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Tag: #Seabird

Posted on

May 2026

In May the PrePARED team released several outputs!

Reports

PrePARED Report 12: A framework for parameterising simulations of seabird foraging trips

Colleagues from BioSS and UKCEH have released Report 12 presenting a framework for paramaterising simulations of individual seabird foraging trips to be used as inputs to Individual Based Models (IBMs).

Please read the report here.

Peer-Reviewed Published Papers

Following PrePARED team presentations at The Effects of Noise on Aquatic Life Conference in Prague 2025, two papers have now been released.

Measurements of Noise Levels and Porpoise Disturbance During Pile-Driving at Moray West Wind Farm: Comparison with Model Predictions Used in Regulatory Assessments

Paul Thompson, Aude Benhemma-Le Gall, Robert Lee, Simon Stephenson, Tim Mason, and Nuria Abad Oliva

Acoustic Array Configurations for Dose-Response Studies: Impact Gradient Designs Influence Predictions of Noise Impacts on Cetaceans 

Gordon D. Hastie, Madalina Matei, Aude Benhemma-Le Gall, Alex Brown, Isla Graham, Paul Thompson & Cormac Booth

Preprints

In order to provide stakeholders with research findings as soon as possible, the team have released papers on preprint servers whilst they are being reviewed for journal publications.

Evidence of predation events by marine mammals at offshore wind farms

This paper is currently under review at Scientific Reports.

Harbour porpoise responses to pile driving are better predicted by distance to source than by energy-based received sound levels

This paper is currently under review at Journal of Applied Ecology.

You can view all of the PrePARED outputs on our webpage here.

Posted on

March 2026

Outputs

Report 011: SeabORD v 2.0

This report summarises the updates and key developments in version 2.0 of the Individual-Based Model (IBM) SeabORD. Read the report here.

A pre-print is also available for an under peer-review manuscript demonstrating the application of SeabORD v2.0 to understand cumulative impacts.

A webinar has been scheduled for Wednesday 6th May at 12pm – sign up here to hear a summary of the report and ask any questions about SeabORD v2.0

“Fine-scale proximity to offshore wind turbine foundations increases biomass of benthic fish species”

The University of Exeter team have submitted this research paper for review at Frontiers in Marine Science. The paper investigates fish abundance and biomass around Beatrice Offshore Wind Farm in the Moray Firth.

You can read this paper now as a preprint here.

Conferences

Some of the team will be presenting at the EIMR conference which is taking place from 13-17th April in Oban, Scotland.

There will also be attendees presenting a posted at the European Cetacean Society 37th Annual Conference from 22-24th April in Dundee, Scotland.

Posted on

November 2025

New report!

In November PrePARED released Report 9: “Offshore Wind Farm Cumulative Effects Assessments – Case Study 1: Including projects without an EIA”

The purpose of this case study was to demonstrate (using iPCoD population modelling) the difference in a quantitative CEA depending on whether projects without an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) are included in the assessment or not.

Please see the full report here – this will be followed by Case Study 2 alongside a live webinar to summarise and discuss the findings of both reports.

Output Summaries

In 2025, project partner University of Exeter published 2 peer-reviewed papers on the effects of offshore wind farms on fish.

These papers are listed on our Outputs page under ‘Peer-reviewed’.

The team have kindly now created 2-page outputs summaries for these papers which summarise the key findings for those who may not have time to read the full papers.

These can be found on our Outputs page under ‘Output Summaries’ as summaries 6 and 7.

MASTS Annual Science Meeting 2025

PrePARED team members attended MASTS in Glasgow from 18th-20th November to share PrePARED updates including a presentation by Charlie Cooper (SG Marine Directorate) “Integrating predator-prey distributions in marine spatial planning”

Members of the team including Philippa Wright and Gordon Hastie (University of St Andrews) and Katherine Whyte and Phil Bouchet (BioSS) also attended a workshop on the topic of “Migration and prey energyscapes in changing oceans: Advancing observations, models, and synthesis”.

The aim was to bring together scientists working on the same food chains but with opposite perspectives: from top predators looking down, from lower trophic levels looking up.

Katherine Whyte presented on PrePARED work as part of the workshop: “Movement modelling of top predators to understand predator-prey interactions at multiple scales”

Upcoming reports

A number of reports are currently being drafted for release in December or early January. If you wish to be notified directly when these are released please contact us at PrePARED@gov.scot and ask to be added to our distribution list.

Posted on

July 2025

Effects of Noise on Aquatic Life

Several PrePARED researchers attended the Seventh International Conference on the “Effects of Noise on Aquatic Life” which was held in Prague between June 29th and July 4th 2025. 

Paul Thompson (University of Aberdeen) presented key findings from the recent PrePARED Report 008 in a speed talk and poster, comparing construction monitoring outputs from the Moray West Offshore Wind Farm with predictions of noise levels and behavioural disturbance that had been used within earlier regulatory assessments.

Gordon Hastie (University of St Andrews) presented a talk on recent analyses which draw upon archive Moray Firth passive acoustic data to optimise the design of future monitoring studies. These simulations highlighted how sample sizes and spatial extent of array design can affect the ability of PAM studies to estimate behavioural response used to inform EIA.

Finally, Rachael Sinclair (SMRU Consulting) brought the conference to a close with a presentation that drew upon her experience supporting consent applications for numerous UK offshore wind projects. Building on the analyses she presented in PrePARED Report 007, she highlighted the need for clearer guidance on the approaches that developers should use within cumulative impact assessment.

Webinar Success

We were pleased to welcome key stakeholders from industry, SNCBs, government and consultancies to our webinar presented by Rachael Sinclair (SMRU Consulting) summarising Report 007 and answering audience questions.

A recording of the presentation will be available on the website soon, and those who registered for the event will be notified of this via email.

Fieldwork 2025

In July the final PrePARED survey took place!

Between the 23rd June – 8th July acoustic transects in the Firth of Forth and Moray Firth were completed.

Alongside these, the team measured fish across 6 species and recorded seabird numbers across 17 species.

We thank the scientific team at SG Marine Directorate, and the crew and captain of the Alba na Mara.

Posted on

February 2025

New Outputs!

Peer-reviewed paper

Site and species dependent effects of offshore wind farms on fish populations (Anthony W.J.Bicknell, Samuel Gierhart, Matthew J. Witt)

This peer-reviewed paper is an output from Task 3.2

You can read the paper here

Peer-reviewed paper

The role of acoustic telemetry to assess the effects of offshore wind infrastructure on fish behaviour, populations and predation (Anthony W.J. Bicknell, Samuel Gierhart, Matthew Newton, Robert Main, Paul Thompson, Matthew J. Witt)

This peer-reviewed paper is an output from Task 3.3

You can read the paper here

Report 006

Similarity assessment of offshore wind farms within UK marine habitats

This report is an output from Task 6.3

You can read the report and accompanying narrated presentation here

Engagement

PrePARED colleagues presented the following at the ScotMER symposium.

  • Seabird, prey and offshore wind: novel evidence on predator-prey distributions and behaviour around offshore wind farms, and use in UK impact assessments. Charlie Cooper (SG Marine Directorate), Katherine Whyte (BioSS), Christopher Pollock (UKCEH)
  • Prey energetics calculations and energy mapping (PrePARED). Gordon Hastie & Philippa Wright (University of St Andrews)

Recorded versions of the presentations will be available on YouTube in the coming weeks and will be linked to from our Outputs page.

Posted on

July 2024

Survey Updates

The Marine Directorate team successfully completed their survey work for Task 1.1 in the Firth of Forth as per figure 1, with seabird at sea surveys undertaken along acoustic transect lines.

Undertaking seabird at sea surveys during acoustic transects provides predator (seabird) and prey (fish) contemporaneous data to be used in future modelling.

A RoxAnn survey of the substrate was also conducted along the acoustic transects allowing the production of seabed maps which show the detailed material composition of the seabed. This will support fish distribution model predictions.

The team are currently offshore undertaking the second summer Firth of Forth survey, focussing on Baited Remote Underwater Video (BRUV) and fish traps for fine-scale fish distribution.

Map showing transect lines in Firth of Forth
Map of transect lines completed in Firth of Forth survey

Engagement

Katherine Whyte presenting at ISEC 2024

The PrePARED team from BioSS attended the International Statistical Ecology Conference (ISEC) 2024, which was hosted in Swansea, Wales.

During the week, they attended and contributed to various talks and discussions on spatial modelling (how to best map and predict animal distributions over space), movement modelling (how to best use animal tracking data to understand animal movement and behaviour), software development, and integrating statistics with conservation and management decisions.

Katherine Whyte presented in one of the conference sessions, with a talk entitled “Using movement modelling to understand predator-prey interactions at multiple scales”.

ICES Annual Science Conference

Aude Benhemma-Le Gall (University of Aberdeen) will present PrePARED research on harbour porpoise and prey behaviour around operating windfarms at the ICES Annual Science Conference in Gateshead, UK.

This conference takes place between 9-12 September 2024.

Looking Forward

Keep your eyes peeled over the next month for:

  • An update on survey works within the Moray Firth
  • An update on survey works within the Firth of Forth
  • A report on Monopile Effective Deterrent Ranges (EDR)

With more reports due by the end of September!

Seagreen Wind Turbine
Posted on

February 2024

Annual Knowledge Exchange Meeting (AKEM)

This month the PrePARED Team hosted our second AKEM at Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh.

The AKEM hosted ~100 key stakeholders to provide research updates and facilitate discussion around transferability of outputs, the impact of external factors such as the marine heatwave and avian flu, and the planning and consenting of offshore wind.

Photo of key stakeholders attended the PrePARED event
Katherine Whyte from BioSS presenting on Movement Modelling within PrePARED

PrePARED Team members presented project activity updates as follows:

  • Foodscapes and how the PrePARED project will integrate Baited Remote Underwater Video data with bomb calorimetry to improve understanding of the value of offshore wind farms
  • Forth and Tay fish and seabird data collection, analyses and how these will feed into Environmental Impact Assessment tools such as SeabORD
  • Responses of marine mammals to piling noise and PrePARED’s work toward addressing uncertainty in dose-response studies

In addition to project updates we also discussed the impact of external effects and the potential to incorporate shock events into assessment tools before moving on to transferability in the evidence base, presenting work completed by PrePARED team on similarity assessments of OWFs within UK marine habitats and encouraging open discussion with attendees on their views for transferability.

Finally we welcomed Policy and Consenting colleagues to discuss Offshore Wind Farm development, the challenges within the consenting process and facilitated a panel discussion on stakeholder views.

A key element of the AKEM was an interactive session on monitoring technology used within the PrePARED project.

Attendees had the opportunity to view a range of equipment including;

  • Acoustic Release Canister
  • Baited Remote Underwater Video, CPOD (for detecting echolocation clicks)
  • SoundTrap (for recording broadband noise and animal vocalisations)
  • Bomb calorimetry equipment (for forming energy estimations)
  • Seal telemetry tags
  • Shiny app of spatial modelling and seabird tracking visualisations.
Baited Remote Underwater Video system and footage

Finally, the day ended with an evening reception at Brewdog Doghouse in Edinburgh which allowed for informal discussion between the project team and key stakeholders.

On Day 2 of the event, the Project Team and Project Advisory Group met to reflect on the event and feedback received, discuss project activity for the upcoming year and consider the dissemination of evidence.

We thank all those who attended the event and look forward to hosting our next AKEM in 2025!

Posted on

November 2023

Photo of bridge over river in Manchester

ECOWIND & OWEC Annual Impact Meeting

PrePARED partners attended the ECOWIND & OWEC Annual Impact Meeting from 21-23rd November 2023.

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Day 1 allowed PrePARED to investigate collaboration opportunities with other offshore wind projects and raise awareness of current research highlights and findings.

Dr Kate Searle, UKCEH, presenting on PrePARED Cumulative Effects research
Dr Matthew Witt, University of Exeter, presenting on fish effects in relation to offshore wind

Day 2 and 3 provided an opportunity to meet with key stakeholders and discuss the policy and delivery landscape, key challenge areas and research highlights.

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PrePARED was represented in a number of areas at this meeting including research highlights on Ornithological effects, Fish effects, and Cumulative Effects Assessments.

Q4 General Updates

  • Prof. Paul Thompson, University of Aberdeen, recently met with our Aarhus University colleagues to discuss how PrePARED data can be integrated into the DEPONS framework.
  • Offshore activity currently underway to service acoustic receiver arrays in the Moray Firth to provide further data on fish activity in and around windfarms.
  • Preparations are currently underway for a winter survey on sandeel distributions within and around offshore wind farms in the Firth of Forth to provide essential data on the effect of prey distributions on marine top predators.
Posted on

July 2023

2 scientists using binoculars on boat to undertake seabird surveys

Summer Surveys

This summer PrePARED have conducted several successful summer surveys. These include;

  • Data collection to support Workpackage 1 including surveys on broad-scale fish distributions in the Forth & Tay;
    • Fisheries acoustic survey of pelagic fish including pelagic tows
    • Seabird at sea survey
    • Demersal fish survey
    • CTD stations measuring conductivity, temperature, pressure, dissolved O2 concentration, chlorophyll a and salinity at depth
2 scientists using binoculars on boat to undertake seabird surveys
Seabird at sea survey
Sandeel from tow
Sandeel from pelagic tow
Demersal fish survey
CTD stations
  • Surveys to support research on fine-scale fish distributions in the Forth & Tay by mapping predatory/demersal fish abundance. At the end of July, a survey will commence conducting Baited Remote Underwater Video (BRUV) and trap surveys.
  • Data collection supporting Workpackage 3 including fisheries acoustic transects, pelagic and demersal trawls and CTD casts in the Moray Firth to support large-scale and fine-scale fish distribution research (Tasks 3.1 and 3.2)
  • To support Task 3.3 on fish acoustic telemetry in the Moray Firth, 2 x 1 week boat surveys were undertaken to Moray Firth windfarms with acoustic receiver arrays serviced and data downloaded. Fish tagging also took place with 1 cod and 4 whiting being tagged.
Acoustic transects
Fish Tagging

Quarter 2: General Updates

PrePARED ECR attending Royal Society event
  • The project management team have allocated a contract for a Stakeholder and Network Analysis to ensure that there is a clear understanding of who has an influence over the project, would be impacted by project findings, or have interests related to offshore wind farm development and their effects on seabirds, marine mammals, and fish. The findings from the analysis will be used to inform impact plans and ensure effective engagement with key stakeholders.
  • PrePARED have established a Management Group to focus on delivery of the project moving forward and allow for discussion and solving of any project challenges as and when they arise.
  • A few of the project team early career researchers (ECR) attended an event organised by Royal Society on “Ocean and marine science policy”

Project Manager

  • Since assuming the project management role, I have taken advantage of opportunities to hold individual discussions with task leads to gain a better understanding of the project objectives, status, challenges, and highlights.
  • I have begun preparations for the 2024 Annual Knowledge Exchange Meeting, reviewing dates and venue options.
  • To support future surveys, I have also obtained my ENG1 Medical Certificate and have booked a Survival at Sea course in August which will allow me to join research cruises and support with data collection.
    • The ENG1 Medical took ~30 minutes and the doctor records your height, weight and BMI and conducts eyesight and hearing tests. In addition, the doctor also checks for kidney stones and reviews your flexibility for any joint or muscular pain.