The Offshore Energy Research Association (OERA) has a mandate to enable sustainable development of Nova Scotia’s energy resources by facilitating and funding collaborative research and development. It has supported numerous tidal energy R&D projects over the years and is now leading the Pathway Program in collaboration with the Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy (FORCE) with funding from Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) and Nova Scotia Department of Energy and Mines (NSDEM) – a coordinated R&D program that will define, test and validate Environmental Effects Monitoring (EEM) solutions for the instream tidal energy industry that can meet regulatory requirements. The program will increase the understanding of impacts from instream tidal energy projects in the Bay of Fundy and improve the understanding of fish and marine mammal interaction with instream tidal energy devices. The program will also improve data processing and analyses, so that results can be reported to regulators and disseminated to the public in a timely manner