Germany: Aquacultures among Offshore Wind Farms Create Complex Legal Situation

A research group from the Faculty of Law at the University of Rostock, led by Professor Detlef Czybulka, is advising the Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven on legal matters. It is a joint project on new territory ‒ development of fish breeding facilities.

In Bremerhaven, scientists have been developing offshore aquaculture technology for more than ten years. Behind this concept, there are different projects and methods that will allow the best use of the convenient offshore wind turbines in the North Sea, not only as a wind farm, but as a place to commercially breed and raise fish, shellfish and algae among the standing legs of wind turbines in sea depths.

“There is currently no legal experience for such a project,” says Arkadiusz Mochtak, Rostock legal scholar. The challenge for Rostock lawyers is in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the North Sea, where there are several overlapping jurisdictions that bring the international, European and national law under one umbrella.

In the latest cooperative project “Offshore-Site-Selection”, a research team, led by AWI offshore expert Professor Bela H. Buck, examined the best locations and species for breeding.

Prof. Buck and his team have created a candidate list and described how warm, salty and rich in nutrients the water must be to successfully accommodate each type of fish, shellfish or seaweed from the list.

Scientists at the Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institute subsequently compared these indicators with buoy measurement data from the German Bight and then created a map that shows what types are the most suitable for which planned or already constructed wind power location in the EEZ in the North Sea.

According to this information, the AWI team has set up a test system with ten large basins, in which they will soon commence a unique laboratory experiment.

“There are very different responsibilities for legal issues about offshore facilities. Therefore, it must now first be clarified to whom will the potential aquaculture operators turn to and which applications will they need in case they want to open a fish or a shellfish farm at a wind farm,” Prof. Bela H. Buck outlines the challenges.

“By 2015 we will have resolved all legal conditions and requirements so that then the economics of mariculture in the EEZ of the North Sea can be assessed,” said Arkadiusz Mochtak.

“We are concerned whether operators of wind turbines in the relatively small space in the North Sea can be encouraged to undergo a multi-functional use of the facilities,” Mochtak identifies a key problem.

“Harmful effects on the marine environment must be kept as low as possible,” Professor Czybulka clarifies. “It’s not just that the facilities need to be close to a “zero-emission“ target, but that the risks to biodiversity, such as involuntary redundancies, must be minimized.”

[mappress]

Offshore WIND Staff, March 4, 2013; Image: DONG Energy