Framework for assessing impacts of pile-driving noise from offshore wind farm construction on a harbour seal population

This work was supported by Moray Offshore Renewables Ltd. and Beatrice Offshore Wind Ltd. as part of their consent application. Offshore wind farm developments may impact protected marine mammal populations, requiring appropriate assessment under the EU Habitats Directive. We describe a framework de...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental Impact Assessment Review
Main Authors: Thompson, P.M., Hastie, G.D., Nedwell, J., Barham, R., Brookes, K.L., Cordes, Line S., Bailey, H., McLean, Nancy
Other Authors: University of St Andrews.School of Biology, University of St Andrews.Sea Mammal Research Unit
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2014
Subjects:
EU habitats directive
Appropriate assessment
Population consequences
Disturbance
Offshore wind farm
Marine mammal
GC Oceanography
SDG 14 - Life Below Water
GC
harbour seal
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10023/4774
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eiar.2013.06.005
http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84880440824&partnerID=8YFLogxK
Description
Summary:This work was supported by Moray Offshore Renewables Ltd. and Beatrice Offshore Wind Ltd. as part of their consent application. Offshore wind farm developments may impact protected marine mammal populations, requiring appropriate assessment under the EU Habitats Directive. We describe a framework developed to assess population level impacts of disturbance from piling noise on a protected harbour seal population in the vicinity of proposed wind farm developments in NE Scotland. Spatial patterns of seal distribution and received noise levels are integrated with available data on the potential impacts of noise to predict how many individuals are displaced or experience auditory injury. Expert judgement is used to link these impacts to changes in vital rates and applied to population models that compare population changes under baseline and construction scenarios over a 25. year period. We use published data and hypothetical piling scenarios to illustrate how the assessment framework has been used to support environmental assessments, explore the sensitivity of the framework to key assumptions, and discuss its potential application to other populations of marine mammals. Peer reviewed

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