What Offshore Wind Power Can Educate Us About Seabirds

Seabirds spend a lot of their lives far offshore within the huge ocean, making them laborious to check. This hole in information may be beginning to change, nevertheless, now that we have to perceive how offshore wind vitality might influence birds earlier than and after building. Audubon has lengthy advocated for responsibly sited renewable vitality, and luckily information from land-based wind farms inform us that wind generators could be correctly sited and operated in ways in which keep away from, decrease, and mitigate chicken impacts. Now, to satisfy the nation’s immense wants for vitality capability and infrastructure, consideration is shifting from land to the ocean as a go-to place to generate this renewable energy supply.

Audubon’s Survival by Levels report reveals that greater than 350 North American chicken species are susceptible to extinction resulting from local weather change. Transitioning to renewable vitality sources would sluggish the present charge of worldwide temperature rise and avert the worst disaster for birds and other people. However correct analysis is required to make sure that offshore wind energy tasks don’t hurt seabird populations by way of displacement or lack of habitat, barrier results that reroute migratory actions, or direct damage by way of collision.

We’re about to be taught loads about seabird conduct, because of the monitoring research required for offshore wind vitality improvement. For instance, we’re already discovering the peak at which birds fly over the ocean, in addition to the components that affect the assorted heights they use for migration and foraging. Flight peak is a key bit of data for siting offshore wind as a result of it will probably inform us the danger birds face as they move the rotor-swept zone (RSZ) of wind turbine mills.  

Offshore wind vitality can also be prompting researchers to check different aspects within the existence of seabirds. For instance, it seems that not all seabirds be taught to keep away from offshore wind farms—some species are literally drawn to them to perch and feed. Analysis from all over the world signifies that seabirds are both topic to displacement round, attraction to, or impartial affiliation with offshore wind improvement. Wind farms may cause some species of gulls and terns to deviate greater than a mile out of their option to keep away from the buildings. For loons, this displacement distance can attain seven miles.

Monitoring research will assist us be taught what triggers avoidance conduct and inform us much more about avian migration within the close to future. Satellite tv for pc tags, implanted or connected radio units, acoustic monitoring, and even radar methods and thermal imaging are a few of the instruments we’ll be listening to about in years to return. As we be taught extra about seabird species, Audubon will proceed to help wind vitality that avoids, minimizes, and mitigates impacts on birds and the locations they want. 

This week, Hog Island Audubon Camp hosted a Making Fowl Connections lecture about birds and wind vitality with Seabird Institute’s Dr. Don Lyons and Audubon’s VP of Water Conservation Julie Hill-Gabriel. Go to Renewable Power and Birds to be taught extra about Audubon’s method to renewable vitality.