Observation of flight patterns. Quantities as fluxes, flight altitudes and behaviour of flying birds have been taken into account.

Assessment of the Effects of the Offshore Wind Farm Egmond aan Zee (OWEZ) for Harbour PorpoisePurpose:"The aim of this study was to investigate whether the Offshore Wind farm Egmond aan Zee(OWEZ) has influenced the occurrence of harbour porpoises.In order to evaluate the environmental impacts of OWEZ, porpoise acoustic activity in thearea was monitored;1) during a baseline (T0) study 2003/2004 (Brasseur at al. 2004)2) after the construction of the wind farm (T1) from 2007 to 2009.The comparison between the T0 and the T1 was conducted to determine if and how harbour porpoise occurrence is affected by the presence of the wind farm. Harbour porpoise activity and presence was measured by acoustic monitoring of echolocationsounds at eight stations equipped with stationary acoustic porpoise detectors (T-PODs) whichwere permanently deployed and were operating on a 24 hour basis. During both the T0 and T1study the T-PODs functioned very well and provided a wealth ofdata. Four indicators of click activity (porpoise positive minutes, clicks per porpoise positive minutes, encounter duration and waiting time between encounters) were chosen for the analyses. These indicators can be related directly to porpoise occurrence and habitat use in the study area. To investigate a potential effect of the wind farm a statistical Before-After Control-Impact (BACI) design was used. Here conditions in the wind farm (impact area, T1) were compared to both the baseline conditions (T0) and to conditions in the nearby reference area.The acoustic results show a strong seasonal variation in harbour porpoise occurrence, with more recordings of animals in the autumn/winter/spring seasons compared to the summer months. This pattern was similar in both the T0 and in the T1 study.There was a general increase in harbour porpoise occurrence from T0 to T1 for all T-POD stations, which was confirmed by an increase in porpoise sightings in the Dutch coastal area. During T0, the spatial distribution of porpoises did not differ significantly between the impact area (wind farm) and the two reference areas north and south of the wind farm.The results of the BACI design showed that during the T1 porpoises showed a significant change in distribution between the reference areas and the impact area. A higher porpoise acoustic activity was recorded inside the wind farm relative to outside, which is most likely linked to an increase in local porpoise occurrence. Because of the introduction of new T-PODs to the study and the specific differences between individual T-PODs , the variation between these devices might have caused a higher variation in the resulting data. Thus, when interpreting the effects, one should take into account that the confidence interval of the results might be larger and that the true effect might be stronger or lower than the one reported here. However, this does not influence the overall conclusions.The cause behind the increase of porpoises in the farm could not be determined, but may be linked to increased food availability due to the reef effect of the turbine foundations and the exclusion of fishery from the wind farm. The increase of harbour porpoise acoustic activity inside the wind farm is in contrast to results from other offshore wind farms. This shows that results from one wind farm are not necessarily transferable or valid for other wind farms located in different areas."

Observation of many species in the benthic zone. Benthic communities on hard substrates of the offshore wind farm Egmond aan Zee (OWEZ). Including results of samples collected in scour holes.Benthos on turbines 7, 13 and 34See Report: OWEZ_R_266_T1_20120206_hard_substrate.

Field survey on juvenile bivalve densities October 2007Measurements made of density of chlorophyll, the velocity of the current and temperature.vessel: RV POSEIDON (IFM Geomar, Germany)sampling stations: 20 stations in OWEZ and 10 stations in each of the 5 reference areas R2, R3, R4, R5, RL (for geographic positions of stations see worksheet geographical positions stations)sampling design: 1 boxcore per stationsampling gear: NIOZ boxcorer, sampling depth 20 cm, sampling diameter 30 cmsample surface juvenile bivalves: 0.024 m2 (i.e. 3 sub-cores each with diameter 10 cm2 per boxcore)sample depth juvenile bivalves: 5 cmsorting procedure lab: stacked sieves 1.0, 0.5 and 0.2 mmfollowing worksheets describe: *number of identified juvenile bivalve species (> 0.5 mm) found per boxcore (0.024m2) and per m2Station,Date time,species,n bivalves > 0.5 mm per 0.024m2,n bivalves > 0.5 mm per m2

This study focuses on the behaviour of fish in response to the operation of the wind farm. Wind farms can have either negative or positive effects on fish, for instance by disturbance due to noise or by acting as a refuge because fisheries are banned within the wind farm. An important feature to determine if positive effects might occur is residence time. The longer individual fish spend in the wind farm, the stronger potential benefit of wind farms can be expected. To our knowledge this is the first study on individual behaviour of fish within wind farms. To study the potential effects of wind farms on fish behaviour, we used two approaches: tagging experiments using Peterson disc tags(mark-recapture) and telemetry experiments by following individual fish with small transmitters (VEMCO) in time. We selected two target fish species that are important for fisheries: sole Solea vulgaris as a target species potentially representing fish that use sand habitats and Atlantic cod Gadus morhua as a target species potentially representing fish that use artificial reefs such as the monopile and scour bed habitats in the wind farm. For the tagging experiment, sole was collected with a beam trawl and for the telemetry cod was caught using fising-rods.

Observation of species living on the bottem of the North Sea.Field survey on macrobenthos communities February 2011vessel: RV PELAGIA (NIOZ, TEXEL)sampling stations: 16 stations in OWEZ and 8 stations in each of the 6 reference areas R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6sampling design: 1 boxcore per stationsampling gear: NIOZ boxcorer, sampling depth 20 cm, sampling diameter 30 cmsorting procedure lab:nested sieves 11.2 mm, 6.7 mm, 2 mm, and 1 mm; identification species:macrofauna identified to species level under a stereomicroscope;polychaetes, crustaceans, molluscs and echinoderms identified to species level;juveniles and damaged animals, if unidentifiable, identified at higher taxonomic level (usually the genus); anthozoans, phoronids, oligocheates, nemerteans and turbellaria identified on their taxon level;further procedures:all individuals counted; Individual lengths (mm) of molluscs and echinoids measured;blotted wet weights of polychaetes, larger crustaceans, and ophiuroids measured to the nearest mg; remaining taxa determined per species/group. Small crustaceans (amphipods and cumaceans) only counted.

The main purpose of this sampling was to study the effects of the OWEZ windpark on the demersal fish community. Because before installation of the windfarm the main fisheries activity in the area was bottom trawling, it is expected that exclusion of fisheries in the wind farm has the largest effect on the demersal fish community. The wind farm and its safety zone could function as a refugium for these species. If the area functions as a refugium this could be the case for a large number of demersal fish species that occur in the Dutch coastal zone. Owing to this a positive effect of the wind farm on the demersal fish community was expected. The fisheries that occurred in the area targeted larger fish, therefore fisheries mortality was higher on the larger fish. By excluding fisheries in the farm it was expected to change the size distribution in the farm and by that the age distribution of the fish populations. A Hydrolab minisonde, attached to the net, was used for continuous CTD measurements.

OWEZ project, parts of the Northsea have been visited and seabirds along transects were counted. ESAS database

Het Offshore Windpark Egmond aan Zee (OWEZ) is het eerste offshore windpark dat in de Noordzee voor de Nederlandse kust is gebouwd. Het park bestaat uit 36 windmolens met ieder een vermogen van 3 MW. Samen leveren zij duurzame elektriciteit voor meer dan 100.000 huishoudens. Dat is vergelijkbaar met een stad als Eindhoven. De locatie van het park ligt 10 tot 18 kilometer uit de kust bij Egmond aan Zee. Het totale gebied van het park beslaat zo'n 27 km2. Bij helder weer is het park zichtbaar vanaf het strand. Onder de milieuvergunning [voor OWEZ] is een MEP voorgeschreven (MEP-vergunning). In het kader van het demonstratie karakter van het project is door het ministerie van Economische Zaken eveneens een MEP voorge schreven (MEP-NSW). Er bestaan dus in feite twee MEP's naast elkaar, met voor het ene Rijkswaterstaat Noordzee en voor het andere het ministerie van Economische Zaken als bevoegd gezag. Voor het MEP-NSW moet er gerapporteerd worden aan SenterNovem die hier namens het ministerie van EZ verantwoordelijk voor is. Rapportage over het MEP-vergunning gaat via het bevoegde gezag voor de Wm vergunning, zijnde RWS Noordzee. Doel van het MEP-vergunning is het monitoren van de milieueffecten, doel van het MEP-NSW is het leren door middel van kennisvergaring van het demonstratieproject OWEZ. Voor NZW is er in de praktijk 1 groot MEP wat beide doelen omvat. Doordat in beide MEP's verplichtingen staan en deze wat van elkaar afwijken en er verschillende ministeries bevoegd zijn is het voor de betrokkenen en voor de buitenwereld tot een minder overzichtelijk geheel geworden. Aanbevolen wordt voor de volgende offshore parken de structuur dusdanig op te zetten dat er slechts 1 MEP wordt gevraagd door de overheid en dat er 1 bevoegd gezag is voor dit MEP. Uiteraard zal ook lering moeten worden getrokken uit de inhoudelijke resultaten van het MEP-NSW in zoverre dat er in de toekomst nog slechts dat onderzoek wordt gevraagd dat voor de besluitvorming rond wind op zee relevant is. Datgene wat voldoende onderzocht is in het MEP-NSW of andere programma's en waarover generieke uitspraken kunnen worden gedaan hoeft niet nog eens onderzocht te worden. Het onderzoeksbudget kan zich dan concentreren op de leemten in kennis, locatiespecifieke punten en wellicht uit het MEP-NSW voortvloeiende knelpunten. Dit betekent dat de MEP voorschriften moeten mee ontwikkelen met de beschikbaar komende kennis uit binnen- en buitenland. Ook blijkt in de praktijk dat een MEP beter hanteerbaar is als het bestaat uit doelvoorschriften, waarbij het doel wordt voorgeschreven in plaats van het middel. Doelvoorschriften maken implementeren van resultaten uit ander werk ook beter mogelijk waarmee dubbel werk kan worden voorkomen.(citaat uit bron: http://www.noordzeewind.nl/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/OWEZ_R_192_20070820_vergunningen.pdf)

Movement of individual Seals followed by Telemetry