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Tag: #monopiles

Posted on

December 2024

2024 Recap

This year, the PrePARED project has delivered a number of reports and output summaries with many more coming soon in 2025!

Report 1 investigated whether spatio-temporal variations in harbour porpoise occurrence and foraging were related to sandeel density predictions.

The report found that:

  • Sandeel density predictions can inform predictions of harbour porpoise occurrence and foraging behaviour, with limitations.
  • There is a consistent positive predator-prey relationship in the Moray Firth area, matching seasonal presence of prey
  • The installation of wind turbine structures may have modified predator-prey interactions, with further research needed.

Read the full report here.

Report 2 aimed to assess broad-scale changes in the occurrence of porpoises in relation to the operational windfarms in the Moray Firth and assess fine-scale reef effects around turbine foundations.

The report found that:

  • Porpoises were not displaced from operational windfarms.
  • There was no evidence of reef effects. This was unexpected and further investigations are taking place

Read the full report here.

Following the PrePARED Annual Knowledge Exchange Meeting (AKEM) in February, the team created Report 3.

This report summarises project results from 2022 and 2023, how these can or will be used, the impact of these findings and the next steps.

Report 004 aimed to assess the responses of harbour porpoises to pile-driving at the Moray West Offshore Windfarm and directly estimate an Effective Deterrent Range (EDR) for the installation of monopiles without noise abatement.

The findings in this report were that;

  • The PrePARED project delivered new evidence in support of reducing the current EDR recommendations for monopiles (currently 26km). This new evidence is delivering impact, improving OWF consenting by feeding into new guidance in development by JNCC and DEFRA.
  • Further investigation is required to explore contextual factors such as seasonal variation, vessel traffic and use of acoustic deterrent devices.

Following these findings, PrePARED task leads from the University of Aberdeen met and discussed the results with key stakeholders across the UK, specifically to support discussions around the Southern North Sea SAC.

Read the full report here.

Focussing on transferability, SMRU Consulting released Report 005 discussing how Evidence Bridges can support advisors and decision makers.

Noting the importance of evidence-based decision making, this approach brings together researchers and key stakeholders to ensure that the best available science is utilised to support sustainable development of offshore wind.

Read the full report here.

Photo of sunset in Seagreen OWF during sandeel survey.
Posted on

August 2024

New Report

The University of Aberdeen have released a new report on harbour porpoise responses to the installation of XXL monopiles without noise abatement.

This report follows discussions from the PrePARED Annual Knowledge Exchange Meeting (AKEM) on how PrePARED data can be used by different regions.

Alongside the report, we have created a 2-page report summary for easy digestion and reference which can be found here.

For any queries regarding the report, please contact us at PrePARED@gov.scot

Surveys

Moray Firth Camera Survey

Baited remote underwater video (BRUV) surveys were conducted during two weeks of July to follow up the 2022 surveys in assessing the abundance and biomass of demersal fish around the Beatrice wind farm turbine jacket foundations. The survey this year was designed to assess how far the aggregation effect found in 2022 was observed from the turbine jackets, and whether density of turbines influenced the size of the aggregation effect. The weather was kind to the University of Exeter team and the survey was completed in full during the first week, resulting in 24 turbines sampled with a total of 96 BRUV deployments.

During the second week the team deployed new un-baited camera systems (‘Cuttlefish’) that can continuously record footage for up to 2 days (or more if scheduled), so can observe day and nighttime animal activity. These were deployed in pairs at 6 turbine foundation and reference sites for 24 hours, to assess whether there are diel changes in fish abundance and community structure. These data will also be useful to compare to the baited camera data to assess how the use baited can influence species and/or the abundance observed.  

Picture of camera landers

Firth of Forth Camera Survey

Baited Remote Underwater Video (BRUV) retrieved within offshore wind farm.

In support of Task 1.2, the third year of fine-scale fish distribution data collection took place in the Firth of Forth from 29th July until 16th August. Scientists on the Alba na Mara deployed Baited Remote Underwater Video (BRUV) stations and fish traps to investigate fish distributions within and around Seagreen, Inch Cape and Neart na Gaoithe (NnG) offshore wind farms.

Over the survey period a total of 68 BRUV deployments were successful, generating 102 hours of video footage within and around wind farm sites.

A total of 47 fish trap deployments were successful with fish samples collected for further analyses on fish energetic content (Task 4.4 – Fish Nutritional Value) and 1320 fish and benthic species measured.

A RoxAnn survey of the substrate was conducted throughout the whole survey which will be used to update the current seabed roughness and hardness layers for the region of interest.

A total of 13 CTD casts were realised during the survey, producing important information on temperature, salinity and primary productivity at depth within and near OWF sites.

The team wish to express their deepest gratitude and appreciation to the crew and captain of the Alba na Mara and to the scientific crew from SG Marine Directorate.

Engagement

NYSERDA State of the Science Workshop

The PrePARED team from SMRU Consulting attended the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA): State of the Science workshop hosted at Stony Brook University, Long Island, New York in late July 2025.

Cormac Booth presented highlights of the PrePARED project to the audience (hybrid), which comprised researchers, offshore wind developers, consultants, management and conservation groups. The talk was entitled: “Integrating offshore wind, wildlife and fish: the PrePARED project”.

During the week, Cormac met with our US counterparts who run the Wildlife and Offshore Wind (WOW) project (focused on baseline characterisation and response of marine taxa to construction phase) & attended and contributed to various talks and technology sessions (led by the Marine Technology Society). There were many great talks in concurrent sessions spanning the work being done around the US on offshore wind – such as primary productivity, forage fish, fisheries, seabirds and marine mammals.