FLOWBEC (Flow and Benthic Ecology 4D) is a National Oceanography Centre (NOC)-led project that brings together a consortium of UK researchers to investigate the effects of devices that harness tide and wave energy by monitoring environment and wildlife behavior at various test sites. The researchers have combined two state-of-the-art sonar systems on a seabed frame placed within 25-meters of a tidal turbine structure. This monitors fish and diving seabirds that pass through or feed within the location; in particular, the study is assessing how fish and seabirds interact with the installation.
For the first time these sonars - which are normally mounted on a ship as separate units looking down at the seabed - have been adapted to operate autonomously in combination for several weeks, while facing upwards. Collecting the data in this way allows imaging of a full `acoustic curtain’ along the tidal flow and around the turbine in a highly challenging environment.
The researchers are working together to identify the wildlife and their behavior detected by the monitoring systems. They will investigate how the various species choose to use areas of the water column with different physical characteristics, and how the surrounding environment is affected by the presence of this renewable energy structure. By understanding behavioral preferences, they hope to be able to understand how changes to water flow and turbulence introduced might affect the various types of marine wildlife and identify their interaction with tidal technology.
“After detailed analysis these data will determine how mobile animals, such as seabirds and their fish prey, behave around marine renewable devices over an entire fortnightly tidal cycle – as the instruments successfully ‘pinged’ away and collected data for every second of that two-week period. This research will help to determine the actual risk of collision between marine animals and turbines and will allow governmental marine spatial planners a step change in the level of certainty about where to allow renewable developments,” said Dr Beth Scott, Senior Lecturer in Marine Ecology at the University of Aberdeen.
