Abstract
A stationary camera system was used to study the small scale distribution of fish in the two offshore wind farms (OWF) Middelgrund and Lillgrund in Øresund Strait, between Denmark and Sweden. Fish distribution was examined at approximately 0, 25 and 50 m from the turbines. The study found that the fish fauna near the wind turbines was dominated by two-spotted gobies, Gobiusculus flavescens (Fabricius, 1779). There was a significant difference in numbers of fish for Lillgrund and Middelgrund OWF. At Lillgrund sediment was dominated of bare sand while Middelgrund had more heterogeneous sediment types with sand, boulder, pebbles and dense eelgrass areas. This suggests that OWF in areas with homogeneous sand sediment has a higher impact on the fish fauna compared to OWF in areas with heterogonous sediment. Furthermore, the effect of OWF on fish appears to be on a much smaller scale than previously thought.