Monitoring- and Evaluation Program Near Shore Wind farm (MEP-NSW): Fish community

In 2006, the first Dutch offshore wind farm was built 10-18 km from the shore of Egmond aan Zee by a joint venture of Nuon and Shell Windenergy. A Monitoring and Evaluation Program accompanied the plans for the construction and exploitation of this farm. The program contained plans for the monitoring and evaluation of potential ecological consequences in the Dutch coastal zone related to the wind farm and was divided in six topics, of which the topics on fish are presented in this report. Potential ecological consequences for fish were hypothesized to be linked to the introduction of new habitat, i.e. the monopiles and the scour protection surrounding them, disturbance by the operation of the wind farm (e.g. noise) and the exclusion of fisheries in the wind farm and its surrounding safety zone. To monitor and evaluate these hypothesized effects, five sub-projects performed focussing on different parts of the fish community, their spatial and temporal distribution and their behavioural aspects.