Creating a dialogue between law and science helps us recognize the problems of Offshore Wind Energy (OWE). This dialogue about the impacts of OWE can guide us to frame regulatory measures based on ecological sustainability. The dialogue supports identification of the laws applicable to the problems and facilitates how law can respond. This interaction is also helpful when science is not fully certain about the impacts of OWE on ecosystems or the challenges that this development may create for other sectors such as shipping and fishing.
Scientific uncertainties may arise for several reasons, which can be partly avoided or reduced by law. Ambiguities may derive from our lack of knowledge or from the unpredictable and changing nature of the marine environment and ecosystems. The uncertainties are also heightened if the cumulative effects of various human activities are included. There are also unknowns about the impacts of OWE in Canada as it is a newly planned industry. These gaps and uncertainties should be avoided or reduced by further scientific research, laws, and policies. Regulatory measures are helpful social responses to create a dynamic, recurring, and proactive process in which they constantly act, react and proact with respect to the impacts and uncertainties. My next blog posts will talk about some of the measures to regulate the impacts.
The potential impacts of OWE cannot be easily named. They may differ based on factors such as the location of OWE sites, environmental conditions, the type of technology, the construction time, and the size of OWE projects. However, here is a general non-exhaustive list of the likely impacts, without considering a specific context:
Impacts on the Environment:
– Change in the structure, process, and functioning of ecosystems by the construction of OWE foundations.
– Impacts on ecosystem services as a result of the large-scale expansion of OWE.
– Loss of habitats through construction of OWE foundations.
– Fragmentation of habitats by laying cables from OWE sites to onshore storage and transmission facilities.
– Introduction of invasive species, affecting native habitats and their ecosystems.
– Displacement, injury, or mortality of mammals and their population because of noise, particularly generated during the construction phase of OWE.
– Effects on navigation and orientation of marine mammals due to electromagnetic fields caused by cables.
– Displacement, barrier effects, habitat loss, and collision risks for seabirds.
– Fatality of bats caused by collision with OWE turbines.
Impacts on Stakeholders:
– Concerns by fishing industry due to loss of access to fishing grounds, displacement, and exclusion from OWE sites.
– Risk of collision or contact between OWE foundations/cables and ships created from curbing the available space and the flexibility for navigation of ships.
Community Concerns:
– The visual (view from a specific location), landscape, and seascape impacts.
In the context of the dependant and complex nature of impacts, it is difficult to identify the full effects of the development of OWE and so it is challenging to give a full picture of regulatory responses. Uncovering the impacts as far as possible can help our regulatory regime to adequately address partially predictable problems. The regulatory regime should also be flexible enough to respond to the impacts that are not fully realized at the beginning of the development of OWE.
Photo by Rony Michaud on Pixabay
