dr. Kersey Sturdivant, and Dr. Dara Wilber at Booth 1136 to learn more about our innovative approaches and services for evaluating seafloor health like Sediment Profile Imaging (SPI), Forward Scouting™, and INSPIREagility. Don’t forget to stop by Atlantic City Convention Center 310 and 311 on April 28th to hear Dr. Drew Carey, Dr. Kathy Vigness-Raposa, and Dr. Dara Wilber share their recent insights about offshore wind research, practices, and management.


See below to learn more!

Exhibition Hall (April 26-28):
Visit us at Booth 1136

Workshops (April 28):
See the full schedule here

Learning about BLUE TEC: New Approaches to Reducing Permitting Time and Lowering Costs
Atlantic City Convention Center 311 @ 9:45 AM-10:45 AM
INSPIRE Participants: Drs. Drew Carey and Kathy Vigness-Raposa

Recent Results from Block Island Wind Farm Monitoring: Significance for Future Monitoring
Atlantic City Convention Center 310 @ 11:00 AM-12:00 PM
INSPIRE Participants: Drs. Drew Carey and Dara Wilber

Mitigating Impacts on Fish & Marine Life
Atlantic City Convention Center 311 @ 2:15 PM-3:15 PM
INSPIRE Participants: Dr. Drew Carey

INSPIRE Scientists publish studies of Offshore Wind and Fisheries

As interest in the interactions of offshore renewables and fishing intensifies, INSPIRE scientists have joined an international group of scientists to report on “Understanding the Effects of Offshore Wind Energy Development on Fisheries,” a Special Issue of Oceanography. The Special Issue provides an overview of what has been learned about offshore wind farm impacts on fisheries based on research, monitoring, and engagement with the fishing industry conducted for European wind farms and the Block Island Wind Farm off the coast of Rhode Island.



INSPIRE has recently concluded seven years of monitoring fish and lobsters at the Block Island Wind Farm and expects to release several publications in 2021 examining the results. In advance of those detailed papers, our team reported in this Special Issue on “Effects of the Block Island Wind Farm on Coastal Resources: Lessons Learned.” The full paper can be downloaded here.

Dr. Carey, INSPIRE CEO, collaborated with an international group of scientists to prepare a paper on how Offshore Wind Farm Artificial Reefs Affect Ecosystem Structure and Functioning: A Synthesis. The submerged parts of offshore wind structures act as artificial reefs, providing new habitats and likely affecting fisheries resources. While acknowledging that the footprints of these structures may result in loss of habitat, usually soft sediment, the authors’ focus was on how the artificial reefs established by the wind farms affect ecosystem structure and functioning.

INSPIRE Scientists publish study of Effects of Offshore Wind Construction on Glacial Moraine Habitats


As several of New England’s offshore wind energy projects move forward, INSPIRE scientists continue to make waves in the field of wind farm impact assessment with the publication of a new paper in Estuaries and Coasts. Authors Marisa Guarinello and Dr. Drew Carey present a multi-modal approach to assess the effects of construction within glacial moraine habitats. Glacial moraines are common on the seafloor off Rhode Island and Massachusetts and they form valuable structurally complex habitat for several key species.

INSPIRE conducted pre- and post-construction surveys at the Block Island Wind Farm (BIWF) to observe effects on the moraine habitats. The seafloor was mapped with a multibeam echosounder to guide visual observation with towed video and a high resolution drop camera, which gave Guarinello and Carey multiple windows to observe these habitats at different scales. This methodology was successfully used to produce detailed baseline data, detect disturbance features, and present meaningful results to state and federal agencies.

The paper, “Multi-modal Approach for Benthic Impact Assessments in Moraine Habitats: a Case Study at the Block Island Wind Farm” is available online under Open Access.

INSPIRE Attends 2020 IPF Online Event with Virtual Booth

INSPIRE Attends 2020 IPF Online Event with Virtual Booth

The leading technical conference for offshore wind in the United States, Business Network for Offshore Wind’s International Partnering Forum (IPF), has gone fully online for 2020. INSPIRE is hosting a virtual booth where IPF attendees will be able to video chat with members of our team, learn about our Forward Scouting™ survey approach, and view our 2020 poster presentation.

“The 2020 IPF began in April with our IPF Virtual sessions, continues in June with our bi-weekly IPF Livestream series, and culminates August 18-20 (the same dates as the previously-scheduled IPF Together), with an opening plenary, WindMatch networking opportunities, CareerMatch job fair, research poster sessions, and much more.”

IPF official update

Please use the following links to access our IPF 2020 content:

INSPIRE Conference Booth

2020 poster submission: “Habitat Mapping for Essential Fish Habitat Assessment at U.S. Offshore Wind Sites”

INSPIRE Environmental receives grant from MA, RI, and BOEM; part of $1.1 Million for Regional Fisheries Studies to Guide Offshore Wind Development

May 20, 2020 – Boston, MA
The Baker-Polito Administration, in partnership with the State of Rhode Island and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), today announced grants worth $1.1 million to four institutions (INSPIRE Environmental, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, University of Rhode Island, and New Bedford Port Authority) to support regional fisheries studies that will collect data vital to the ongoing development of the offshore wind industry in North America. The first-in-the-nation studies will conduct important research on recreational and commercial fisheries, seabed habitat, and comparable offshore wind policies in Europe.

MCEC Logo
Story via MassCEC

Oceanology International in London, March 2020

INSPIRE Environmental is attending Oceanology International in London in March! Find us at the Rhode Island Commerce Pavilion where we will be demonstrating our innovative approach using Sediment Profile Imaging to provide rapid, integrated assessments of benthic environments for offshore wind, oil & gas, and contaminated sediments. As part of the delegation representing Rhode Island’s Blue Economy, we are looking forward to learning about new technologies and meeting potential partners at the show.

Visit us at Booth A500, March 17-19 2020.



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