Guidance from Scottish Natural Heritage to help
the offshore renewables industry ensure the right development goes in the
right place goes out to public consultation today.
High energy tidal environments are attractive to marine mammals, fish and
diving birds, and are used as locations for tidal stream energy projects.
Operational tidal turbines may pose a collision
risk to marine wildlife. For single turbines the risk may be low, however
for larger turbine arrays, the risk may increase.
SNH has produced guidance to support developers
undertaking collision risk assessments, and is launching a 12-week public
consultation to gather industry and interested parties’ views.
The guidance describes three models which
can be used to estimate the number of animals likely to collide with tidal
arrays. It also provides a step-by-step process of estimating animal densities
at collision risk depth.
Chris Eastham, the SNH officer who led
the project, said: “Our role is to provide advice and guidance
to developers, consultants and consenting authorities on potential impacts
of marine energy installations and how these might be avoided or minimised."
“Our current knowledge of how marine wildlife
interacts with tidal turbine arrays is limited, but this guidance will
provide greater confidence to developers undertaking collision risk assessments
and, importantly, help protect our marine wildlife”.
.jpg)
