A review of ten years of analysis on the impact of wave and tidal devices around Orkney has found they have “little impact” on populations of marine mammals and seabirds. Energy converters were first installed at two island-side test facilities run by the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in 2005. Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), EMEC and Marine Scotland have now examined ten years of observation records about the bird and mammal life living in and around the test areas. The material, spanning around 10,000 hours of work at the Fall of Warness test site of Eday, found cormorants, guillemots, ducks, geese, shags and great northern divers moved when construction work started.Similar results were found with seals, whales and dolphins. However, numbers recovered to around previous levels once installation finished and the turbines were operational.
The National 14th June 2017 read more »
A major study of wildlife observations collected over 10 years around Scottish wave and tidal energy test sites in Orkney has found little evidence of any long-term effects on the use of surrounding seas by the birds and marine mammals living in the area. The coasts and seas around Orkney are renowned for their wildlife, attracting thousands of visitors to the islands each year. Since 2005, a wide range of wave and tidal energy converters have been tested at two test facilities run by the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney. Throughout this time, detailed observation records have been kept of the birds and marine mammals present offshore – and living in and around the test areas. In 2014, to further improve our understanding of how these new technologies influence marine wildlife, SNH, Marine Scotland and EMEC started a detailed analysis of the vast number of observations collected since 2005.
Scottish Energy News 14th June 2017 read more »