160. Of further interest, due to its importance as a food source for flatfish, the brown shrimp, was found to be present in the majority of epibenthic samples within the East Anglia THREE site (Appendix 10.2 and Appendix 10.4). This species is considered to have very low sensitivity to physical disturbance (Neal 2008) and therefore for the purposes of this assessment is considered to have low sensitivity. The impact to this species is likely to be of negligible significance.
161. Within the East Anglia THREE site the sensitivity of infaunal biotopes and species of interest identified within the epifaunal surveys are all assigned as negligible or low in accordance with Table 10.8. Therefore the overall sensitivity is considered to be low.
162. An area of physical disturbance of 18.26km2, although not an insignificant size is small when taken in context of the entire East Anglia THREE site (5.99%) and within the wider southern North Sea and therefore the magnitude of disturbance of these habitats is low.
163. With low magnitude and a low sensitivity the impact of physical disturbance within the East Anglia THREE site would be considered ofminor adverse significance. Due to the homogenous nature of the seedbed and habitats across the East Anglia THREE site and the comprehensive surveys that have been undertaken, the confidence level in the accuracy of this assessment is considered high.
10.6.1.1.2Offshore Cable Corridor 164. Physical disturbance along the offshore cable corridor would be limited to impacts caused by the installation of up to four export cables over a total distance of 620km. The installation of cable protection is regarded as permanent habitat loss and considered in Operation Impact 1 (section 10.6.2) and cable crossings are considered within the cumulative impact assessment (section 10.7.2). It should be noted however, that installed cable protection is anticipated to be no wider than the 20m width of disturbance assessed within this impact.
165. At this stage of the proposed East Anglia THREE project it is not known what methods of cable installation would be used at which locations along the offshore cable corridor. Therefore, it has been assumed that the worst case would result in a 20m wide corridor of disturbance along the entire length of the offshore cable impacting an area of 12.4km2. Although not an insignificant area, 12.4km2 when taken in context of the offshore cable corridor (1.48%) and within the wider southern North Sea is relatively small and therefore the magnitude of disturbance to these habitats is low.
166. In addition to the biotopes identified during the East Anglia THREE / FOUR survey (Appendix 10.4) further biotopes have been identified using data collected during
Preliminary Environmental Information May 2014
East Anglia THREE Offshore Windfarm
Chapter 1 Introduction Page 59
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104