Abstract
Concerns about the potential effects of marine renewable energy (MRE) devices on marine animals, habitats, and the environment continue to slow siting and consenting of devices worldwide. Such concerns are often fueled by scientific uncertainty around these environmental interactions, which leads to heightened perceptions of risk. By increasing our understanding of these risks, the MRE industry can begin to move forward and certain risks may be “retired.” Under the Ocean Energy Systems (OES) Environmental task, a pathway to retiring risk has been developed that helps determine which interactions of MRE devices and the marine environment are low risk and may be “retired”, and which may need further data collection or mitigation applied to deduce the risks to an acceptable level. Sufficient data are needed to retire risk; transferring data and information from early consented projects can assist regulators in their determinations. If data from baseline assessments and post-installation monitoring programs are collected consistently, the results can be evaluated and applied to increase understanding of the environmental effects, supporting more efficient consenting processes and reducing scientific uncertainty. OES-Environmental has developed a data transferability process that can provide a robust assessment of monitoring data and make those data readily accessible to assist regulators and others in these determinations.