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

• DOI: 10.1016/j.eiar.2013.06.005
• Publication Date: 2013-06-29T01:47:54Z
• Authors: Paul M. Thompson; Gordon D. Hastie; Jeremy Nedwell; Richard Barham; Kate L. Brookes; Line S. Cordes; Helen Bailey; Nancy McLean
• Keywords: 0106 biological sciences; Monitoring; QH301 Biology; Geography, Planning and Development; Marine mammal; Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law; 01 natural sciences; 7. Clean energy; Offshore wind farm; QH301; Appropriate assessment; SDG 14 - Life Below Water; 14. Life underwater; Planning and Development; GC; Geography; Policy and Law; Ecology; Population consequences; Disturbance; 15. Life on land; Management; 004; EU habitats directive; 13. Climate action; GC Oceanography

AbstractOffshore 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 25year 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.