Abstract
This study aims to provide an overview of the general impacts of the development of offshore renewables (OR) on fisheries in European sea basins. Furthermore, it highlights pathways for possible co-existence solutions for both sectors, a description of good practice examples and lessons learnt, research gaps, and policy recommendations.
The research focusses on an in-depth spatial overlap analysis between the present-day fishing effort by fleet and the current and future spatial expansion of OR in European seas based on Automatic Identification System (AIS) and Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) data. Further, we defined the concepts of co-existence, co-location and co-operation, and subsequently synthesised the lessons learnt from representative cases from the UK, Denmark, Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands. A standardised literature review allowed us to summarise the current knowledge on the impacts of OR on fisheries and to identify respective knowledge gaps.
This study has been prepared during the period June to August 2020 by the Thünen Institute of Sea Fisheries, Germany, on the basis of desk research consisting of a compilation and analysis of existing data, and a literature review.