Abstract
This report has been complied by BirdLife Europe & Central Asia to address the availability and accessibility of environmental data, focusing on a review and summary of seabird data sources in the North Sea and Baltic Sea.
Aims and Objectives
The aim of this work is to identify available environmental data, experts, and current research on seabirds at-sea and their interactions with offshore wind farms. These resources will be compiled into a database, that directs users to spatial and temporal data on the distribution and abundance of seabirds to support the development of marine spatial plans in the North Sea and Baltic Sea.
This work has four main objectives:
- Identify available data sources for seabird distribution and abundance for the North Sea and Baltic Sea, with particular focus on data sets held by BirdLife partners, that may not be accessible to the broader public
- Review current knowledge of so called “high-risk species” of seabirds and identify the criteria needed to assess the sensitivity of seabirds to offshore wind farms
- Identify existing survey methods and technologies for the collection of data on seabirds at-sea and consult with experts on the best practise, methods, and relative ability of different survey techniques to also collect data for sensitivity mapping
- Identify data gaps and focal areas for future studies