2008, Amec Wind Energy Ltd., Race Bank and Docking Shoal Offshore Wind Farms, Geophysical Investigations at the Proposed Wind Farm Sites with Associated Cable Route Corridors

Description

A major hydrographic and geophysical survey has been undertaken over a large area off the north Norfolk and east Lincolnshire coasts. This area covers much of the Race Bank and Docking Shoal sand banks, where two offshore wind farms are proposed. Additional surveys were carried out within The Wash, in order to find suitable export cable routes from the proposed development areas to the mainland. A joint venture proposal to carry out the above surveys was put together by Emu Ltd and Osiris Projects and accepted by Centrica Renewable Energy Ltd, with the surveys being carried out during the period 19th November 2005 to 11th September 2006, using Osiris Projects’ own survey vessels MV ‘Freja’ and MV ‘Lia’, together with Emu Ltd’s vessels MV ‘Emu Surveyor’ and MV ‘Morven’. The primary objectives of the survey were to acquire swath bathymetry, seabed features and sub-bottom profiling data across the area. This included the use of acoustic ground discrimination systems (AGDS), in order to define areas of similar sediment type and sensitive habitat features, by utilising the primary and multiple returns from high frequency echo sounders. By overlaying information on biological communities from the grab surveys, a ‘biotype’ map could be produced to show the different habitats and species over the area surveyed.