c3e87ec731f82faa50718ba5cde96eec eng series The Crown Estate Marine Data Advisor +44 020 7851 5000 The Crown Estate 1 St James's Market London SW1Y4AH mde@thecrownestate.co.uk https://www.marinedataexchange.co.uk/ pointOfContact 2022-06-20 MEDIN Discovery metadata standard 2.3.8 urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::23031 2010-2011, APEM Ltd., London Array, Aerial Bird Surveys 2011-10-07 publication 2011-10-07 creation 2011-10-07 revision MDE-77-3610 This report summarises the findings of the winter 2010/11 pre-construction aerial surveys of the proposed London Array Ltd. offshore wind farm site, and associated control zones, for birds and marine mammals. The aerial surveys are designed to meet the requirements of the Food and Environment Protection Act (FEPA) 1985 licence granted in respect of the wind farm, and to satisfy the wider Ornithological Review Panel (ORP) process. Pre-construction monitoring for Phase I development in order to satisfy FEPA licence conditions constitutes aerial survey of the London Array Offshore Wind Farm (OWF) site, plus survey of a control zone. Surveys designed to fulfil the ORP process cover further control zones. The aim of this project was to provide information about the response of and risks to bird species (predominantly but not exclusively red-throated diver Gavia stellata), arising from the construction and operation of the wind farm. The red-throated diver is listed under Annex I of the EU Birds Directive (79/409/EEC) as being a rare or vulnerable species, meaning that EU member states are obligated to identify and designate key areas of habitat used by the species as Special Protection Areas (SPAs). Sites supporting 1% or more of the Great Britain population of an Annex I species are automatically considered for SPA designation (Stroud et al., 2001). The defined objectives of the project were to: 1. Provide pre-construction baseline surveys of the London Array Offshore Wind Farm (OWF) site before wind farm construction commences; 2. Provide pre-construction baseline surveys of control zones for the OWF site; 3. Describe temporal and spatial variation in bird numbers across the OWF and control sites; 4. Produce population estimates, with a given level of precision, for birds across the OWF and control sites; 5. Produce updated estimates of red-throated diver abundance and distribution within the OWF and control sites, with respect to the Special Protection Area (SPA) in the Outer Thames Estuary; 6. Report on flight heights and direction of birds recorded in flight within the OWF site. APEM Ltd. A17 Embankment, Business Park, Heaton Mersey Manchester SK4 3GN enquiries@apemltd.co.uk https://www.apemltd.com/ originator The Crown Estate +44 020 7851 5000 The Crown Estate 1 St James's Market London SW1Y4AH mde@thecrownestate.co.uk https://www.marinedataexchange.co.uk/ custodian The Crown Estate The Crown Estate 1 St James's Market London SW1Y 4AH mde@thecrownestate.co.uk https://www.marinedataexchange.co.uk/ distributor continual Documents Marine Environmental Data and Information Network Species distribution GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0 2008-01-06 revision Bird taxonomy-related abundance per unit area of surface Bird counts Cetacean abundance Bird behaviour SeaDataNet P021 parameter discovery vocabulary 2009-11-16 revision otherRestrictions Publically Available https://www.marinedataexchange.co.uk/content/info/faq 1 eng biota International Hydrographic Bureau, Limits of Oceans and Seas 1954-01-01 creation North Sea SeaDataNet vertical extent keywords 2010-01-01 revision atmosphere 0.9161 1.7610 51.3877 52.0291 2010-11-23 2011-02-16 https://www.marinedataexchange.co.uk/details/3610/summary A link to the web service or dataset. https://www.marinedataexchange.co.uk A link to the general host site. series Surveys were undertaken between November 2010 and February 2011 by APEM with one survey conducted each month, the aim being the completion of all surveys prior to the commencement of construction. The exact timing of each survey was dependent on conditions (e.g. weather). Survey data is compatible with survey data collected using the same methods from the 2009/10 non-breeding season. Surveys were designed to assess the potential impact of the proposed offshore wind farm on the abundance and distribution of birds and cetaceans. APEM have developed a grid survey methodology; a primary aim of which is to derive sufficient independent estimates of bird density (and distribution) to achieve a predefined level of confidence in population size. The coarseness (spacing) of the grid (an image is collected at each grid internode) is determined by the predicted number of samples required to achieve the predefined level of confidence. For detailed rationale, see APEM (2010).