In preparation for the 2024 State of the Science Report on environmental effects of marine renewable energy, OES-Environmental organized an expert forum on 26 September 2023 gathering subject matter experts online to collect feedback and move forward on the pathway to risk retirement for collision risk of marine animals with tidal and river turbines.
This expert forum included a presentation from OES-Environmental, which outlined what collision risk is, defined key terms (encounter, avoidance, evasion, and collision), and provided the latest research on the stressor since 2020. Following the presentation, two breakout groups were formed to address: (1) collision risk for seabirds and marine mammals, and (2) collision risk for fish. There were 12 participants in the seabirds and marine mammals group and 13 participants in the fish group, making up a total of 25 attendees. Google Jamboards were used to provide the discussion questions, and record comments and questions from the participants. The expert forum built off the 2020 State of the Science Chapter 3 on Collision Risk for Animals around Turbines and was invitation-only.