2020 State of the Science Report, Chapter 10: Environmental Monitoring Technologies and Techniques for Detecting Interactions of Marine Animals with Turbines

Hasselman, Daniel J.; Barclay, David R.; Cavagnaro, Robert J.; Chandler, Craig C.; Cotter, Emma; Gillespie, Douglas; Hastie, Gordon D.; Horne, John K.; Joslin, James; Long, Caitlin; McGarry, Louise P.; Mueller, Robert P.; Sparling, Carol E.; Williamson, Benjamin

doi:10.2172/1633202

Cited by 7 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…Collision risk continues to be a difficult interaction to characterize because observations in high-energy environments are challenged by fast-moving and often turbid waters; and the instruments and platforms built for this purpose are just coming online [94,95]. In addition, there is general consensus among the research community that collision events (or even very close encounters) are likely to be very rare, particularly for larger marine animals with good sensory capabilities and strong swimming skills [96].…”

Section: Additional Research Needed To Verify and Understand Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Potential Environmental Effects of Marine Renewable Energy Development—The State of the Science

Copping

Hemery

Overhus

et al. 2020

JMSE

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Marine renewable energy (MRE) harnesses energy from the ocean and provides a low-carbon sustainable energy source for national grids and remote uses. The international MRE industry is in the early stages of development, focused largely on tidal and riverine turbines, and wave energy converters (WECs), to harness energy from tides, rivers, and waves, respectively. Although MRE supports climate change mitigation, there are concerns that MRE devices and systems could affect portions of the marine and river environments. The greatest concern for tidal and river turbines is the potential for animals to be injured or killed by collision with rotating blades. Other risks associated with MRE device operation include the potential for turbines and WECs to cause disruption from underwater noise emissions, generation of electromagnetic fields, changes in benthic and pelagic habitats, changes in oceanographic processes, and entanglement of large marine animals. The accumulated knowledge of interactions of MRE devices with animals and habitats to date is summarized here, along with a discussion of preferred management methods for encouraging MRE development in an environmentally responsible manner. As there are few devices in the water, understanding is gained largely from examining one to three MRE devices. This information indicates that there will be no significant effects on marine animals and habitats due to underwater noise from MRE devices or emissions of electromagnetic fields from cables, nor changes in benthic and pelagic habitats, or oceanographic systems. Ongoing research to understand potential collision risk of animals with turbine blades still shows significant uncertainty. There has been no significant field research undertaken on entanglement of large animals with mooring lines and cables associated with MRE devices.

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Section: Additional Research Needed To Verify and Understand Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Potential Environmental Effects of Marine Renewable Energy Development—The State of the Science

Copping

Hemery

Overhus

et al. 2020

JMSE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Some other studies used static gear to assess migration and different strengths of the EMF (Hvidt et al 2006), video (Barry et al 2008;Snoek et al 2020) or visual surveys (Kilfoyle et al 2018) to observe the behaviour of individual fish. Potentially also (acoustic) telemetric methods to observe the actual behaviour of the individual fish in the field could be used (Hasselman et al 2020).…”

Section: Study Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electromagnetic fields benthic fish : impact of the export cable of Net op Zee Borssele

Hal¹,

Volwater²,

Neitzel³

2022

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“…Aside from the substantial challenge of designing and manufacturing turbines, smaller companies must also identify and mitigate negative impacts on the wildlife through site-specific environmental impact assessment (EIA). However, the dynamic conditions in tidal channels continues to present serious practical and analytical challenges for effective EIA (Hasselman et al, 2020;Isaksson et al, 2020). Proportional and cost-effective survey strategies which relate to the size of the MRE project and specific animals or habitats of concern are required to support the responsible development of the MRE industry (Copping et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is believed that TSE installations could impact animals through underwater noise, habitat modification, attraction effects, and the potential for displacement (Copping, 2020). However, the potential for marine animals colliding with moving turbine components is often the main consenting concern for MRE projects (Hasselman et al, 2020). Assessing collision risk can be divided into identifying a population's: (1) relative-use of habitats (1-10 km) earmarked for developments, (2) the relative-use of microhabitats (100s of m) suitable for installations and (3) diving behavior immediately around installations (Waggitt and Scott, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Practical Approaches for Providing Empirical Data on Seabird Behavior and Prey Assemblages in Tidal Channels

Fraser¹,

Waggitt

2022

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Persisting knowledge gaps relating to the ecological context and potential environmental impacts of marine renewable energy (MRE) devices continue to add substantial costs and uncertainty to MRE projects globally. Increasingly sophisticated technological approaches to environmental monitoring can have fundamental non-trivial shortcomings for environmental impact assessment (EIA), whilst substantial practical and financial costs of deployments can prevent their application. For the tidal stream energy (TSE) sector, there is a need for practical and cost-effective methods that can provide site-specific information on predator behavior and associated prey assemblages. Considering existing knowledge of animal communities in tidal channel environments, a proportional approach using shore-based observation and baited fish trap methods was developed. During April 2021, a trial of these methods was conducted in tidal channel environments in Shetland, UK. The practical application of the proposed approach is demonstrated here with results from three tidal channels including Bluemull Sound, the site of active TSE installations (the Shetland Tidal Array). Observation of predator behavior across the study sites are reported for great cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo and European shag Phalacrocorax aristotelis. Seabird diving data calculated from the shore-based observations provided metrics relevant to informing EIA and collision risk modelling including dive duration, dives per minute, and % time underwater. Fish trap deployments targeted the benthic and demersal prey of these predators in the three study sites and across a range of depths and hydrodynamic conditions. A variety of fish and invertebrate species known to be important components of benthic-foraging seabird diet were successfully captured by the traps, providing basic biological information on the prey assemblages observed in each site. The fish species observed in the highest abundance were saithe Pollachius virens and cod Gadus morhua. Benefits, limitations, and applications of this approach are discussed along with various factors relating to the performance of both methods. The shore-based observations rapidly identified relevant patterns in predator foraging activity which informed the targeted deployment of fish traps to provide complementary prey data. This novel combined approach has potential to reduce costs and uncertainty in EIA and for supporting the responsible development of the MRE industry.

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2020 State of the Science Report, Chapter 10: Environmental Monitoring Technologies and Techniques for Detecting Interactions of Marine Animals with Turbines

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

Potential Environmental Effects of Marine Renewable Energy Development—The State of the Science

Potential Environmental Effects of Marine Renewable Energy Development—The State of the Science

Electromagnetic fields benthic fish : impact of the export cable of Net op Zee Borssele

Practical Approaches for Providing Empirical Data on Seabird Behavior and Prey Assemblages in Tidal Channels

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