Base line studies North Sea wind farms: strategy of approach for pelagic fish

Abstract

The Dutch Government has decided to allow the construction of a Near Shore Wind Farm (NSW) demonstration project under the condition that a monitoring programme on - among other things - the ecological impacts is carried out. The Dutch government is responsible for providing a thorough description of the ecological reference situation in order to evaluate future effects of planned wind farms. This report describes the detailed plan of approach to establish the occurrence, density, population structure and migration patterns of pelagic fish fauna in the Dutch coastal zone. Sampling sites have been selected such that they cover the planned location of the Near Shore Wind Farm, cover reference sites and provide representative data of the pelagic fish community in the Dutch coastal zone