Abstract
The Welsh marine environment is an important national asset, home to a diverse range of habitats and species of national and international importance. The waters around Wales’ 1,200 km of coastline also contain a rich renewable energy resource with up to 6 GW of generating capacity for wave and tidal stream energy. Wales is well positioned to play a globally leading role in these industries.
To capitalise on this opportunity, it is important that wave and tidal energy develops in a way that is both economically feasible and environmentally sustainable. This requires an appropriate level of understanding of how marine renewable energy projects interact with marine animals and habitats. To date there is a limited number of consented marine renewable energy developments and as such our understanding of these interactions is largely based on learning from single device deployments, small arrays, strategic research projects, and data transferred from other sectors (offshore wind, aquaculture, oil and gas etc).
A series of technical, topic specific Information Notes has been co-produced by a Science and Evidence Advisory Group to provide a shared understanding of how the best available science and evidence is currently applied to key consenting issues. The following topics are included in the Information Note series:
1. Collision risk for animals around turbines;
2. Risk to marine animals from underwater noise;
4. Changes in benthic and pelagic habitats;
5. Changes in oceanographic systems;
6. Encounters of marine animals with mooring systems and subsea cables;