The risk of collision between marine animals (e.g., marine mammals, pelagic fish) and underwater marine energy turbines continues to be the main concern for permitting marine energy projects and for many stakeholders with interest in a project area because of the potential harm a collision could cause to individual animals and their populations. The Marine Energy Adventure: Collision Risk game below highlights the different stages of collision risk at various spatial scales for marine animals and aims to increase the understanding of collision risk of marine animals with underwater tidal or riverine turbines.
Several terms related to collision risk are used in the tool:
- Encounter: when an animal is in the proximity of a tidal turbine (= nearfield), at about 1-5 turbine diameters (approximately 8-40 meters).
- Avoidance: behavior of an animals actively responding to and moving away from a turbine at a distance greater than 5 turbine diameters (approximately 40 meters).
- Evasion: when an animal changes its behavior to escape contact with a turbine within 5 turbine diameters (approximately 40 meters).
- Collision: when an animal contacts with the moving parts (often a blade) of a turbine