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News from the IWDG Consulting Team

All the latest news from IWDG Consulting

23rd June 2023 By Simon Berrow

Successful SAM deployment and recovery at proposed offshore windfarms

IWDG Consulting have just successfully recovered the first SAM deployment at two proposed offshore windfarms in the Irish and Celtic Seas. Static Acoustic Monitoring (SAM) is a method of gaining fine scale data on occurrence and habitat use by odontocetes, especially harbour porpoise which can be difficult to survey visually.

SAM can be a challenging techniques especially off Ireland’s east coast as tides are very strong and techniques to deploy, and recovery are paramount.  Through working with fishers who are skilled at these techniques at sea, IWDG Consulting trialled a new system over the last few months which, with some tweaking, proved very successful.

Dr Simon Berrow CEO of the IWDG said “this is very encouraging, given the requirements for offshore wind to obtain acoustic data, not only from dolphins and porpoises but to record ambient noise. If these wind turbines will be operating in a naturally noisy environment caused by strong tides and movement of benthic substrates, the impact of increased noise levels associated with turbine operation will be less than in a quieter environment.”.

This is the the third SAM contract IWDG Consulting have won from the offshore wind industry. The IWDG have recommended that SAM should be collected as part of site investigations to identify and avoid important foraging areas, and to be used two years prior to construction starting and during operation to ensure any displacement that may occur is temporary and activity returns to at least its pre-construction levels, or possibly increase through artificial reef effects.

Recent studies using SAM has shown that bottlenose dolphins and harbour porpoises were not excluded from sites in the vicinity of impact piling or vibration piling; nevertheless, some small effects were detected. Bottlenose dolphins spent a reduced period of time in the vicinity of construction works during both impact and vibration piling. The probability of occurrence of both cetacean species was also slightly less during periods of vibration piling (https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ecs2.1793).

Recently a study showed that wind turbine installation using gravity-base foundations had no long-term effects on the occurrence of dolphins or porpoise and may represent an offshore construction methodology that is less impactful to dolphins and harbour porpoise than impact pile-driven turbine installation methods (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00227-023-04240-1).

IWDG is committed to working with the offshore wind companies to not only ensure impacts from the rollout of offshore wind is minimal but all the opportunities to enhance biodiversity and support restoration projects is fully exploited.

Filed Under: IWDG Consulting News

16th May 2022 By Simon Berrow

IWDG Consulting very active in the Shannon Estuary

The Shannon Estuary is a busy waterway and has a very high nature conservation value.

Over the last two years the level of increase in the estuary, especially its deep-water berths and potential to support the developing offshore renewable industries, has been massive. Both the ESB at Moneypoint through their Green Atlantic Hub and Shannon-Foynes Port Company have promoted their strategic importance along the western seaboard of Ireland. When you also consider the proposal to build a Shannon Technology and Energy Park at Ardmore Point, Co Kerry including an LNG terminal, there is a lot of pressure on the estuary.

The IWDG have been monitoring the Shannon dolphin population since 1993, making it one of the longest running dolphin monitoring projects in Europe. With such an intimate knowledge of the estuary and a long-term dataset, IWDG Consulting are uniquely placed to input into environmental assessment and interpretation and “represent” the dolphins interests.

IWDG Consulting are currently contracted to a number of projects in the estuary and are carrying out regular boat based marine mammal and seabird surveys, static acoustic monitoring and Vantage point surveys. we thank the ESB, New Fortress Energy, Natural Power and GDG for contracting IWDG Consulting to provide this input into the future of the Shannon Estuary.

 

Filed Under: IWDG Consulting News

30th July 2021 By Simon Berrow

IWDG Consulting busy with NPWS surveys

IWDG Consulting won both tenders issued by the National Parks and Wildlife Service this year for monitoring dolphins and porpoise in Special Areas of Conservation (SAC). One was for Harbour Porpoises surveys in the Rockabill to Dalkey Island SAC off the east coast and one for bottlenose dolphin mark-recapture abundance estimate in the West Connacht Coast SAC. The latter is the first attempt to deliver a consistent and repeatable survey design with outputs sufficient for reporting.

IWDG Consulting have delivered all harbour porpoise SAC surveys for the NPWs since 2007 and this will be our third survey of the Rockabill to Dalkey Island SAC. It will be interesting to see if densities are consistent with previous surveys. The West Connacht Coast SAC monitoring contract is more challenging as surveys need to be carried out from two ports simultaneously with two teams of surveyors. A challenge IWDG Consulting is well up for

These surveys are required as part of the governments reporting obligations to Europe and typically occur every 3 years in each SAC.

Sibéal Regan photographing bottlenose dolphins in the West Connacht Coast SAC©Simon Berrow/IWDG

Filed Under: IWDG Consulting News

15th April 2021 By Simon Berrow

IWDG Consulting work on AFLOWT at the Atlantic Marine Energy Test site

IWDG Consulting are carrying out marine mammal monitoring as part of the AFLOWT project funded by SEAI. The project hopes to deploy a full-scale Floating Offshore Wind Device in 2023, subject to planning and environmental assessment.

We are carrying out Static Acoustic Monitoring at Berths A and B and photo-id of bottlenose dolphins. We took the opportunity this week to produce a short video explaining the work

https://vimeo.com/537451739/08e2f30c11

Photographing bottlenose dolphins for photo-id off the Mullet peninsular, Co Mayo

Filed Under: IWDG Consulting News

15th March 2021 By Simon Berrow

IWDG to provide MMO on Marine institute Fisheries Surveys

The IWDG are pleased to have won the tender to provide a marine mammal observer on three fisheries acoustic surveys this year. The surveys include Blue Whiting in March 2021, WESPAS during June and July and the Celtic Sea Herring Acoustic Survey in October. These surveys are annual stock assessment surveys and cover a huge area of the Irish EEZ. Data on higher trophic predators such as marine mammals and seabirds are essential to provide the data to support the development n Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management.

Experienced offshore surveyor Dr Justin Judge will be joining each cruise to record all sightings of whales and dolphins and other interesting Endangered, Threatened and Protected (ETP) species as well as recording the vessels track and environmental conditions.

The IWDG started these offshore surveys onboard RV Celtic Explorer in 2014 when Dave Wall built the dataset to publish the first Offshore Atlas of MarinE Mammal Distribution (https://iwdg.ie/product/iwdg-offshore-atlas/). In recent years the Marine Institute have contracted other service providers so we are delighted to be back onboard.

A Cruise Blog is typical of these surveys and we will post a link once one is underway.

Justin Judge, IWDG MMO on this seasons Marine institute Fisheries Acoustic Surveys

Filed Under: IWDG Consulting News

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IWDG Consulting is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group

The IWDG is a charity registered in Ireland (CHY 11163)
All proceeds from IWDG Consulting projects contribute directly to the Group's cetacean conservation work


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