Balancing risks of injury and disturbance to marine mammals when pile driving at offshore windfarms
Abstract 1. Offshore windfarms require construction procedures that minimize impacts on protected marine mammals. Uncertainty over the efficacy of existing guidelines for mitigating near‐field injury when pile‐driving recently resulted in the development of alternative measures, which integrated the...
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1002/2688-8319.12034 https://doaj.org/article/2eeddd69f8004e6ba7356846a4243b53 |
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fttriple:oai:gotriple.eu:oai:doaj.org/article:2eeddd69f8004e6ba7356846a4243b53 2023-05-15T16:33:29+02:00 Balancing risks of injury and disturbance to marine mammals when pile driving at offshore windfarms Paul M. Thompson Isla M. Graham Barbara Cheney Tim R. Barton Adrian Farcas Nathan D. Merchant 2020-12-01 https://doi.org/10.1002/2688-8319.12034 https://doaj.org/article/2eeddd69f8004e6ba7356846a4243b53 en eng Wiley 2688-8319 doi:10.1002/2688-8319.12034 https://doaj.org/article/2eeddd69f8004e6ba7356846a4243b53 undefined Ecological Solutions and Evidence, Vol 1, Iss 2, Pp n/a-n/a (2020) acoustic disturbance behavioural response cetaceans environmental risk assessment harbour porpoise mitigation envir geo Journal Article https://vocabularies.coar-repositories.org/resource_types/c_6501/ 2020 fttriple https://doi.org/10.1002/2688-8319.12034 2023-01-22T18:11:27Z Abstract 1. Offshore windfarms require construction procedures that minimize impacts on protected marine mammals. Uncertainty over the efficacy of existing guidelines for mitigating near‐field injury when pile‐driving recently resulted in the development of alternative measures, which integrated the routine deployment of acoustic deterrent devices (ADD) into engineering installation procedures without prior monitoring by marine mammal observers. 2. We conducted research around the installation of jacket foundations at the UK's first deep‐water offshore windfarm to address data gaps identified by regulators when consenting this new approach. Specifically, we aimed to (a) measure the relationship between noise levels and hammer energy to inform assessments of near‐field injury zones and (b) assess the efficacy of ADDs to disperse harbour porpoises from these zones. 3. Distance from piling vessel had the biggest influence on received noise levels but, unexpectedly, received levels at any given distance were highest at low hammer energies. Modelling highlighted that this was because noise from pin pile installations was dominated by the strong negative relationship with pile penetration depth with only a weak positive relationship with hammer energy. 4. Acoustic detections of porpoises along a gradient of ADD exposure decreased in the 3‐h following a 15‐min ADD playback, with a 50% probability of response within 21.7 km. The minimum time to the first porpoise detection after playbacks was > 2 h for sites within 1 km of the playback. 5. Our data suggest that the current regulatory focus on maximum hammer energies needs review, and future assessments of noise exposure should also consider foundation type. Despite higher piling noise levels than predicted, responses to ADD playback suggest mitigation was sufficiently conservative. Conversely, strong responses of porpoises to ADDs resulted in far‐field disturbance beyond that required to mitigate injury. We recommend that risks to marine mammals can be further ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Harbour porpoise Unknown Ecological Solutions and Evidence 1 2 |
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Open Polar |
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language |
English |
topic |
acoustic disturbance behavioural response cetaceans environmental risk assessment harbour porpoise mitigation envir geo |
spellingShingle |
acoustic disturbance behavioural response cetaceans environmental risk assessment harbour porpoise mitigation envir geo Paul M. Thompson Isla M. Graham Barbara Cheney Tim R. Barton Adrian Farcas Nathan D. Merchant Balancing risks of injury and disturbance to marine mammals when pile driving at offshore windfarms |
topic_facet |
acoustic disturbance behavioural response cetaceans environmental risk assessment harbour porpoise mitigation envir geo |
description |
Abstract 1. Offshore windfarms require construction procedures that minimize impacts on protected marine mammals. Uncertainty over the efficacy of existing guidelines for mitigating near‐field injury when pile‐driving recently resulted in the development of alternative measures, which integrated the routine deployment of acoustic deterrent devices (ADD) into engineering installation procedures without prior monitoring by marine mammal observers. 2. We conducted research around the installation of jacket foundations at the UK's first deep‐water offshore windfarm to address data gaps identified by regulators when consenting this new approach. Specifically, we aimed to (a) measure the relationship between noise levels and hammer energy to inform assessments of near‐field injury zones and (b) assess the efficacy of ADDs to disperse harbour porpoises from these zones. 3. Distance from piling vessel had the biggest influence on received noise levels but, unexpectedly, received levels at any given distance were highest at low hammer energies. Modelling highlighted that this was because noise from pin pile installations was dominated by the strong negative relationship with pile penetration depth with only a weak positive relationship with hammer energy. 4. Acoustic detections of porpoises along a gradient of ADD exposure decreased in the 3‐h following a 15‐min ADD playback, with a 50% probability of response within 21.7 km. The minimum time to the first porpoise detection after playbacks was > 2 h for sites within 1 km of the playback. 5. Our data suggest that the current regulatory focus on maximum hammer energies needs review, and future assessments of noise exposure should also consider foundation type. Despite higher piling noise levels than predicted, responses to ADD playback suggest mitigation was sufficiently conservative. Conversely, strong responses of porpoises to ADDs resulted in far‐field disturbance beyond that required to mitigate injury. We recommend that risks to marine mammals can be further ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Paul M. Thompson Isla M. Graham Barbara Cheney Tim R. Barton Adrian Farcas Nathan D. Merchant |
author_facet |
Paul M. Thompson Isla M. Graham Barbara Cheney Tim R. Barton Adrian Farcas Nathan D. Merchant |
author_sort |
Paul M. Thompson |
title |
Balancing risks of injury and disturbance to marine mammals when pile driving at offshore windfarms |
title_short |
Balancing risks of injury and disturbance to marine mammals when pile driving at offshore windfarms |
title_full |
Balancing risks of injury and disturbance to marine mammals when pile driving at offshore windfarms |
title_fullStr |
Balancing risks of injury and disturbance to marine mammals when pile driving at offshore windfarms |
title_full_unstemmed |
Balancing risks of injury and disturbance to marine mammals when pile driving at offshore windfarms |
title_sort |
balancing risks of injury and disturbance to marine mammals when pile driving at offshore windfarms |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1002/2688-8319.12034 https://doaj.org/article/2eeddd69f8004e6ba7356846a4243b53 |
genre |
Harbour porpoise |
genre_facet |
Harbour porpoise |
op_source |
Ecological Solutions and Evidence, Vol 1, Iss 2, Pp n/a-n/a (2020) |
op_relation |
2688-8319 doi:10.1002/2688-8319.12034 https://doaj.org/article/2eeddd69f8004e6ba7356846a4243b53 |
op_rights |
undefined |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/2688-8319.12034 |
container_title |
Ecological Solutions and Evidence |
container_volume |
1 |
container_issue |
2 |
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1766023177918480384 |