What technologies are used and can potentially be used in the future for the monitoring and inspection of fisheries? What are the current and future developments in fisheries control? How does Belgium do it? What does the European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA) do and how do other European Union coastguard partners conduct fisheries control? How does this work in practice?
The use of evidence based upon innovative technologies in fisheries monitoring and inspection constituted the theme of this third workshop under the Belgian chairmanship of the ECGFF, the European Coast Guard Functions Forum which brings together coastguard authorities of several European countries to work on collaborative issues. The aim of the workshop was to share experiences and good practices within the European Union.
From Tuesday the 2nd of May till Thursday the 4th of May, delegations gathered in Bruges, and went on an excursion to the port of Ostend. In total, there were 119 participants, the majority of whom were physically present, while only a few attended online. Almost all member states of the ECGFF that have a coastline participated, comprising 22 member states.
Piet Pieters, attending chair of the ECGFF opened the workshop in Bruges with a bit of history: “During the Golden Age, Bruges was a thriving seaside trading hub, home to nations from several European countries. It is symbolic that we, as maritime nations, are forging new, forward-looking partnerships with the European Commission and with the specialised European Agencies precisely at this location. Furthermore, what is discussed here is relevant not only to fisheries control, but also to all other coast guard functions.”
During a first session, the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries explained the current and future possibilities on fisheries control and the use of evidence in Belgium. A video was also shown on Flemish fisheries control and on how the EFCA operates in European waters using their own vessel. The EFCA then gave an overview of existing technologies and their potential for evidence collection to support fisheries control. Other agencies (EMSA and Frontex) and participants also shared best practices.
In the afternoon, a visit was planned to some coastguard platforms in the port of Ostend. As such, the participants visited, among others, the Sirius, one of the vessels of the Agency Maritime Services and Coast (MDK), Flemish government organization VLOOT and the Ocean Protector, a vessel of the EFCA, which all play a role in offshore surveillance and control of fisheries. Finally, they visited the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC), where they were given a presentation on incidents involving fishing vessels at sea.
On Thursday May 4th , the practical issues were discussed further. A panel discussion was organized on the use of evidence provided by new technologies. This last day was concluded with a debriefing of the exercise of the Ministry of Defense.
The Coast Guard is a unique Belgian organisation that pools and coordinates the expertise of 17 partners in the maritime sector to ensure safety and security at sea. Partners also include the Scientific Service ‘Management Unit of the Mathematical Model of the North Sea (MUMM)’, part of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS).
In 2022-2023, the Belgian Coast Guard chairs the European Coast Guard Functions Forum (ECGFF). Together with the European agencies FRONTEX, EMSA and EFCA, it will organise a number of workshops during the year. In cooperation with DG Mare of the European Commission, it will also organise a Cybersecurity Working Group and the summit taking place at the end of September 2023.
After White-beaked dolphins were observed more frequently in Belgian waters in the early 21st century, the species recently became rarer again locally. Indeed, sightings of groups on 23 June and 14 December 2022 represent the first sightings of living White-beaked dolphins in Belgian waters since April 2018. On both dates, the animals were seen from the new research vessel RV Belgica.
On Thursday 23 June 2022, a group of around ten White-beaked dolphins was spotted from the research vessel RV Belgica in the Belgian part of the North Sea. The dolphins were seen about 5 km off the coast of Knokke, while the ship was en route to her baptizing ceremony in the god city of Ghent. The animals swam in a westerly direction, regularly emerging above the water. Present ILVO researchers identified the dolphins as White-beaked dolphins, which was confirmed by a video that Belgian Navy Lieutenant-Commander Ilja Van Hespen was able to record showing the distinctive white snout and light flank markings with dark saddle.
On Wednesday 14 December 2022, researchers from INBO and RBINS were the privileged witnesses. Initially, some ten dolphins were spotted about 42 km from the Belgian coastline (measured perpendicular to the coast, this was at the level of Ostend), and they were already suspected to be White-beaked dolphins. Only when two individuals approached the ship closer a while later could this be substantiated, and also photographically documented by Hilbran Verstraete (INBO).
Distribution
The White-beaked dolphin (Lagenorhynchus albirostris) occurs in cold temperate and subarctic waters of the North Atlantic, mostly confined to zones less than 1,000 m deep. Its range extends from the east coast of North America (northwards from Cape Cod), through southern Greenland and the waters around Iceland, to the European west coast from northern France to Svalbard. In the North Sea, they are found almost exclusively in the central and northern parts, where the population was estimated at 20,000 animals in 2016 (Hammond et al.; 2017). In the southern North Sea, the species leans towards the limit of its range and White-beaked dolphins are a more irregular occurrence. The White-beaked dolphin is rare in the English Channel.
More numerous and rare again
In the early 21st century, particularly between 2003 and 2011, the species seems to have been less rare in the southern North Sea for a while (Haelters et al.; 2018). In the period 2009-2018, 62 sightings of White-beaked dolphins were recorded in the Belgian part of the North Sea (Haelters et al.; 2019), with undoubtedly some double-counting, but in the last years of this time interval, the number of sightings experienced a sharp decrease to only 1-3 cases per year, with also some sightings just outside the Belgian North Sea area (Haelters et al.; 2016a, 2016b, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021). Within the Belgian dataset, a clear peak can be observed in the first half of the year (January – May), but observations from almost all other months are also known. For the years 2019, 2020 and 2021, however, no more certain Belgian sightings of live White-beaked dolphins are known (Haelters et al.; 2020, 2021, 2022), two specimens on 19 April 2018 concerned the last sighting. Until the groups of 23 June and 14 December 2022. The White-beaked dolphin thus seems to have retreated more northwards again, possibly a consequence of climate change and its associated effects on the distribution of their prey (IJsseldijk et al.; 2018).
Strandings
Dead White-beaked dolphins washed ashore (or floating at sea) have also recently become rarer in the southern North Sea. While between 2000 and 2013 an average of one White-beaked dolphin washed ashore annually in Belgium, only three cases have been known since then (29 November 2017 Oostduinkerke, 17 May 2018 De Panne and 4 March 2020 at sea off Middelkerke) (Haelters et al.; 2018, 2019, 2021). A decrease in strandings was also observed in the Netherlands (Keijl, 2016), after it was previously noted that the Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) disappeared from stranding lists at the beginning of the 21st century, coinciding with the increasing frequency of the White-beaked dolphin (Camphuysen & Peet; 2006). Whether in the southern North Sea there is actually a link between the opposite trends of the Bottlenose dolphin (which has recently also been noted more regularly in Belgium) and the White-beaked dolphin, however, we do not wish to infer from this.
Literature
Camphuysen, C.J. & Peet, G.H., 2006. Whales and dolphins of the North Sea. Fontaine Uitgevers BV, ’s Graveland, The Netherlands.
Haelters, J., Kerckhof, F., Jauniaux, T., Potin, M., Rumes, B. & Degraer, S., 2016a. Zeezoogdieren in België in 2014 [Marine mammals in Belgium in 2014]. MARECO rapport 16/01. 29 pp.
Haelters, J., T. Jauniaux, F. Kerckhof, M. Potin & T. Vandenberghe, 2016b. Zeezoogdieren in België in 2015 [Marine mammals in Belgium in 2015]. Rapport BMM 16/01 – MARECO 16/03. 26 pp.
Haelters, J., F. Kerckhof, B. Rumes, M. Potin & T. Jauniaux, 2017. Strandingen en waarnemingen van zeezoogdieren en opmerkelijke vissen in België in 2016 [Strandings and sightings of marine mammals and some remarkable fish species in Belgium in 2016]. Koninklijk Belgisch Instituut voor Natuurwetenschappen (KBIN), Brussel. 30 pp.
Haelters, J., F. Kerckhof, K. Moreau, M. Potin, M. Doom & T. Jauniaux, 2018. Strandingen en waarnemingen van zeezoogdieren en opmerkelijke vissen in België in 2017 [Strandings and sightings of marine mammals and some remarkable fish species in Belgium in 2017]. Koninklijk Belgisch Instituut voor Natuurwetenschappen (KBIN), Brussel. 30 pp.
Haelters, J., F. Kerckhof, K. Moreau, B. Rumes, M. Potin, T. Jauniaux & D. Vercayie, 2019. Strandingen en waarnemingen van zeezoogdieren en opmerkelijke andere soorten in België in 2018 [Strandings and sightings of marine mammals and remarkable other species in Belgium in 2018]. Koninklijk Belgisch Instituut voor Natuurwetenschappen (KBIN), Brussel. 34 pp.
Haelters, J., F. Kerckhof, K. Moreau, B. Rumes, Team SeaLife, T. Jauniaux & P. Cornillie, 2020. Strandingen en waarnemingen van zeezoogdieren en opmerkelijke andere soorten in België in 2019 [Strandings and sightings of marine mammals and remarkable other species in Belgium in 2019]. Koninklijk Belgisch Instituut voor Natuurwetenschappen (KBIN), Brussel. 34 pp.
Haelters, J., F. Kerckhof, K. Moreau, Team SeaLife, E. Lambert & T. Jauniaux, 2021. Strandingen en waarnemingen van zeezoogdieren en opmerkelijke andere soorten in België in 2020 [Strandings and sightings of marine mammals and remarkable other species in Belgium in 2020]. Koninklijk Belgisch Instituut voor Natuurwetenschappen (KBIN), Brussel. 34 pp.
Haelters, J., Moreau, K., Team SeaLife, Jauniaux, T. & Kerckhof, F., 2022. Strandingen en waarnemingen van zeezoogdieren in België in 2021 [Strandings and sightings of marine mammals in Belgium in 2021]. Koninklijk Belgisch Instituut voor Natuurwetenschappen (KBIN), Brussel.
Hammond, P.S., Lacey, C., Gilles, A., Viquerat, S., Börjesson, P., Herr, H., Macleod, K., Ridoux, V. & Santos, M.B., 2017. Estimates of cetacean abundance in European Atlantic waters in summer 2016 from the SCANS-III aerial and shipboard surveys. Sea Mammal Research Unit, University of St Andrews, Scotland, UK.
IJsseldijk, L.L., Brownlow, A., Davison, N.J., Deaville, R., Haelters, J., Keijl, G., Siebert, U. & ten Doeschate, M.T.I., 2018. Spatio-temporal trends in white-beaked dolphin strandings along the North Sea coast from 1991-2017. Lutra 61(1): 153-163.
Keijl, 2016. Jaaroverzicht walvisstrandingen 2016. Gedownload van www.walvisstrandingen.nl, 28 maart 2017. Naturalis, Nederland.
How does the Green Deal affect the operations of coast guard authorities from different European partners? The Green Deal is a package of policy initiatives launched by the European Commission which aims to make the European Union climate neutral by 2050. How can we make security and law enforcement in European waters as green and sustainable as possible? What opportunities does the Green Deal create for coast guard organisations? And what challenges does this pursuit of sustainability entail?
These questions constituted the theme of the second workshop under the Belgian chairmanship of the ECGFF, the European Coast Guard Functions Forum, which brings together the coast guard authorities of several European countries to work on collaborative issues.
From Monday the 17th till Wednesday the 19th of April, delegations gathered in the Portuguese capital Lisbon, where EMSA is headquartered. The European Maritime Safety Agency was established in 2002 to ensure a high, uniform and effective level of maritime safety, security, prevention of and response to pollution caused by ships.
The workshop kicked-off with a welcome speech by Nathalie Balcaen, Flemish president of the ECGFF. Ms Balcaen emphasized the commitment of the Belgian Coast Guard, which guards one of the shortest stretches of coastline in Europe but is at the same time partly responsible for one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.
During a first session, information and expertise was mainly exchanged on the new legislation surrounding the Green Deal and on challenges and opportunities for maritime transport, i.e. using alternative energy sources to power ships and better monitoring and control of exhaust fumes.
The topic of marine pollution was also discussed, more specifically prevention activities to protect the environment and the deployment of resources in the event of a pollution incident.
How can the Coast Guard adequately respond to loss of cargo from ships, or fuel tank leaks? And most importantly, how can pollution, of any scope, simply be avoided?
A notable speaker on the first day was Mr. Carl Decaluwé, governor of the Belgian province of West Flanders. The governor is responsible for coordinating emergency response on the North Sea and chairs the Belgian Coast Guard’s consultation body.
The second day was largely dedicated to EMTER 2.0, the European Maritime Transport Environmental Report. The workshop looked ahead to the results of this new study by EMSA and the European Environment Agency (EEA), which will not be published until next year. The report is a follow-up to the first version which was published in 2021 and probes the far-reaching effects that maritime transport has on the environment. For instance, it zooms in on the effects of shipping on climate, air quality, marine fauna and flora and the health of European citizens.
During the closing session, Ms. Maja Markovčić Kostelac, Executive Director of EMSA, commended the Belgian Chairmanship of the ECGFF underlining the excellent cooperation that went into organising what was a highly informative and yet very practical workshop.
The next European workshop will once again take place on the Belgian coast. It starts on May 2nd with the BELCOASTEX exercise, during which various security scenarios will be tested in an offshore wind farm. From 2 to 4 May, EFCA, the European Fisheries Control Agency, will take centre stage. At the end of May, delegations will meet in Brussels to discuss cyber security. Later this year, in September, the final conclusions of the workshops will be formulated during a closing event in Knokke, Belgium. After this, the Belgian presidency will be concluded and the chairmanship of the ECGFF will be passed on to Portugal.
The Coast Guard is a unique Belgian organisation that pools and coordinates the expertise of 17 partners in the maritime sector to ensure safety and security at sea. Partners also include the Scientific Service ‘Management Unit of the Mathematical Model of the North Sea (MUMM)’, part of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS).
In 2022-2023, the Belgian Coast Guard chairs the European Coast Guard Functions Forum (ECGFF). Together with the European agencies FRONTEX, EMSA and EFCA, it will organise a number of workshops during the year. In cooperation with DG Mare of the European Commission, it will also organise a Cybersecurity Working Group and the summit taking place at the end of September 2023.
Circular Low Trophic Aquaculture in Offshore Wind Farms
The new project ULTFARMS aims to revolutionize the application of Low-Trophic Aquaculture (LTA) systems through the integration of novel engineering, technical, ecological, and biological processes to optimize production in harsh offshore conditions, low-salinity environments, and within Offshore Wind Farms (OWFs). This will be achieved through the development of six Low-Trophic Aquaculture Pilots located in offshore wind farms across the North and Baltic Seas. The pilots will cover the entire value chain expertise for LTA production in OWFs and are to be situated in Belwind (Belgium), Borssele (the Netherlands), FINO2, FINO3 (Germany), Anholt and Samsø (Denmark).
Within ULTFARMS, the Marine Ecology and Management team (MARECO) of RBINS leads WP7 ‘Environmental Sustainability Assessment’ and participates in several other tasks, offering its expertise in marine ecology, advisory services about environmental licensing and cumulative effect assessments and management. RBINS will also substantially contribute to the Belgian pilot.
Integrated monitoring and management
ULTFARMS will bring together stakeholders from across the value chains of OWF and LTA to ensure that environmentally sound, low-carbon, and safe LTA products are produced from design to commercialization. New cultivation structures, grow-out systems, and eco-friendly design measures will be advanced through the project. Through integrated monitoring and management platforms such as the HiSea service platform and by drawing on existing open databases and operational forecasting systems such as CMEMS (Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service) and SeaDATANET, the planning and operation of LTAs will be effectively supported through an enhanced technical service.
As such, ULTFARMS will offer scientifically sound services to aquaculture producers for monitoring and minimizing diseases and alien species, managing inputs, optimizing sustainable production, and demand management including risk analysis.
Legacy
The legacy of ULTFARMS will be a profitable, sustainable, and ecological production chain of low-trophic level species, such as seaweed and molluscs, in offshore wind farms located in the North Sea and Baltic Sea. Furthermore, the project will share lessons learned and innovations developed through comprehensive communication and dissemination activities, which will be underpinned by the active involvement of five Associate Regions throughout the project.
ULTFARMS is a 42 month project that started on January 1st, 2023, and ends on June 30th, 2026. It is led by Deltares, an independent institute for water and subsurface research based in the Netherlands. The project consortium consists of 25 partners from 9 different countries. The project is funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 101093888.
Rising sea levels are increasingly bringing nature-based solutions to the fore. The construction of dunes in front of the dike are an example of such a nature-based solution. These protect us from flooding, but also provide other ecosystem services such as a pleasant environment for recreation, increased biodiversity, reduced sand nuisance behind the dunes, etc.
However, these solutions themselves require a lot of sand, while sand resources in the North Sea are rapidly depleting. Moreover, sand extraction also has an impact on the marine ecosystem. The SUSANA project (Sustainable Use of SAnd in NAture-based solutions) will develop a coupled ecosystem services model to weigh up the pros and cons of a dune in front of the dike (dune-by-dike). This model will support the development of a long-term strategy for the sustainable use of sand in nature-based solutions. The project focuses on two aspects of sustainability: (1) the (re)use of lower-quality sandy material and (2) striving to reduce the impacts of sand extraction.
The specific research questions are:
To what extent can alternative sand sources also provide the necessary ecosystem functions and services in a dune-by-dike?
What is the impact of different sand extraction regimes on the ecosystem functions and services of the bottom ecosystem on the different sandbanks, and on the more distant valuable gravel beds?
Based on these research questions, a linked ecosystem services model will be developed, which will allow us to weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of constructing a dune-by-dike, and the sand extraction required to do so, respectively.
The fieldwork has already started. This video(RBINS/Vera Van Lancker) illustrates the work on board the RV Simon Stevin (VLIZ) during a campaign at sea in early March 2023: taking vibrocores where sediment samples were extracted from the bottom via drilling to a depth of 2.5m. For RBINS, the aim was to map dredge dumping areas as an alternative source area of sand. Dumping leaves mainly sandy material at the site as the fine material is washed out by currents. The study sites were mainly situated in the coastal zone. However, sand quality here is considerably lower than in the more seaward reclamation areas, but possibly sufficient for the construction of nature-based coastal protection such as dune-by-dike. At night, the seabed and upper subsurface layers were mapped using acoustic measurement techniques.
The SUSANA project started in February 2023, lasts for 3 years and is financially supported by VLAIO/The Blue Cluster.
The project team consists of the following partners: Universiteit Antwerpen (coordinator), Universiteit Gent, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, ILVO (Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food) and RBINS (Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences).
A new European Marine Board (EMB) report outlines the main gaps in our knowledge that could prevent the offshore renewable energy sector from developing in a sustainable, equitable and responsible manner.
The new EMB Future Science Brief No. 9 ‘European offshore renewable energy: Towards a sustainable future’ has been launched on April 4th, 2023. The need to decrease carbon emissions urgently and dramatically is high on scientific, political, and societal agendas. Extraction of energy from offshore renewable energy sources is seen as a key measure to achieving this decrease in carbon emission.
To achieve the EU Green Deal vision, the installed offshore renewable energy generating capability in European must increase 30-fold compared to current installed capacity. However, in the rush to develop and install new offshore renewable energy devices across the European sea basins, their potential environmental and societal impacts cannot be ignored. The EMB Future Science Brief highlights which steps need to be taken to ensure that the expansion of this sector is managed sustainably, responsibly and equitably.
The document presents the technical, environmental, and socioeconomic state of the art of the offshore renewable sector, with a focus on European development. It presents the key knowledge, research, and capacity gaps that must be addressed to ensure sustainable delivery of the EU Green Deal and closes with key policy, research, capacity, and data recommendations to take the sector forward.
If you would like to receive hard copies of this publication, please contact info@marineboard.eu and confirm the number of copies and your postal address.
The European Marine Board (EMB) is a leading European think tank in marine science policy. EMB is a network with a membership comprising over 10,000 marine scientists from the major national marine/oceanographic institutes, research funding agencies and national networks of universities from countries across Europe. The Board provides a platform for its member organizations to develop common priorities, to advance marine research, and to bridge the gap between science and policy to meet future marine science challenges and opportunities. The Belgian Federal State is represented in the EMB by the Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO) and in the EMB Communications Panel by the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS).
The RBINS expertise on monitoring the environmental impact of offshore wind farms is frequently cited in the new EMB Future Science Brief ‘European offshore renewable energy: Towards a sustainable future’.
It is the year 2035. Extreme weather events such as heavy rainfall, floods and heatwaves have become the new norm all around Europe, and timely ocean information is now critical to respond to the crisis. This is the future scenario that was presented in the foresight workshop titled “Ensuring accurate climate related predictions in Europe by 2035”. The European Marine Board, supported by the EuroSea Innovation Action, organized this foresight workshop on 15-16 March 2023 at the Museum of Natural Sciences (Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences) in Brussels (Belgium).
After the scene was set for the discussions by the President of the Working Party on Maritime Issues Mattias Rust, who is the representative from the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU, the foresight workshop discussions started with the scenario of what the world might look like in 2035. A world in which “extreme” events across Europe such as heavy rainfall, floods and heatwaves, have become frequent and the new norm. Responding to the huge costs for the EU’s blue economy and number of deaths that year, the European Commission, in collaboration with the National Governments, have set up a mechanism to discuss and identify pathways to ensure the sustained delivery of accessible, timely, and actionable information from the European Ocean Observing and Forecasting System to respond to the crisis. The workshop was animated by four discussants who described the legal barriers to ocean observing (Erik van Doorn, GEOMAR), funding challenges (Vicente Fernández, EuroGOOS and Ed Hill, NOC) and the societal value of ocean observing (Emma Heslop, GOOS).
These topics were used to describe three 2035 future scenarios: the worst case, the best case, and the probable 2035 future. The participants considered what a best-case scenario could deliver and what could be lost in a worst-case scenario. The participants also considered what needs to happen to arrive at the best-case scenario, and what possible steps are needed to ensure that we get there. The action and barriers that stand in the way of a strong and fit future European Ocean Observing System were discussed and the workshop ended with a discussion on how the EOOS Framework Strategy and Roadmap for Implementation for 2023-2027 could ensure that we arrive at the best possible future.
The outcomes of this workshop are key recommendations for mechanisms to sustainably fund and coordinate Ocean observation, prediction, and information delivery in Europe. These will inform the Framework of the European Ocean Observing System (EOOS) as part of the EuroSea project.
In their latest annual report, the scientists that monitor the environmental impact of offshore wind farms in the Belgian part of the North Sea focus on the continued development of the programme and on the upgrade in anticipation of the wind energy capacity expansion in our waters. Notable results include that no meaningful impact of wind farms was found on the abundance of invertebrate and fish species that live on the sandy seafloor (no negative impact), that communities of organisms that live above the seafloor were enriched in wind farms (positive impact) and that species distribution models now allow to quantify the numbers of seabirds expected to be impacted by wind farm displacement (scale of impact depending on the species, with the highest sensitivity outside existing and future wind farms). Furthermore, insights around promoting the artificial reef effect and mitigating the collision risk to birds and disturbance from construction works on porpoises continue to develop.
Since the end of 2020, the number of offshore wind turbines and their combined capacity has remained unchanged in the Belgian part of the North Sea. At that time, 12 years of construction in the first Belgian marine area for renewable energy came to an end, with eight wind farms totalling 399 turbines in a zone of 238 km² along the border with the Dutch waters. Together, they account for an installed capacity of 2.26 Gigawatts (GW) and an average annual production of 8 TWh, representing around a third of the gross electricity production from renewable energy sources in Belgium.
As ‘Blue Economy’ matures to a sustainable blue economy, it has been tasked with ensuring the environmental sustainability of human activities. Therefore, the impact monitoring program WinMon.BE generates baseline ecological information in the Belgian offshore renewable energy zone since the start of the construction in 2005 at various spatial and temporal scales. Its two-fold aim is to quantify both the anticipated and unanticipated impacts and to understand the cause-effect relationships behind a selection of these ecological impacts. The knowledge gained so far has served the fine-tuning of offshore wind farm construction and operation practices, and thus helped to ensure the environmental sustainability of offshore wind energy production in the Belgian part of the North Sea. All scientific reports of the WinMon.BE monitoring are publicly available.
Preparing for an expansion
To meet the EU objective of reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, our country aims to add an installed capacity of 3.15 to 3.5 GW by realising offshore wind farms in a second area for renewable energy – the Princess Elisabeth Zone (285 km²) – that is designated in the national marine spatial plan 2020-2026. It goes without saying that the knowledge gained by WinMon.BE will also serve an environment-friendly design and operation of the future offshore wind farms in the Princess Elisabeth Zone.
Zones for renewable energy, including offshore wind farms, in the Belgian part of the North Sea. Eastern zone = first phase that is completely operational, western zone (Hinder North, Hinder South and Fairybank) = Princess Elisabeth Zone (source: Marine Spatial Plan 2020-2026).
However, Belgium is not the only country that further develops the production of offshore wind energy in the southern North Sea. Next to the 523 km² reserved for operational and planned offshore wind farms in the Belgian part of the North Sea, 344 km² are foreseen in the adjacent Dutch Borssele zone, and 122 km² in the French Dunkerque zone. The international expansion also affects the monitoring programme.
Steven Degraer (Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences/MARECO), coordinator of the WinMon.BE consortium : “As potential cumulative ecological impacts of the growing number of offshore wind farms in the southern North Sea are a major concern, detecting and understanding these becomes an important additional challenge for WinMon.BE. We also need to internationalise cooperation across the wider North Sea region, where country boundaries have tended to hamper a regional approach.”
To get ready for the monitoring of the environmental impacts of the expanding offshore wind energy sector in the Belgian part of the North Sea, the WinMon.BE 2022 report touches upon new insights into spatial distribution patterns of invertebrates and fish, the identification of areas where seabirds are most sensitive to offshore wind farms and, ‘promoting the good’ (artificial hard substrate fouling communities), and ‘mitigating the bad’ (seabird collisions and noise pollution for porpoises). The report is based on data collected up to 2021.
Spatial distribution patterns & sensitive areas
On the seafloor – epibenthos & demersal fish (ILVO)
To detect and understand potential spillover effects of the existing offshore wind farms and for the assessment of the potential impacts of the future offshore renewables zone, one must first document and understand the pre-construction situation. With respect to the distribution and abundance of epibenthos (invertebrates that live on the surface of the seabed, such as certain mollusks, crustaceans and squid species) and bottom-dwelling fish, a community analysis on abundance data was therefore conducted for the entire Belgian part of the North Sea.
It was found that both epibenthos and fish communities largely follow similar spatial distribution patterns with a clear distinction between the coastal and the offshore area. Within the coastal area, two different communities inhabit muddy and sandy sediments respectively. The offshore communities are additionally structured by sand bank topography. The existing offshore renewables zone largely overlaps with the spatial distribution of the offshore epibenthos and fish communities, for which monitoring in between the turbines did not show meaningful impacts of the wind farms.
Above the seafloor – hyperbenthos (Ghent University)
The WinMon.BE monitoring program for the first time shed a light on the hyperbenthos ecosystem component. This community consists of organisms that inhabit the water column immediately above the seafloor, including a large variety of small crustaceans and worm-like species, jellyfish-like life stages of hydrozoans, and larval life stages of larger crustaceans and fish. The impact of turbine presence (artificial reef effect) and the ceasing of fishery activities (fisheries exclusion effect) are expected to result in enriched hyperbenthic communities within the offshore wind farms. To test this, samples collected inside and outside two Belgian offshore wind farms, each with specific local habitat conditions, foundation type, construction times and at different distances to the coast, were compared.
While hyperbenthos communities at different distances to the coast appeared to differ in species composition (with more species of nearshore areas closer to the coast) and density (with higher densities closer to the coast), the densities were consistently higher in the wind farms compared to the corresponding control sites outside the wind farms. Differences in species richness (higher in the wind farm) and community structure were also observed at greater distance to the coast. These results corroborate the enrichment hypothesis. No differences in species richness and community structure were observed closer to the coast.
For seabirds, detailed knowledge on distribution patterns is important to design adequate monitoring programs and to gain insights into area-specific sensitivity of different species to offshore wind farms. Based on seabird counts from ships, collected across the Belgian part of the North Sea in the period 2000-2018, species distribution models were created to feed into a sensitivity map regarding offshore wind farm development, and an integrated displacement sensitivity index based on their cumulative occurrence was proposed. Data were used for four seabird species known to be sensitive to wind farm-induced displacement: red-throated diver Gavia stellata, northern gannet Morus bassanus, common guillemot Uria aalge and razorbill Alca torda.
The species distribution models allow to quantify the numbers of seabirds expected to be impacted by wind farm displacement. In absolute numbers, common guillemot is the most impacted species, with about 1600 individuals being displaced by the existing and future offshore renewables zones. One area was highlighted as particularly sensitive to offshore wind farm development, situated in front of the western part of the Belgian coast between 5 and 12 nautical miles offshore. This is well outside all existing and future Belgian wind farms.
Previous studies have shown that foundations of offshore wind turbines are colonised by a wide array of fouling species (the artificial reef effect). Dominant species at the various stages of the colonisation process include the anemone Metridium senile, the blue mussel Mytilus edulis, and the crustacean Jassa herdmani. As a result of this colonisation the biomass on the foundation can be up to 35 times higher compared to the surrounding soft sediments. However, this higher biomass can influence local food web dynamics, and there is also concern over the establishment of non-indigenous species. To better understand the potential effects of large-scale colonisation on offshore wind turbines by fouling species, the fouling communities on the turbine foundations were compared to those on longer-existing artificial hard structures, in casu shipwrecks.
The results showed that shipwrecks had a higher species richness compared to offshore wind farms (165 vs 114 species). Furthermore, the species present on the two types of artificial hard substrates were also different, with shipwrecks holding 95 unique fouling species compared to 44 on offshore wind farms. These differences in species diversity can be attributed to the older age and the higher structural complexity of shipwrecks. By increasing the complexity of the scour protection layer surrounding turbine foundations it might be possible to increase the species richness of the fouling community. This is often considered an asset of offshore wind farms.
Because wind turbines at sea have a relatively short life span, repowering scenarios are already being discussed for the oldest wind farms. Ongoing technological developments result in larger wind turbines and an increased open airspace between turbines. In anticipation of this, the seabird collision risk – a prominent and longstanding issue with offshore wind farms – was assessed for a hypothetical repowering scenario of the first offshore wind farm zone in Belgian waters. For all considered bird species, the estimated collision risk decreased (40% reduction on average for 15 MW turbines) because of the higher clearance between the lower tip of the rotor and the sea level, and the need for a lower number of turbines per km². Increasing the hub height of the turbines with 10 m further decreased the expected number of seabird collisions with another 37% on average.
As such, turbine size can offer an opportunity to mitigate seabird fatalities. For terrestrial birds and bats that also migrate at sea, the effect of larger turbines is less clear. It is likely that curtailment strategies, which stop the turbines during heavy migration events, will still be needed to reduce the impact on these groups.
A second prominent and long-standing issue with offshore wind farms is the disturbance of marine mammals during pile driving activities, producing excessive impulsive sound levels. Based on passive acoustic monitoring datasets from 2018 to 2020, including the construction periods of three offshore wind farms, it was shown that harbour porpoises Phocoena phocoena respond to pile driving over a period of hours to days. Detection rates of porpoises reduced up to 20 km from the pile driving location, with the magnitude and duration of the reduction decreasing markedly with increasing distance.
The use of sound mitigation had significant effects on the spatial and temporal extent of avoidance of the construction area by porpoises, but the reduction in porpoise detection rates appears to start even prior to the pile driving in the immediate vicinity of the construction site. This suggests that efforts to reduce the impact of underwater noise generated by future offshore wind farm construction on marine life should aim to limit not only the generated noise levels but also the overall duration of the construction.
Steven Degraer: “In conclusion, a continued effort to gain more knowledge is not only needed for the further follow-up of the impact of the wind farms that have already been constructed, but also for fine-tuning an environment-friendly design and operation of future offshore wind farms. Substantial progress has been made and has proved to be applicable for a sound management of offshore renewable energy. However, many unknowns remain to be tackled.”
Some examples of how these ongoing efforts will translate into practice include a continued and finer focus on the invertebrate and fish communities of the seafloor (particularly relevant in the less surveyed second offshore renewables zone), increased sampling efforts to enhance the ability to fully characterize hyperbenthos communities and strengthen the statistical power to detect offshore wind farm-related impacts, and further finetuning of the seabird modelling process, taking additional seabird species and anthropogenic pressures into account to ultimately inform the marine spatial planning process. Where necessary, mitigation measures need to continue to be designed and applied as the monitoring programme yields new insights.
The Monitoring Programme WinMon.BE is a cooperation between the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO), the Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO) and the Marine Biology Research Group of Ghent University, and is coordinated by the Marine Ecology and Management team (MARECO) of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences.
WinMon.BE is commissioned by the Federal Government as part of the environmental permit conditions for offshore wind farms. For the monitoring, use was made of the research vessel Belgica (ship time on RV Belgica was made available by BELSPO and RBINS – OD Nature), the research vessel Simon Stevin (operated by the Flanders Marine Institute), several private vessels, the Belgian scientific diving team and the observation aircraft of RBINS.
In the framework of the Belgian presidency of the European Coast Guard Functions Forum (ECGFF), Frontex and the Belgian Maritime and River Police, assisted by the Coast Guard Secretariat, organised a workshop from February 28th till March 2nd. With approximately 100 participants from different European countries, interesting presentations, a panel discussion and numerous opportunities to exchange expertise and to network, it can be considered a very successful first edition of the workshops.
Cooperation: the key to success
Over the course of three days, the participants worked on the theme ‘Enhancing cross-sector and cross-border synergies’. The main objective was to share expertise on maritime security, multifunctional operations and building operational synergies, whilst also looking ahead to potential future collaborations. The 15 speakers from various European member states cited many examples of partnerships that are rendering valuable benefits, both across borders and services. Once again, cooperation proves to be the key to success.
Three main themes
The workshop addressed three major themes that are highly topical in the field of maritime ‘Safety’ and ‘Security’.
The first theme consisted of maritime surveillance. Examples of synergies in maritime surveillance were explained. The various successful operations in cooperation with FRONTEX were reviewed, and in addition attention was given to the formalisation of the partnership between MAOC-N (Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre – Narcotics), Belgium and many European member states. The Belgian MAOC-N membership is an important step in the optimization of information exchange on drug trafficking and smuggling. Furthermore, the security role of the Belgian Maritime Security Centre (MIK) in monitoring security threats was also discussed in detail.
A second major theme was joint, multifunctional operations. In today’s world, it is vital to organise operations across borders and services and build partnerships, thus mutually reinforcing each other. EFCA, EMSA and FRONTEX exchanged views on this topic during a discussion panel. Moreover, participants zoomed in on collaborative partnerships in the law enforcement process of irregular migration.
The third part of the workshop was centered on the future. A whole range of opportunities and challenges were discussed. For instance, how technological developments can help with underwater imaging and how adapted legal frameworks are being developed to ensure efficient monitoring of critical infrastructure such as wind farms, submarine data cables and pipelines.
The Coast Guard is a unique Belgian organisation that pools and coordinates the expertise of 17 partners in the maritime sector to ensure safety and security at sea. Partners also include the Scientific Service ‘Management Unit of the Mathematical Model of the North Sea (MUMM)’, part of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS).
In 2022-2023, the Belgian Coast Guard chairs the European Coast Guard Functions Forum (ECGFF). Together with the European agencies FRONTEX, EMSA and EFCA, it will organise a number of workshops during the year. In cooperation with DG Mare of the European Commission, it will also organise a Cybersecurity Working Group and the summit taking place at the end of September 2023.
From 20 February to 4 March, the very last BBNJ negotiations, aimed at adopting an international treaty for the protection of biodiversity on the high seas, took place in New York. The agreement was reached after 17 years of intense discussions and negotiations at the United Nations. Belgium played an active role in drafting and finalising this historic treaty. Among other things, it will now become possible to create marine protected areas on the high seas – outside territorial waters.
The new treaty is of great importance for Belgium, as our country is a founder of the Blue Leaders in 2019 and a strong supporter of ocean protection and the conservation of its resources. The adoption of the target of protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030 at the COP Biodiversity in Montreal in December last year was a first important step. The conclusion of this new Convention for the Protection of Biodiversity on the High Seas (BBNJ – Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction) is the second and final step before effective protection can be achieved.
The importance of the ocean
The ocean is crucial for sustaining life on Earth. It is the source of food and energy for millions of people, regulates the climate and provides oxygen. Unfortunately, the ocean is threatened by pollution, overfishing, climate change and other human activities.
Protecting our ocean is therefore essential for the future of the planet. One of the main reasons is the unique role the ocean plays in the fight against climate change. For instance, it absorbs about a third of the CO2 emitted into the atmosphere by human activities. This helps to reduce global warming and to stabilise the climate.
Vincent Van Quickenborne, Minister for the North Sea: “This is a historic treaty. A crucial step for all those who care about the ocean. The BBNJ treaty for the ocean is what the 2015 Paris Agreement is for the climate. After more than 17 years of negotiations, we can finally create marine protected areas on the high seas.”
The importance of nature reserves on the high seas
The new BBNJ treaty was to be created to delineate protected areas (nature reserves) on the high seas. 70% of the earth’s surface consists of water of which 3/4 is high seas which currently could not be fully protected in any way by the international community.
Thanks to this treaty, the final step has been taken to transform 30% of the high seas into marine protected areas by 2030. These are zones in which human activities are very strictly regulated: sustainable shipping, sustainable water tourism, sustainable use of biotic (fish stocks and other marine organisms) and abiotic (sand, gravel, metals, etc.) resources, scientific research with respect for nature.
Scientists agree that at least 30% must be protected with the establishment of natural areas on the high seas to have a resilient ocean that impacts climate change. With 30%, you reach the tipping point to keep the other 70% habitable as well.
Sophie Mirgaux, Belgian Special Envoy for the Ocean, FPS Public Health, who has been following the negotiations since the beginning as a member of the EU negotiating team: “This treaty is truly a gamechanger for ocean protection. It will be a challenge to effectively deliver this protection in an area so far from the coast. You need a lot of capacity to do that and it will be a long-term work. But it is necessary, so we must go for it as an international community.”
Besides natural areas on the high seas, the treaty also talks about access to marine genetic resources and the fair sharing of benefits derived from them, environmental impact assessments of activities on the high seas, capacity building and marine technology transfer. Like the climate treaty, the new treaty will also organise a COP ‘Conference of the Parties’.
Role of Belgium
Our country worked actively for the success of the BBNJ negotiations, including through active participation in the process and through bilateral contacts with other countries. The Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences also cooperated intensively: as a member of the Belgian delegation as well as the EU team, Hendrik Segers was involved in drafting the Belgian and EU positions, and was responsible for aspects concerning marine genetic resources. The importance of finalising the BBNJ Treaty was also underlined during the Blue Leaders event that Minister for the North Sea Vincent Van Quickenborne co-organised on the eve of the Our Ocean Conference 2023 in Panama. Policymakers from around the world called there for the finalisation of the BBNJ treaty.
The high-level appeal was bolstered by the announcement of more than $100 million in funding to support ratification and implementation of the treaty. The funding pledge was made possible by private and public philanthropic institutions such as Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), Oceans5 and others. The European Commission has also pledged €40 million to the BBNJ treaty. In addition, the Commission provides €816 million for ocean research.
As Blue Leader, Belgium will throw its weight behind the idea of quickly fixing the first nature reserve on the high seas. To make this possible, however, some steps still need to be taken.
Hendrik Segers, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, explains: “In order to proceed to the delineation of marine protected zones in areas outside national jurisdiction, the BBNJ treaty must first be ratified by EU member states and the Commission, and transposed into national and European legislation. It will also be important for scientific research on the high seas to fully understand the consequences of the treaty.”
Belgium candidate for secretariat in Brussels
As is the case for other international conventions, a secretariat will also be established for BBNJ. This will be a separate secretariat, i.e. not under the UN umbrella in New York. This is important to give the new treaty clout. After all, there will be an important lobby against establishing protected areas on the high seas. A separate secretariat, with its own staff and budget, can then make a real fist. Belgium, one of the founders of Blue Leaders, is applying to set up that important secretariat in Brussels. This is not only in line with our country’s commitment in recent years but would also significantly raise Belgium’s international marine standing.
