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In the Netherlands, the greatest numbers of grey and harbour seals are observed hauling out in the Wadden Sea but both species also haul out in the Delta region. Previous studies suggest there could be considerable movement of seals along the Dutch North Sea coastal zone between the two regions. Next to providing feeding opportunities for the seals, this movement may be particularly important for the maintenance of seal numbers in the Delta, and could be affected by anthropogenic developments in the coastal zone, such as wind farms. Determining when to attach devices to seals must take into account the seals’ annual cycles; in the Netherlands, grey seals give birth in winter and moult in spring, while harbour seals give birth in early summer and moult in late summer. Capturing and tracking of seals is limited by both the pupping period and the moulting period.

In 2020 moet 16% van de Nederlandse energievoorzieing duurzaam worden opgewekt. Windenergie op zee is een van de duurzame energiebronnen die Nederland gaat gebruiken om deze doelstelling te halen. Begin 2013 is besloten om een Haalbaarheidsstudie naar de (on)mogelijkheden van windenergie binnen de 12 mijlszone uit te voeren. In deze haalbaarheidsstudie worden de mogelijke effecten op de opbrengstwaarde voor de beroeps- en recreatieve visserij - indien windmolenparken worden aangelegd binnen vijf geselecteerde zoekgebieden - in kaart gebracht.

This report describes the results of field work in the Princess Amalia Wind Farm (in Dutch: Prinses Amaliawindpark, or PAWP). It is to realize the requirements of the Monitoring and Evaluation Program, which is part of the Wbr-permit of the wind farm. The objective is to determine if the wind farm functions as a refugium for roundfish. PAWP is expected to act as a refugium because fisheries are excluded in the farm area since 16 October 2007. It is expected that larger and older individuals as well as species vulnerable for fisheries would have a better chance to survive which would result in an increase in numbers and larger individuals.

Binnen de 12-mijlszone komen diverse biota in relatief hoge dichtheden voor. Toch is er diversiteit binnen deze zone, met de hoogste natuurwaarden op relatief geringe afstand tot de kust (

De Nederlandse overheid, in het bijzonder de Ministers van Economische Zaken (EZ) en van Infrastructuur en Milieu (I&M) onderzoeken de mogelijkheden voor windenergie binnen de 12-mijlszone voor de Nederlandse kust en eventuele problemen die zich hierbij zouden kunnen voordoen, met de functie ‘natuur’. Na een eerste ‘quick scan’ gericht op de hele 12-mijlszone (Leopold et al. 2013a; Ministerie van I&M 2013) zijn een vijftal potentiële zoekgebieden voor windenergie aangewezen: in de Voordelta vóór Schouwen, vóór de Maasvlakte, de Hollandse kust ten zuiden en ten noorden van het Noordzeekanaal en ten noorden van Ameland. Deze vijf gebieden hebben allemaal een aanzienlijke ecologische waarde en overlappen deels (Schouwen, Ameland, Holland-Noord) of zelfs geheel (Maasvlakte) met Natura 2000-gebieden.

Offshore wind turbines are an alien element at sea, a “landscape” that is normally wide and open. Large, turning turbines might affect the local seabirds, that are dependent on the sea. One of the possible effects of offshore wind farms might be that the seabirds will be displaced from the sites, which would mean habitat destruction or at least habitat degradation for this group. All seabirds, being migratory, are protected under the EU Birds Directive. Yet, there are no studies into the question where wind farms should best be built (with respect to seabirds) or how they should be designed to minimize disturbance. This study compares the effects of two wind farms of different design in close proximity of each other. PAWP has a much higher turbine density (4.3 turbines / km2) than OWEZ (1.3/km2). This difference in turbine density probably constitutes the main difference in design between PAWP and OWEZ. The turbines deployed in PAWP (n=60) are Vestas V80 - 2 MW, at 59 m above mean sea level (amsl), with a rotor diameter of 80 m. Those in OWEZ (n=36) are Vestas V90 - 3MW turbines at 70 m amsl, with a rotor diameter of 90 m.

In 2006, the first Dutch offshore wind farm was built 10-18 km from the shore of Egmond aan Zee by a joint venture of Nuon and Shell Windenergy. A Monitoring and Evaluation Program accompanied the plans for the construction and exploitation of this farm. The program contained plans for the monitoring and evaluation of potential ecological consequences in the Dutch coastal zone related to the wind farm and was divided in six topics, of which the topics on fish are presented in this report. Potential ecological consequences for fish were hypothesized to be linked to the introduction of new habitat, i.e. the monopiles and the scour protection surrounding them, disturbance by the operation of the wind farm (e.g. noise) and the exclusion of fisheries in the wind farm and its surrounding safety zone. To monitor and evaluate these hypothesized effects, five sub-projects performed focussing on different parts of the fish community, their spatial and temporal distribution and their behavioural aspects.

In order to assess the suitability of locations on the Central and Southern North Sea for wind parks present sea use functions should also be taken in account. These sea use functions comprise shipping, oil and gas extraction, fisheries, cables and pipelines, military activities, sand extraction, radar interference and nature conservation. Information on the spatial distribution and the extent of each use function should be quantified if possible. Apart from the current situation, the future trend in these use functions is also of interest.

Offshore wind energy can significantly contribute to the sustainable energy mix of Europe. However, competing usage of the sea, cost and grid barriers are important challenges to overcome. The Windspeed project, funded bij DG Energy and Transport under Intelligent Energy for Europe (IEE) programme, assists in overcoming those obstacle's and sets realistic targets for 2030 together with a development pathway (roadmap). The roadmap will identify suitable areas for offshore wind deployment. The Windspeed study area consist of the Central and Southern North Sea bounded by Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom.

The WindSpeed project aims to develop a roadmap defining a realistic target and a development pathway up to 2030 for offshore wind energy in the Central and Southern North Sea. To achieve this roadmap spatial data on where these activities occur and if possible with what intensity is needed. This data can then be used as building material to feed into the DSS or Decision Support System that is also part of the project plan. This GIS-based tool will show a spatial representation of offshore wind energy potential in relation to non-wind sea functions and environmental aspects. The tool will also facilitate the quantification of trade-offs between electricity generation costs from offshore wind and constraints due to non-wind sea functions and nature conservation.

This study was setup to gain an understanding of the possible effects of large-scale development of wind farms in Dutch waters on grey seals (Halichoerus grypus). This should be considered a first step in doing so as up until now relatively little was known about the species in Dutch waters. The study was carried out in the framework of WE@SEA a foundation aimed at acquiring knowledge in the field of offshore wind energy.

An increasing number of offshore windfarms are planned in the North Sea. In many cases the areas involved are also closed to fisheries. This may have important conservation implications for organisms in these areas, but may also have implications for fisheries. Whether or not area closures are effective depends on both species interactions within windfarms, and the placement and location of windfarms. This study uses existing data from routine surveys to examine the distribution of demersal fish and benthos, their potential sensitivity to mortality and thus their potential response to windfarm placement, and derives recommendations for windfarm placement based on this.

The Dutch consortium "NoordzeeWind" operates the first offshore wind farm in Dutch North Sea waters. The park, consisting of 36 turbines on monopiles, is located NW of IJmuiden harbour, some 8 NM off the Dutch mainland coast. Named after the nearest town ashore, the park will be known as "Offshore Wind farm Egmond aan Zee" (OWEZ). A second offshore wind farm has also become operational, the Princess Amalia Windfarm (PAWF). This report deals with distribution patterns of local seabirds in an area of approximately 885 km2 around the OWEZ and PAWF parks

In this study we investigate small scale distribution of pelagic fish within a windfarm by means of a high resolution sonar (DIDSON, Dual frequency IDentification SONar; Soundmetrics). In addition we assess the bias of small scale variations induced by the effects of wind turbines (monopiles) on distribution of the pelagic fish community in the hydro acoustic surveys carried out on the OWEZ Near Shore Wind farm (NSW).

A surge in offshore wind farm development is expected across the North Sea in the near future. Site selection for future parks in Dutch waters is in full progress. Navigational safety is of prime importance: wind farms need to be outside major and minor shipping lanes, clearways, harbour approaches and military exercise areas. Apart from technical and economical considerations, nature conservation needs to be taken into account. Several Nature 2000 areas have been assigned in Dutch offshore waters and these are to be kept free from offshore wind farm development.

Dit rapport geeft de bevindingen weer van een integrale studie naar de veiligheidsaspecten rond de realisatie van (meerdere) offshore windturbineparken op het Nederlandse deel van de Noordzee. Het onderzoek is geïnitieerd in het kader van het onderzoeksprogramma We@Sea. Offshore windturbineparken beïnvloeden de veiligheid op zee b.v. doordat ze ruimte innemen die voorheen vrij gebruikt konden worden door scheepvaart en visserij. Door verdringing treedt verdichting op van het scheepvaartverkeer rondom het windturbinepark en het ingenomen gebied wordt onbereikbaar voor vissers. Daarnaast zijn de windturbines objecten waarmee schepen in aanvaring kunnen komen b.v. wanneer zij op drift raken. De gevaren in deze zijn wederzijds, zowel de windturbines kunnen schade oplopen door zo’n gebeurtenis, maar ook de schepen kunnen beschadigd raken. In het geval dat het schip een milieugevaarlijke lading b.v. chemicaliën of olie vervoert, dreigt er tevens gevaar voor het milieu.

In order to assess the suitability of locations on the Central and Southern North Sea for wind parks present sea use functions should also be taken into account. These sea use functions comprise shipping, oil and gas extraction, fisheries, cables and pipelines, military activities, sand extraction, radar interference and nature conservation. IMARES has collected data on these other sea use functions. Data was gathered from several national institutions, with a good deal of help from our project partners in identifying the best available sources.

This report focuses on the interactions both positive and negative between offshore wind energy and the non-wind sea use functions.Some sea use functions can co-exist without substantial negative effects. Other combinations are problematic or even impossible and should be avoided. Therefore the interactions of the sea use functions are of importance.

The Dutch consortium "NoordzeeWind" has built the first offshore wind farm in Dutch North Sea waters, known as "Offshore Wind farm Egmond aan Zee" (OWEZ) Part of the construction works consisted of driving 36 monopiles into the sea floor, during April-June 2006. The noise levels that attended this activity may have been detrimental to marine life forms. Cetaceans in particular are sensitive to very high noise levels and a possible impact on the most abundant cetacean living off the Dutch coast, the harbour porpoise was therefore studied. Direct observations were hard to conduct, given the low (summer) densities of porpoises around the construction site. Pathological observations on stranded specimen failed to produce clear results. Inner ears of freshly stranded porpoises were examined for possible damage, but before necropsies could be conducted the animals had been stored frozen and this had destroyed any visible signs of noise-induced damage to the inner ear. Thus, the spatiotemporal pattern of porpoise strandings was examined. Porpoises did not strand in higher numbers on the coastal stretch directly east of the construction site, or to the north-east of this location (downstream) compared to other parts of the country. Porpoises also did not strand in higher than expected numbers near the construction site, at the time of construction. It was therefore concluded that the construction did not lead to visibly increased mortality of harbour porpoises. In retrospect this might have been expected, given that densities of porpoises are normally very low in summer at the site, that the building process is noisy anyway, scaring porpoises off (to safe distances) before the actual pile driving commences. A ramp-up procedure and usage of a pinger further helped to ward off porpoises from the site, before full-power pile driving started. These factors combined (timing and high before-pile driving noise levels) made it very unlikely that porpoises got in harm’s way during the construction of OWEZ.

Initiatiefnemer E-Connection Project BV heeft bij RWS Directie Noordzee, het Bevoegd Gezag (BG), een vergunningaanvraag ingediend voor de bouw en exploitatie van een offshore windpark, op een locatie die wordt aangeduid als Q4-WP. Deze locatie ligt niet in één van de uitsluitingsgebieden, zoals clearways en zandwingebieden en was daarmee een locatie waar een dergelijke ontwikkeling wellicht mogelijk zou zijn; wel diende een mer-procedure doorlopen te worden en vervolgens, omdat significante effecten op ondermeer natuur en milieu niet konden worden uitgesloten, een Passende Beoordeling (PB).

The Dutch government aims at the production of 450 MW of electricity by offshore wind farms by 2010 and 6000 MW by 2020. Possibly the construction, exploitation and dismantlement of the wind farms will influence fish in the North Sea, which are protected under the European Habitat Directive or are considered as prey for other Habitat Directive species such as marine mammals. Deltares will use this study as input for the generic ‘Appropriate Assessment’ (environmental impact study) for the building of offshore wind farms, as required by the Habitat Directive. In this study we have provided an overview of relevant information for a number of important fish species in the North Sea in relation to coastal Natura 2000 areas and future wind farms.

The Dutch government has formulated the ambition to increase the generation of renewable energy, among others by increased exploitation of offshore wind farms in the North Sea. To compose the generic appropriate assessment, Deltares has asked IMARES to provide an overview of the current knowledge on the spatial and temporal use of the North Sea by marine mammals that are protected under the Habitat Directive Annex II: common seal (Phoca vitulina), grey seal (Halichoerus grypus), harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena), bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) . In addition, white beaked dolphin (Lagenorhynchus albirostris) and minke whale (Baleanoptera acutorostrata) are treated (Annex IV).

Traditional background noise spectra were measured predicting the construction of a 108 MW wind farm power generating facility 8 - 18 km off the Dutch coast of Egmond aan Zee. Off-shore windmill

The aim of this part of the Monitoring and Evaluation Program NSW (MEP-NSW), i.e. “acoustic measurements”, is to measure and analyze underwater sound emissions from the construction of the OWEZ wind farm and to investigate the effects to marine animals (in particular fish, harbour porpoises and seals) from other relevant studies. The Off-Shore Wind farm Egmond aan Zee (OWEZ) was built in the Dutch coastal zone 8 - 18 km off the coast from Egmond aan Zee. It consists of an arrangement of 36 wind turbines with a total capacity of 108 MW.

In this study, possible effects on sensitive seabirds are considered. Bird species most likely to be vulnerable to underwater sound are those that forage by diving after fish of shellfish. Diving birds that may occur in relatively high densities at the OWEZ location include auks, and possibly divers and seaduck. Terns, that feed by shallow dives are considered less vulnerable and mostly occur closer to the mainland coast. Several gull species may occur in the area in high densities, but they feed at the surface only, and are considered the least vulnerable. Pile driving took place from 17 April to 28 July 2007. The potentially vulnerable divers, seaduck and auks had largely left the area by the time the pile driving started. Migration commenced early in 2006 and any birds still left in the area by mid-April would have been scared away by the shipping activities long before actual pile driving started. Further mitigation of possible effects on sensitive seabirds included a ramp-up procedure that ensured that full hamming power was only administered after a period of low-energy blows that were unlikely to cause lethal effects on any birds still present. Furthermore, an underwater pinger, aimed at scaring off marine mammals, was put into operation 3-4 hours before pile driving started. Visual observations before and during three pile driving sessions failed to detect any of the seabirds deemed sensitive to pile driving noise in the vicinity of the construction work. Birds that did fly by the construction site (mainly gulls and terns) did not show a noticeable reaction to the activities. It is therefore concluded that effects of underwater noise on seabirds, though potentially detrimental, were negligible during construction of OWEZ. This was due to fortunate timing of the work and to appropriate mitigation measures. In deze studie worden de effecten van het geluid van het heien op de zeevogels die ter plaatse (kunnen) voorkomen onderzocht. De zeevogels die het meest kwetsbaar lijken zijn de alk en de zeekoet, die diep duikend foerageren en -in de winter- in hoge dichtheden in het werkgebied kunnen voorkomen. Zeeduikers en zee-eenden lijken ook kwetsbaar, maar komen in de regel dichter onder de kust voor. Meeuwen, die vooral aan het wateroppervlak hun voedsel zoeken lijken minder kwetsbaar, terwijl ondiep duikende soorten als sterns een tussenpositie zullen innemen. Meeuwen kunnen in hoge dichtheden in het gebied voorkomen maar sterns verblijven in de regel dichter onder de kust, wat hun kwetsbaarheid vermindert. Het heiwerk werd uitgevoerd tussen 17 april en 28 juli 2007. In 2006 kwam de voorjaarstrek vroeg op gang en de meeste zeeduikers, zee-eenden, alken en zeekoeten hadden half april het gebied al verlaten, waardoor er geen schadelijke effecten van het geproduceerde onderwatergeluid meer konden optreden. Daar kwam bij, dat de aanwezigheid van het -zeer grote- heischip en andere werkschepen in het gebied al bij voorbaat verstoringsgevoelige zeevogels op afstand gehouden zullen hebben. Er werd bovendien actieve mitigatie toegepast. Het heien startte bij iedere sessie steeds met een aantal "voorzichtige" klappen en het volle vermogen werd pas later toegepast, waardoor gevoelige dieren de gelegenheid hadden naar een veilige afstand uit te wijken voordat zeer hoge geluidsniveaus bereikt werden. Tenslotte werd een onderwater pinger ingezet die al 3-4 uur voor aanvang van het heien een eigen, afschrikkend bedoeld onderwatergeluid produceerde. Een drietal heisessies werd gevolgd vanaf een klein bootje in de nabijheid van het heischip. Er werden geen kwetsbaar geachte zeevogels nabij het werk gezien en de vogels die wel in de buurt kwamen (meeuwen, sterns) vertoonden geen reactie op het (bovenwater)geluid. De conclusie is daarom, dat er geen significante effecten van het onderwatergeluid van het heien zijn opgetreden, ten opzichte van zeevogels. Een gunstige timing ten opzichte van de winter- en trekseizoenen, en geslaagde mitigatiemaatregelen waren hier debet aan.

Wageningen IMARES heeft voor Bioconsult in relatie tot het BARD windmolenproject onderzoek gedaan naar aanwezigheid van vis en visserij in het plangebied van het BARD windmolenproject. Vangsten en inspanning van Nederlandse visserij met boomkor, bordentrawl en garnalenkor is beschreven aan de hand van VIRIS en VMS gegevens. Visgegevens zijn beschreven aan de hand van surveygegevens. Naar schatting wordt jaarlijks 43 uur door de boomkorvloot in het gebied gevist. De belangrijkste soorten in het gebied voor de boomkorvisserij zijn Schol, Tong, Schar en Tarbot. De bordentrawlvisserij is gemiddeld 0.4 zeedagen per jaar actief in het gebied en vangt voornamelijk Schol, Schar en Noorse Kreeft. De garnalenvisserij is gemiddeld 0.2 zeedagen per jaar actief in het gebied en vangt daar voornamelijk Garnalen met een minieme bijvangst van Kabeljauw en Schar. Uit de surveys blijkt dat Schar, Schurftvis, Dwergtong, Schol, Wijting, Pitvis en Grauwe Poon de belangrijkste demersale soorten in het gebied zijn.