Fishing within offshore wind farms in the North Sea: Stakeholder perspectives for multi-use from Scotland and Germany

Maximilian Felix Schupp; Andronikos Kafas; Bela H. Buck; Gesche Krause; Vincent Onyango; Vanessa Stelzenmüller; Ian Davies; Beth E. Scott

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.111762

Fishing within offshore wind farms in the North Sea: Stakeholder perspectives for multi-use from Scotland and Germany

Maximilian Felix Schupp^*
, Andronikos Kafas
, Bela H. Buck
, Gesche Krause
, Vincent Onyango
, Vanessa Stelzenmüller
, Ian Davies
, Beth E. Scott

^*Corresponding author for this work

Alfred Wegener Institute - Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research
University of Dundee
University of Applied Sciences Bremerhaven
Thünen-Institute of Sea Fisheries
Marine Scotland

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

87 Citations (Scopus)

30 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Offshore wind power generation requires large areas of sea to accommodate its activities, with increasing claims for exclusive access. As a result, pressure is placed on other established maritime uses, such as commercial fisheries. The latter sector has often been taking a back seat in the thrust to move energy production offshore, thus leading to disagreements and conflicts among the different stakeholder groups. In recognition of the latter, there has been a growing international interest in exploring the combination of multiple maritime activities in the same area (multi-use; MU), including the re-instatement of fishing activities within, or in close proximity to, offshore wind farms (OWFs). We summarise local stakeholder perspectives from two sub-national case studies (East coast of Scotland and Germany's North Sea EEZ) to scope the feasibility of combining multiple uses of the sea, such as offshore wind farms and commercial fisheries. We combined a desk-based review with 15 semi-structured qualitative interviews with key knowledge holders from both industries, regulators, and academia to aggregate key results. Drivers, barriers and resulting effects (positive and negative) for potential multi-use of fisheries and OWFs are listed and ranked (57 factors in total). Factors are of economic, social, policy, legal, and technical nature. To date, in both case study areas, the offshore wind industry has shown little interest in multi-use solutions, unless clear added value is demonstrated and no risks to their operations are involved. In contrast, the commercial fishing sector is proactive towards multi-use projects and acts as a driving force for MU developments. We provide a range of management recommendations, based on stakeholder input, to support progress towards robust decision making in relation to multi-use solutions, including required policy and regulatory framework improvements, good practice guidance, empirical studies, capacity building of stakeholders and improvements of the consultation process. Our findings represent a comprehensive depiction of the current state and key stakeholder aspirations for multi-use solutions combining fisheries and OWFs. We believe that the pathways towards robust decision making in relation to multi-use solutions suggested here are transferable to other international locations.

Original language	English
Article number	111762
Number of pages	10
Journal	Journal of Environmental Management
Volume	279
Early online date	17 Dec 2020
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.111762
Publication status	Published - 1 Feb 2021

Bibliographical note

Fundings:
Financial support for the conduct of the research, collection and analysis of data, as well as preparation of the article has been received by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, under the MUSES project grant agreement No 727451. The authors would like to thank all stakeholder participants involved in the research and all project partners involved in the MUSES project. We acknowledge support by the Open Access Publication Funds of Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung.

Funding

Financial support for the conduct of the research, collection and analysis of data, as well as preparation of the article has been received by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme , under the MUSES project grant agreement No 727451 . The authors would like to thank all stakeholder participants involved in the research and all project partners involved in the MUSES project. We acknowledge support by the Open Access Publication Funds of Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung . MU policies within the CS areas are distinctly divergent. The UK and Scottish policy regimes (UK Parliament, 2011; Scottish Government, 2015b, Marine (Scotland) Act 2010, UK Electricity Act 2004) support commercial fishing activities within Scottish offshore wind farms (both offshore development areas and along the offshore export cable corridor). During the construction phase, a safety zone of 500 m around major construction vessels excluding fishing is put in place on a ?rolling? basis (covering only those areas of the total site in which such activities are physically taking place at a given time). During operation, installed infrastructure can be protected by safety zones of 50 m around fixed structures (or an appropriate size to incorporate its full size). Under these conditions, it is often assumed that fishing activities can resume to some degree. However, the ultimate decision to fish within an operational wind farm is down to the individual vessel skippers, who have been reported to avoid resuming fishing operations within constructed UK OWFs (Gray et al., 2016).Financial support for the conduct of the research, collection and analysis of data, as well as preparation of the article has been received by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, under the MUSES project grant agreement No 727451. The authors would like to thank all stakeholder participants involved in the research and all project partners involved in the MUSES project. We acknowledge support by the Open Access Publication Funds of Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum f?r Polar- und Meeresforschung.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 14 Life Below Water

Keywords

Co-existence
Co-management
Commercial fisheries
Marine spatial planning
Offshore wind
Stakeholders

Access to Document

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Schupp_etal_Fishing_within_offshore_VOR
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Cite this

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abstract = "Offshore wind power generation requires large areas of sea to accommodate its activities, with increasing claims for exclusive access. As a result, pressure is placed on other established maritime uses, such as commercial fisheries. The latter sector has often been taking a back seat in the thrust to move energy production offshore, thus leading to disagreements and conflicts among the different stakeholder groups. In recognition of the latter, there has been a growing international interest in exploring the combination of multiple maritime activities in the same area (multi-use; MU), including the re-instatement of fishing activities within, or in close proximity to, offshore wind farms (OWFs). We summarise local stakeholder perspectives from two sub-national case studies (East coast of Scotland and Germany's North Sea EEZ) to scope the feasibility of combining multiple uses of the sea, such as offshore wind farms and commercial fisheries. We combined a desk-based review with 15 semi-structured qualitative interviews with key knowledge holders from both industries, regulators, and academia to aggregate key results. Drivers, barriers and resulting effects (positive and negative) for potential multi-use of fisheries and OWFs are listed and ranked (57 factors in total). Factors are of economic, social, policy, legal, and technical nature. To date, in both case study areas, the offshore wind industry has shown little interest in multi-use solutions, unless clear added value is demonstrated and no risks to their operations are involved. In contrast, the commercial fishing sector is proactive towards multi-use projects and acts as a driving force for MU developments. We provide a range of management recommendations, based on stakeholder input, to support progress towards robust decision making in relation to multi-use solutions, including required policy and regulatory framework improvements, good practice guidance, empirical studies, capacity building of stakeholders and improvements of the consultation process. Our findings represent a comprehensive depiction of the current state and key stakeholder aspirations for multi-use solutions combining fisheries and OWFs. We believe that the pathways towards robust decision making in relation to multi-use solutions suggested here are transferable to other international locations.",

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note = "Fundings: Financial support for the conduct of the research, collection and analysis of data, as well as preparation of the article has been received by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, under the MUSES project grant agreement No 727451. The authors would like to thank all stakeholder participants involved in the research and all project partners involved in the MUSES project. We acknowledge support by the Open Access Publication Funds of Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Polar- und Meeresforschung. ",

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AU - Scott, Beth E.

N1 - Fundings: Financial support for the conduct of the research, collection and analysis of data, as well as preparation of the article has been received by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, under the MUSES project grant agreement No 727451. The authors would like to thank all stakeholder participants involved in the research and all project partners involved in the MUSES project. We acknowledge support by the Open Access Publication Funds of Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung.

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Fishing within offshore wind farms in the North Sea: Stakeholder perspectives for multi-use from Scotland and Germany

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

Access to Document

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