Abstract
In order to support the expansion of offshore wind in the UK and meet the Government’s Net Zero targets as well working towards addressing the biodiversity and climate crises it is essential to reduce uncertainty around the potential impacts of offshore wind. The Offshore Wind Evidence and Change programme (OWEC) has provided funding to address the consent risk for Offshore Wind (OW). The most recent leasing rounds for OW will increase the likelihood of overlap with species that have not been a focus of impact assessments in the past. Procellariforms, specifically Manx shearwater, European storm-petrel and Leach’s storm-petrel have not been a common species of concern for OW in the UK, but this is likely to change with Round 4, ScotWind and floating wind developments. The possible impact pathways between these species and OW are poorly understood and the purpose of the Procellariform Behaviour and demographics project (hereafter ProcBe) is to improve understanding and reduce uncertainty around some of these potential impact pathways. One of the work packages, work package 3 (hereafter WP3), is being led by the JNCC and is seeking to improve understanding of shearwater and storm-petrel flight heights, including in adverse weather conditions. Current estimates of flight height are mainly produced using boat-based observations and Digital Aerial Surveys (DAS). Although these have the potential to provide good estimates they cannot collect data in adverse weather conditions, such as high winds and sea states due to restrictions on methodologies (European Seabirds at Sea, ESAS) and it is expected that seabirds, particularly, will display different flight behaviour in such conditions.
Novel technologies for collecting flight height data are becoming more common, methods such as radar, LiDAR and laser rangefinders. WP3 of ProcBe will make use of one of these technologies, laser rangefinders (LRFs), to try and collect data from land and at-sea in a wide range of weather conditions. To inform data collection a literature review was undertaken in addition to conversations with a range of experts in the use of LRFs. The results of the review and discussions were used to inform the design of both a trial and calibration exercise to explore the precision and accuracy of the LRFs and field-based data collection. Data collection locations were selected through expert advice, proximity to breeding colonies and based on the availability of, or access to vessels that would run in adverse weather conditions (ferries and small boats which would be available to hire).