Marine Mammals and Turtles (MMST)

Resources

Impacts on MSST

Noise and EMF effects from construction, operation, and decommissioning activities,

Entanglement and collision with infrastructure and vessels

Displacement from OSW farm areas during construction, and attraction to OSW infrastructure due to the artificial reef effect.

While we have limited data on taxa specific to CA, our conditions are unique and yet to be tested. Impacts to anticipate include entanglement, noise pollution, and behavior changes. The least studied impact on MMST was entanglement (8.3%). Taut mooring configurations present the lowest risk of entanglement. The lowest noise-emitting activities occur during the installation of suction bucket foundations and floating foundations that use suction caissons, drag, dead-weight, or embedded anchors. Additionally, 6.5 and 9.5 MW floating and fixed-bottom turbines produce similar operational noise levels. Significantly, the operational noise of larger turbines (20 MW) could lead to greater cumulative noise pollution than 10 MW turbines. Modeling on vessel speed reductions has been shown to decrease blue and humpback whale vessel collisions in California by 5.8% and 5.4%, respectively.

The operational noise levels for California’s projects are unknown as the industry has not decided on the exact platform/foundation type and mooring system configuration. Displacement of MSST due to OSW is primarily short-term and concentrated during the construction phase. No literature discussed the impacts of decommissioning activities on MMST; however, the risks and impacts are likely similar to those of pre construction activities.

MMST Literature

MMST Literature

Impact

Column 2

Noise

Entanglement

Vessel Strike

Displacement

Habitat Alterations

Reference

Risch et al. (2023)

Harnois et al. (2015)

Benhemma-Le Gall et al. (2021)

Vallejo et al. (2017)

F. Thomsen et al. (2023)

Rockwood et al. (2020)

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