Seagreen Wind Energy
Marine mammal population conservation / Marine renewables industry
This is a 4-year project initiated in May 2021, with a total investment of £388K. It employs four members of staff (3 Researchers and 1 Professor). The project application is specific to the east coast of the UK but relevant to other areas with coastal bottlenose dolphin populations and marine developments.
Innovation
The expansion of offshore marine renewable developments in the North Sea has the potential to impact marine mammal populations. This project enables the continuation of a >30 year long-term time series of data collection on the Scottish east coast bottlenose dolphin population, so that the potential impact of future changes in the environment (natural or anthropogenic) can be interpreted in the context of existing knowledge. Importantly, the project also includes a new citizen science project to collect evidence on the occurrence of animals from the population south into NE England, outside the regularly surveyed areas.
Partnership
The project involves a team of researchers from the University of St Andrews, who have been have been studying this bottlenose dolphin population since 1989 in collaboration with the University of Aberdeen, using well established research methods. The project is possible thanks to funding from the Forth and Tay offshore wind farm developers (SeaGreen Wind Energy Limited, Neart na Gaoithe Offshore Wind and Inch Cape Offshore Limited), and from NatureScot. The funding partners are keen to support the ongoing study of the population in the context of the potential impact of marine wind energy development on this important and protected population of bottlenose dolphins.
Impact
The partnership between researchers at the University of St Andrews, wind farm developers and NatureScot provides with an opportunity to continue a valuable long-term time series of information about the east coast bottlenose dolphin population. Without this information about the population there would be a risk of not being able to distinguish between natural changes in the population and potential impacts from marine wind developments.