The offshore wind power industry got a shot across its bow in the United Kingdom, where The Wildlife Trusts are pushing for government protection of 17 marine conservation zones – and added turbine construction to their list of threats for marine mammals.
Noise and disturbance from pile driving and emplacing foundations could pose a seasonal threat to whales, porpoises and giant basking sharks when they are feeding or breeding, the conservationists say. They are looking especially at the North Sea’s Dogger Bank, where the UK government is well along in permitting a 400-turbine project – potentially one of the world’s largest offshore wind farms – spread 75 to 180 miles off Britain’s northeast coast.
The Wildlife Trusts are a potent political force in Britain – with 47 regional chapters and some 800,000 supporters. They pushed the government to delineate 27 marine sanctuaries with controls on boat traffic and commercial use, a project that had input from shippers and other stakeholder groups.
On this side of the Atlantic, government zoning for ocean uses is just getting started, with marine reserves like Stellwagen Bank off Massachusetts, and seasonal speed restrictions to protect whales in East Coast harbor approaches.
But more is sure to come. Conflicts among user groups are inevitable, with plans for offshore liquid natural gas terminals, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management offering East Coast leases for hydrocarbons and wind energy development, and ocean environment groups pressing for more reserves, even off the most urban coastlines.
One reason offshore wind power has its first North American foothold in Rhode Island is that state’s planning. For more than five years now a Special Area Management Plan process has brought together a broad range of interests, from shipping and fishing industries to recreational and environmental organizations.
That helped build support for Deepwater Wind’s five-turbine pilot project now under construction near Block Island. It has not been so conflicted as the ill-starred Cape Wind project proposed for Nantucket Sound, because those other stakeholders were involved early, said Larry Taft, executive director of the Audubon Society of Rhode Island and a member of the SAMP committee.
Turbines sited in the wrong place can pose a threat to birds, and that was an issue addressed early on by the SAMP group with Audubon’s help, Taft said. They recruited experienced researchers from New Jersey Audubon, who used a modified boat radar to plot bird movements as part of the planning process for five onshore turbines at Atlantic City, N.J.
So when the next big ocean planning operation comes around, commercial operators should show up, and early – because you know everyone else will be there.
