TITLE:
Offshore Wind Power for Marine Conservation
AUTHORS:
Linus Hammar, Diana Perry, Martin Gullström
KEYWORDS:
Marine Conservation, Offshore Wind Power, Marine Spatial Planning, Marine Management
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Marine Science,
Vol.6 No.1,
January
22,
2016
ABSTRACT: The seas of northern
Europe are strongly affected by human activities and there is a great need for
improved marine conservation. The same region is also the current hotspot for
offshore wind power development. Wind farms can have negative environmental
impacts during construction, but during the operational phase many organisms
are attracted to the foundations and thereby may also find refuge from
fisheries. Given the recent implementation of marine spatial planning in Europe
and elsewhere, this is a critical time to address potential compatibility and
synergies between marine conservation and wind power. This review concludes
that offshore wind farms can be at least as effective as existing marine
protected areas in terms of creating refuges for benthic habitats, benthos,
fish and marine mammals. The degree of advantage for these organisms depends on
the location of the wind farm and the level of imposed fishing restriction.
Under certain conditions wind farms may even be more efficient means of
conservation than ordinary marine protected areas. However, offshore wind farms
can be negative for several species of seabirds, essentially as occupying
preferred feeding or wintering grounds. In areas important to these seabirds
wind farms may not comply with conservation. The results bring important
messages to marine spatial planning as some but not all wind farms can be
spatially combined with, and even synergistic to, marine conservation.