Gardline Environmental Limited (GEL) has congratulated Forewind in gaining consent from Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) for Dogger Bank Creyke Beck, the first phase offshore wind energy development in the Dogger Bank Zone. It is the largest offshore wind project to win consent to date anywhere in the world.
GEL’s Marine Wildlife Department played a key role in the consenting process by conducting boat-based ornithological and marine mammal surveys over a 30 month period from January 2010, carrying out monthly surveys across the whole site.
The surveys were performed on board the M.V. Vigilant by GEL’s European Seabirds at Sea (ESAS) accredited seabird surveyors following COWRIE methodology, with some surveys spending up to 28 days on site. In total over 46,000km of survey lines were completed for what is the world’s largest seabird study ever undertaken for an offshore wind project.
In addition to seabird surveys, GEL also conducted environmental and metocean surveys, with bathymetric surveys carried out by Gardline Hydro.
Image: Gardline