David Morris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Morris on 2016-02-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what information her Department holds on the effects of offshore windfarms on the national habitats of migrating whales, seals and porpoises.
George Eustice
The Joint Cetacean Protocol (JCP) is the most comprehensive information source available on whales and porpoises in the UK. Information from the JCP is used to inform assessments of the effects of offshore windfarms on marine mammals. The information was also used to help assess the status of marine mammals as set out in the UK’s Marine Strategy Part One in 2012.
The assessment brought together a significant body of information on the distribution, abundance, trends, and status of whales, porpoises, and seals in UK waters, and a consideration of the pressures they face, including from renewable energy development. The Marine Strategy Part One concluded that the status for the five most abundant cetacean species in UK waters was ‘favourable’. Seals face a number of pressures in the UK, although where localised declines have been identified these have not been attributed to offshore wind farms. Further information can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/marine-strategy-part-one-uk-initial-assessment-and-good-environmental-status.
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