More peril for seabirds - including puffins - as Government approves further 180 wind turbines off Yorkshire Coast

Seabird species likely to be at risk from expanded windfarm

 

THERE are likely to be "significant adverse effects" for some seabird species when a further 180 turbines are installed in the southern North Sea.

So says an advisory panel consisting of  Jo Dowling, Stephen Bradley, Gavin Jones, Rod MacArthur, and Andrew Mahon which examined evidence from organisations such as the RSPB and Natural England.

However, Energy Security secretary Grant Shapps has ruled that Hornsea Project Four, as it is known, should go ahead in order to contribute to the UK's climate change commitments. 

The decision is good news for  Danish wind farm giant Ørsted and for the economy in Grimsby where there is a large turbine-maintenance workforce.

On its own, the new turbines may not have had too much of an impact on marine life, but there will be a cumulative effect because there are already hundreds of other wind turbines in this part of the North Sea.

The extent of the impact is likely to be monitored at RSPB Bempton Cliffs, near Bridlington in Yorkshire, where there is an important seabird breeding colony.

Species identified as being particularly at risk include kittiwake, guillemot and great black-backed gull, but puffins will also be highly vulnerable.                                             

Puffins - a species vulnerable to wind turbines which take over their feeding waters and obstruct their flightpath