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<oai_dc:dc xmlns:oai_dc="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/ http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc.xsd">
  <dc:title xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">2013-2014, Caloo Ecological Services, NRP, Buchan Deep, ESAS Seabird and Marine Mammal Surveys</dc:title>
  <dc:type xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">series</dc:type>
  <dc:identifier xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">https://portal.medin.org.uk/portal/start.php?tpc=015_86c7e8fa-dfd5-412f-ba71-58101c9296a0</dc:identifier>
  <dc:description xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">The Technical Report within this series is concerned with the environmental studies undertaken to inform the EIA and HRA
of seabirds and marine mammals for the proposed Hywind Scotland Pilot Park Project, a demonstration
floating offshore windfarm being progressed by Hywind Scotland Limited (HSL). The report presents
results for the one-year programme of boat-based baseline European Seabirds at Sea (ESAS) surveys
together with relevant context information on regularly occurring species.
? The Survey Area covers 170.5 km2 and comprises the original Exclusivity Area buffered to 3 km. This area is
covered by 23 parallel transects spaced 0.75 km apart and with a total length of 228 km. Surveys of all 23
transects took two days to complete, with alternate transects surveyed on one day and the other set of
alternates on the other day. This regime meant that on each survey day the whole Survey Area was
covered.
? The surveys were conducted following the ESAS method. This involves a team of two accredited surveyors
on board a survey vessel collecting data on all birds and marine mammals seen in a 300 m wider survey
corridor in a format that is suitable for distance sampling analysis.
? Two survey days of effort (i.e. surveying each transect once) were scheduled at monthly intervals from
June 2013 to May 2014. A total of 20 surveys (days) were undertaken over the year. Eight additional
surveys were undertaken between July and September 2014 using the same survey design and methods.
These surveys are reported separately (Caloo 2014c (Annex 3 to Technical Report) however the results are
used as additional evidence to characterise the ornithology of the Survey Area.
Statistical analyses of the seabird data were undertaken by Caloo Ecological Services. These analyses are
provided as Annexes to this Technical Report:
? Annex 1 - Caloo 2014a. Distance sampling analyses of year 1 ESAS survey results for the Hywind
Scotland Pilot Park;
? Annex 2 - Caloo 2014b. Collision risk modelling with respect to seabirds for the Hywind Scotland
Pilot Park;
? Annex 3 - Caloo 2014c. Distance sampling analyses of additional (July &#x2013; September 2014) ESAS
survey results for the Hywind Scotland Pilot Park.
In addition to the analyses presented in the above reports, Marine Scotland, SNH and JNCC requested some
alternative analyses of the survey data based on the breeding seasons specified by SNH / JNCC. These analyses
have been reported in the following standalone report:
? Caloo 2014d. Alternative density, abundance and collision risk mortality estimates based upon
breeding seasons as specified by SNH/JNCC for seabirds using the waters of the Buchan Deep off
the Aberdeenshire coast for the period June 2013 to May 2014 in support of the Hywind Scotland
Pilot Park project.
Substantial detail on data analysis and results is provided in these four reports, the essence of which is
presented throughout the EIA. Where relevant, cross-references to tables have been used to aid the reader&#x2019;s
interpretation of the assessment and underlying analytical output.</dc:description>
  <dc:date xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">20141201</dc:date>
</oai_dc:dc>