Abstract
This report summarizes the efforts of the environmental pre-investigations for the North Sea Energy Island related to the species group bats. The report describes pre-existing information about bats in the North Sea area and presents the results of the bat field program executed as part of the pre-investigations. The fieldwork and data analysis were conducted by Aarhus University. The report was authored and peer-reviewed by Aarhus University, and quality assured by both Aarhus University (DCE) and NIRAS. NIRAS gave final approval of the report before it was submitted to Energinet. Energinet drafted the introductory passus of the introduction and aim chapter and has commented on a first and second draft of the report.
The purpose of the bat field program was to provide and interpret data and present existing information on bat occurrence and activity in the pre-investigation area. The study design included two surveys in fall 2022 and spring 2023, respectively, each based on 8 passive acoustic monitoring stations installed and deployed on buoys in and around the pre-investigation area.
No bats were detected during the two surveys, indicating little to no bat activity in the pre-investigation area during the monitoring periods and within the space effectively monitored.
As there is no pre-existing baseline information about bats for the pre-investigation area for the North Sea Energy Island and only sporadic baseline information about bats at Danish latitudes of the North Sea in general, follow-up investigations are advisable to document if there are occasional occurrences of bats in the area and whether the absence of bats indicated by the field program here is consistent over time.