BirdLife Summary Report: How Offshore Wind Impacts Seabirds

In September 2021, BirdLife International published a Summary Report on the "Impact of offshore wind development on seabirds in the North Sea and Baltic Sea: Identification of data sources and at-risk species".

Offshore wind development is important on the path towards carbon neutrality. However, according to BirdLife's newest report, it also poses threats to marine wildlife, especially to already endangered seabird populations that could collide with wind turbines on their migration routes. An efficient offshore wind farm development can, for example, avoid critical habitats by identifying them through sensitivity maps. Marine spatial planning has to be based on solid and reliable data for seabird abundance and distribution in Europe's Northern Seas. Therefore, efforts must be made to gather currently scattered data sets and combine these into a centralised, open-access database. This in turn would allow a timely identification of data gaps and future research needs. Finally, the report stresses the importance of data-sharing and collaboration across borders.

This work has been carried out under OCEaN.

Download the full Summary Report here