2002, Caroline Weir, Gunfleet Sands Offshore Wind Farm, Marine Mammals

Description

Assessment of the marine mammals present at the site of the Gunfleet Sands Offshore Wind Farm.   The Gunfleet Sands Marine Mammals report details the different species of marine mammals potentially foudn in the area of Gunfleet Sands.  This study has been put together using a variety of literature and databases about Marine Mammals in the area of the Gunfleet Sands Offshore Wind Farm site.

The impact on marine mammals of the construction, operation and eventual decommissioning of a wind farm at Gunfleet Sands has been shown to be very small, due to the general lack of marine mammal population inhabiting the area.  Cetaceans are scarce within the region, and otters have not been shown to occur within the marine environment at all and seldom within the adjacent freshwater habitat at Clacton-on-Sea.  Grey seals are also scarce within the region and have not established a breeding population in the Thames Estuary.