Abstract
Offshore wind power provides a valuable source of renewable energy that can help reduce carbon emissions. Technological advances are allowing higher capacity turbines to be installed and in deeper water, but there is still much that is unknown about the effects on the environment. Here we describe the lessons learned based on the recent literature and our experience with assessing impacts of offshore wind developments on marine mammals and seabirds, and make recommendations for future monitoring and assessment as interest in offshore wind energy grows around the world. The four key lessons learned that we discuss are: 1) Identifying the area over which biological effects may occur to inform baseline data collection and determining the connectivity between key populations and proposed wind energy sites, 2) The need to put impacts into a population level context to determine whether they are biologically significant, 3) Measuring responses to wind farm construction and operation to determine disturbance effects and avoidance responses, and 4) Learn from other industries to inform risk assessments and the effectiveness of mitigation measures. As the number and size of offshore wind developments increases, there will be a growing need to consider the population level consequences and cumulative impacts of these activities on marine species. Strategically targeted data collection and modeling aimed at answering questions for the consenting process will also allow regulators to make decisions based on the best available information, and achieve a balance between climate change targets and environmental legislation.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1-13 |
Number of pages | 13 |
Journal | Aquatic Biosystems |
Volume | 10 |
Issue number | 8 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 14 Sept 2014 |
Bibliographical note
HB is grateful to UMCES faculty and members of the UMCES Offshore Windfocus group for many interesting discussions. KB and PT acknowledge the
facilitation of their collaboration through the Marine Collaboration Research
Forum (MarCRF) in Aberdeen. We thank the many colleagues in academia,
industry and government who informed our understanding of these issues,
and Finlay Bennet, Ian Davies and Nancy McLean for comments that greatly
improved the manuscript. This is Contribution 4956 of the University of
Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory.
Keywords
- Marine mammals
- Seabirds
- Wind turbine
- Underwater noise
- Collision risk
- Human impacts
- Cumulative impact assessment
- Population consequences