Data Analyses
The team are now working on analysing data collected during summer fieldwork including:
- Fish and seabird distribution data to be used to a) refine species distribution models necessary to predict both prey and predator distributions and b) assess the quality of current species distributions models by confronting newly acquired data with model predictions
- RoxAnn data to be used to update models of seabed roughness and hardness and spatial resolution of seabed models
- Fish length frequency analyses to discriminate juveniles from adults based on size for all target species
- Post processing of acoustic data to determine broadscale fish distribution
- Review of fish trap and BRUV (Baited Remote Underwater Video) data to refine species distribution models and understand the effects of offshore windfarms on fish distributions.
- Processing of fish tag ‘ping’ data showing fish movement in and around offshore windfarms
Engagement
ICES Annual Science Conference
The ICES ASC conference was held in Gateshead, UK from the 9-12th September.
Several members of the PrePARED team attended and presented at the conference including Tony Bicknell (University of Exeter), Aude Benhemma-Le Gall (University of Aberdeen) and Philippa Wright (University of St Andrews).
Site Visit – Seagreen Offshore Wind Farm
This month members of the PrePARED project, including colleagues from SGMD, BioSS and UKCEH, were kindly invited to visit Seagreen Offshore Wind Farm alongside stakeholders from JNCC and NatureScot.
The team were fortunate to have the perfect weather, allowing them to get close to the turbine structures, and learn a little more about the work going on in each of the organisations/projects.
Special thanks to SSE Renewables colleagues, in particular Emily Nelson, for organising this visit!
NYSERDA State of the Science meeting
In the August blog we highlighted Cormac Booths presentation at the NYSERA meeting in the USA.
This talk is now available to watch online – see here with presentation starting at 39:04
OWEC Programme Steering Group (PSG)
Paul Thompson, University of Aberdeen, attended the September PSG meeting in London to lead one of their impact workshops focussing on the topic of Effective Deterrence Ranges (EDRs) following the recent PrePARED report 004.
The Seabird Group Conference
Members of the PrePARED project team also attended the Seabird Group Conference in Portugal this month presenting on ‘How do cumulative effects of offshore wind farms scale with increasing exposure to seabird breeding colonies?’.
2nd ENRA Science, Evidence and Policy Conference
Colleagues from BioSS presented on ‘Building an evidence base for offshore renewables’ in Edinburgh on 23 September.
