NEW: Output Summary 5
Colleagues from University of St Andrews and SMRUc have prepared an informative output summary describing current work being undertaken to measure the energetic content of prey around offshore wind farms.
New data on energetic content will allow better understanding on prey quality around offshore wind farms and, therefore, the potential value offshore wind farms bring to marine predators e.g. harbour seals, porpoises.
You can read the output summary here.
Baited Remote Underwater Video (BRUV) – Firth of Forth
The SG Marine Directorate team are currently undertaking BRUV analyses to compare fish abundance and distribution in and around offshore wind farms. The footage here is from 2023 in Seagreen OWF.
Engagement
MASTS Annual Science Meeting
Chris Pollock (UKCEH) presented at MASTS on 5 November on ‘Predicting the cumulative effects of offshore wind farms on seabird demography and consequent population viability.
Katherine Whyte (BioSS), and Chris Pollock also attended a workshop at the MASTS conference on “Tracking top predators in marine renewable energy development areas”
Society for Marine Mammalogy (SMM)
Several PrePARED colleagues attended SMM24 in Perth, Australia and presented on:
- PrePARED Report 004
- PrePARED Report 005
- Task 4.2 investigating how windfarm presence affects fine-scale distribution of prey and marine mammal foraging behaviour
- Summarisation of lessons learned from designing monitoring programmes for Scotland/UK OWF developments
- Predictions of the impact of US OWF developments on North Atlantic right whale populations
