Evaluating the Effects of Offshore Pile Driving on Phocoena phocoena (Harbor Porpoises) by Using Passive Acoustic Monitoring

Abstract

The German offshore wind energy production will be largely expanded in the next years. As a test. the first offshore wind turbines in German waters were installed in 2009 at the “alpha ventus” wind farm site off the island of Borkum in the southern German Bight. The whole process is accompanied by environmental impact assessments (EIAs) covering all marine taxa and other relevant aspects such as noise emissions. A regulatory framework for conducting these investigations, the so-called StUK 3 (Bundesamt für Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie [BSH] 2007), is set by the permitting agency (BSH [Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency]). To evaluate whether these requirements are appropriate and lead to scientifically robust results, a comprehensive research study was conducted simultaneously at a larger scale and by using methods additional to the ones of the EIA studies. The aim of these investigations was to validate the existing requirements or improve methodologies and the scope of their use wherever appropriate.