Disturbance of harbour porpoises during construction of the first seven offshore wind farms in Germany

Brandt, Miriam; Dragon, Anne-Cécile; Diederichs, Ansgar; Bellmann, Michael A.; Wahl, Veronika; Piper, Werner; Nabe‐Nielsen, Jacob; Nehls, Georg

doi:10.3354/meps12560

Cited by 54 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Our results provide a behavioural response curve that relates the proportion of the local porpoise population disturbed to distance from piling, which can now be used to improve estimates of the number of individuals disturbed in population level assessments of the impacts of windfarm construction [5,6]. Furthermore, we found that the scale of response by the local population of porpoises declined over time, highlighting that previous assessments of disturbance impacts of long-term piling programmes may be conservative [24]. Despite smaller sample sizes, there was preliminary evidence that shorter-term responses to the cumulative impact of ADD and impact piling were greater than responses to pile driving alone.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 72%

“…Studies of harbour porpoise displacement in response to pile-driving during wind farm construction have been conducted at a number of North Sea sites, indicating that animals may be disturbed at distances of up to 26 km (e.g. [13,24,25]). These data have provided a conservative estimate of the effective deterrence radius around pile driving activity [26], which is now being used in assessments of the potential significance of displacement within protected areas [23].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Harbour porpoise responses to pile-driving diminish over time

et al. 2019

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Estimating impacts of offshore windfarm construction on marine mammals requires data on displacement in relation to different noise levels and sources. Using echolocation detectors and noise recorders, we investigated harbour porpoise behavioural responses to piling noise during the 10-month foundation installation of a North Sea windfarm. Current UK guidance assumes total displacement within 26 km of pile driving. By contrast, we recorded a 50% probability of response within 7.4 km (95% CI = 5.7–9.4) at the first location piled, decreasing to 1.3 km (95% CI = 0.2–2.8) by the final location; representing 28% (95% CI = 21–35) and 18% (95% CI = 13–23) displacement of individuals within 26 km. Distance proved as good a predictor of responses as audiogram-weighted received levels, presenting a more practicable variable for environmental assessments. Critically, acoustic deterrent device (ADD) use and vessel activity increased response levels. Policy and management to minimize impacts of renewables on cetaceans have concentrated on pile-driving noise. Our results highlight the need to consider trade-offs between efforts to reduce far-field behavioural disturbance and near-field injury through ADD use.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 72%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Harbour porpoise responses to pile-driving diminish over time

et al. 2019

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“…Impacts to cetaceans from OWED are not well described but understood to be mostly from intense acoustic energy during the construction phase from pile driving [16,26]. The species-specific responses of cetaceans are known for very few marine mammals, and have only been modeled in spatially explicitly detail for the harbor seal [27,28] and harbor porpoise [19,29] due to their common occurrence in European waters where the majority of OWED facilities have been installed. In the absence of a sensitivity index to OWED akin to the birds, conservation status was used as the sole measure of sensitivity to OWED.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Minimizing wildlife impacts for offshore wind energy development: Winning tradeoffs for seabirds in space and cetaceans in time

Best

Halpin

2019

PLoS ONE

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Although offshore wind energy development (OWED) offers a much-needed renewable energy alternative to fossil fuels, holistic and effective methods for evaluating environmental impacts on wildlife in both space and time have been lacking. The lengthy environmental compliance process, estimated to incur a 7–10 year permitting timeline [ 1 ], has been identified as a significant impediment to offshore energy development in U.S. waters. During operation, seabirds can collide and be displaced by turbines. During episodic pre-operation phases, cetaceans are most heavily impacted acoustically by pile driving (and similarly seismic air gun surveys for oil and gas exploration). The varying nature of impacts in space and time leads us to conclude that sites should be selected in space to minimize long-term operational impacts on seabirds, and timing of surveying and construction activities to be conducted in times of the year when sensitive migratory marine mammals are least present. We developed a novel spatiotemporal decision support framework that interactively visualizes tradeoffs between OWED industry profits and wildlife sensitivities, in both space and time. The framework highlights sites on a map that are the most profitable and least sensitive to seabirds. Within the U.S. Mid-Atlantic study area, the New York Call Areas are particularly well optimized for minimal impact on seabirds with maximal profits to OWED. For a given site, pre-operational activities (e.g. pile driving and seismic air gun surveying) are advised by cetacean sensitivity across months of the year that minimize impacts on migratory cetaceans, particularly those of highest conservation concern such as the North Atlantic right whale ( Eubalaena Glacialis ). For instance, within optimal sites for the New York Call Area the least impacting months are May and June. Other taxa are certainly affected by OWED and should be incorporated into this framework, but data on their distributions and/or sensitivities is currently less well known. Built with open-source software made publicly available, the authors hope this framework will be extended even more comprehensively into the future as our knowledge on species distributions and OWED sensitivities expands for streamlining environmental compliance.

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“…A variety of sound level metrics and behavioral response thresholds have been reported from studies of harbor porpoises exposed to low-frequency, impulsive stimuli ( Table 1). While many authors report responses to airgun or pile driving noise at distances >10 km (Bain and Williams, 2006;Carstensen et al, 2006;Tougaard et al, 2009;Dähne et al, 2013;Brandt et al, 2018;Sarnocińska et al, 2020), the environment will significantly impact sound propagation, so here we focus on estimating a maximum response distance based on reported received sound levels. As above, we use the TL model for Monterey Bay (Figure 1) to calculate the maximum ranges at which harbor porpoises could experience levels equal to the response thresholds reported in the literature when the sound source is a single seal bomb explosion.…”

Section: Behavioral Responsementioning

confidence: 99%