A tool for simulating collision probabilities of animals with marine renewable energy devices

Schmitt, Pál; Culloch, Ross M.; Lieber, Lilian; Molander, Sverker; Hammar, Lena Marmstål; Kregting, Louise

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0188780

Cited by 11 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…To date, no collisions of marine mammals or seabirds have ever been observed, while only a few observations have shown fish in contact with turbines or other MRE infrastructure, resulting in no obvious damage to the fish [23]. Considerable progress has been made in the area of marine mammal collision risk modeling, yet field-monitoring data are still needed to validate or augment predictive or simulation-based models [24,25]. Modeling analyses suggest that the likelihood of "serious injury" from collision risk to marine animals varies by species and the amount of space the turbine takes up in a passage [26,27], and indicate that predictions of risks are extremely sensitive to behavioral assumptions, such as avoidance or fine-scale evasive responses [24][25][26][27][28].…”

Section: Collision Risk Around Turbinesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Considerable progress has been made in the area of marine mammal collision risk modeling, yet field-monitoring data are still needed to validate or augment predictive or simulation-based models [24,25]. Modeling analyses suggest that the likelihood of "serious injury" from collision risk to marine animals varies by species and the amount of space the turbine takes up in a passage [26,27], and indicate that predictions of risks are extremely sensitive to behavioral assumptions, such as avoidance or fine-scale evasive responses [24][25][26][27][28]. Studies of fish interactions with turbines in laboratory settings have increased the understanding of collision risk for fish, including understanding fish avoidance behavior around operating turbines [23,29,30].…”

Section: Collision Risk Around Turbinesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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: Collision Risk Around Turbinesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Collision Risk Around Turbinesmentioning

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

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“…The development of these methods is important in order to understand the potential risks associated with tidal turbines. Current collision risk models [29] are dependent on both broad-scale avoidance and fine-scale evasion of operating devices. While some studies have shown broad scale avoidance [30], there are currently no published studies describing fine scale evasive behaviour close to moving turbine blades.…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

Passive acoustic methods for tracking the 3D movements of small cetaceans around marine structures

et al. 2020

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A wide range of anthropogenic structures exist in the marine environment with the extent of these set to increase as the global offshore renewable energy industry grows. Many of these pose acute risks to marine wildlife; for example, tidal energy generators have the potential to injure or kill seals and small cetaceans through collisions with moving turbine parts. Information on fine scale behaviour of animals close to operational turbines is required to understand the likely impact of these new technologies. There are inherent challenges associated with measuring the underwater movements of marine animals which have, so far, limited data collection. Here, we describe the development and application of a system for monitoring the three-dimensional movements of cetaceans in the immediate vicinity of a subsea structure. The system comprises twelve hydrophones and software for the detection and localisation of vocal marine mammals. We present data demonstrating the systems practical performance during a deployment on an operational tidal turbine between October 2017 and October 2019. Three-dimensional locations of cetaceans were derived from the passive acoustic data using time of arrival differences on each hydrophone. Localisation accuracy was assessed with an artificial sound source at known locations and a refined method of error estimation is presented. Calibration trials show that the system can accurately localise sounds to 2m accuracy within 20m of the turbine but that localisations become highly inaccurate at distances greater than 35m. The system is currently being used to provide data on rates of encounters between cetaceans and the turbine and to provide high resolution tracking data for animals close to the turbine. These data can be used to inform stakeholders and regulators on the likely impact of tidal turbines on cetaceans.

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“…The subsea kite investigated in this paper is a quarter-scale prototype tidal energy device, developed by the company Minesto AB (Schmitt et al, 2017;Zambrano, 2016). The kite consists of a fixed wing with a wingspan of 3 m, which during the tests described here carried a nine bladed ducted turbine directly coupled to a generator in a nacelle at the center of the wing.…”

Section: The Sub-sea Kitementioning

confidence: 99%

Noise characterization of a subsea tidal kite

Schmitt

Pine

Culloch

et al. 2018

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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This paper presents the first noise measurements of a quarter-scale subsea tidal kite (anchored to the sea floor by a tether and flying in a figure-of-eight configuration in the water column) operating in field conditions. Challenges in the measurement and post-processing of the data are detailed. Results are presented for three operating conditions of the kite: 1) varying turbine rotations per minute (RPM), 2) varying kite speed and 3) a twisted tether. Turbine RPM was identified as the the main parameter influencing noise emissions.

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A tool for simulating collision probabilities of animals with marine renewable energy devices

Cited by 11 publications

References 19 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

Passive acoustic methods for tracking the 3D movements of small cetaceans around marine structures

Noise characterization of a subsea tidal kite

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