Marine Renewable Energy Developments & Cetaceans

The topic of marine renewable developments (MREDs) has been considered by the Committee for several years and the rapid increase in developments across the world has been highlighted. Wind farms have greatly increased in size and are moving further offshore with considerable associated infrastructural development, including ports, service vessels and cable laying. Interactions with cetaceans are inevitable but in many respects poorly characterised. Typically adequate baseline data have not been obtained prior to developments. The Workshop will provide a forum for scientist/industry interactions on mitigation and issues of mutual concern with a focus on wind farms.

The pre-meeting workshop will consider the potential effects on cetaceans (e.g. injuries; masking; behavioural changes) available information (including modelling approaches) and mitigation measures and adaptive management to address this. The workshop will seek to develop procedures to coordinate and collate standardised effect measurements of marine renewable developments on cetaceans and it will identify research needs. Finally the workshop will formulate recommendations for research, monitoring, conservation and management.

Steering Group: Liebschner (co-Convenor), Simmonds (co-Convenor), Holm, Kock, Ritter, Baldwin, Parsons, Stachowitsch, Lusseau, Gallego, Iñíguez, Rose, Scheidat.

Documents for this meeting can be found here.