Assessment of sensitivities of fish and shellfish species to underwater noise will be informed by available literature including the assessments available on MarLIN and peer‐review publications.
3.3.1.5 Temporary loss of sea bed habitat 28.
The installation of wind turbine foundations will result in the temporary loss of some areas of natural fish and shellfish habitat during the construction phase. The temporal and spatial extent the effect will be limited and (with the possible exception of sandeels).
It is proposed that habitat loss during construction is assessed together with the physical disturbance impact.
3.3.1.5.1 Proposed method for assessment:
Information generated as part of the coastal processes assessment and calculations based on the design parameters will be used to quantify the magnitude of the impact, these will include: The maximum sea bed area affected by sea bed preparation for foundations and export, interconnecting, and inter‐array cables/platform/project cable installation.
Levels of sensitivities of fish and shellfish receptors will be informed by available literature including the assessments available on MarLIN and peer‐ review publications.
The assessment will be informed by results from monitoring at operational offshore windfarms to review recoverability e.g. Jensen et al, 2006.
3.3.1.6 Introduction of wind turbine foundations, scour protection and hard substrate. 29.
The presence of windfarm infrastructure (including wind turbine towers and foundations, scour protection and cable protection) are expected to create new habitats within the windfarm colonised by a range of species with potential to increase biodiversity. The increased structural complexity from the introduced infrastructure may also provide habitat or foraging opportunities for mobile species and provide a refuge for fish and shellfish species (Hoffman et al, 2000). Results from monitoring at other sites suggest that there are no gross changes in local fish communities as a result operational windfarms (Leonhard and Pedersen 2005, Jensen et al 2006).
3.3.1.6.1 Proposed method for assessment
The level of magnitude of the impact will be informed by the outcomes of monitoring studies at other offshore wind developments including studies of short term effects of Dutch windfarms (Lindeboom et al. 2011), the monitoring programme at Kentish flats (OES,2009) and studies at the Danish Horns Rev windfarm (Jensen, 2006).
Evidence plan Fish and Shellfish Method Statement
East Anglia THREE and East Anglia FOUR Offshore Windfarms
September 2013 Page 30
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