Abstract
Rhyl Flats Offshore Wind Farm is located approximately 4 miles off the North Wales coastline within the Liverpool Bay between Towyn and Rhôs-on-Sea. Construction of the 30 2MW wind turbine array is scheduled to begin during late summer 2006 and continue through to the following year. The development should enter its post-construction phase in 2008.
A beam trawl survey was undertaken during September 2005 by the Centre for Marine and Coastal Studies (CMACS Ltd), during the pre-construction phase of the project, to provide information concerning the benthic populations in and around the development area as part of the 2005 baseline program (see Fig. 1 for site locations). Survey sites were located within the planned turbine array, in the near-field area adjacent and to the south east. Several sites were also chosen to the west, south west, south and along the planned cable route. These surveys will be repeated annually as part of the proposed monitoring required to comply with the conditions of the Food and Environmental Protection Act (FEPA) 1985: Part II (as amended) issued to ‘npower renewables offshore Ltd’ for the Rhyl Flats Offshore Wind Farm and dated the 5th February 2004. As wind farm construction is scheduled over the summer months, future monitoring will commence in September to coincide with the completion of construction.
This survey report details the preliminary results obtained during the September 2005 beam trawl survey and identifies the main faunal populations in and around the wind farm array in terms of species identification and the number of demersal fish and epibenthic invertebrates present. Further analytical interpretation and discussion of these results will be presented within the forthcoming monitoring report.