Shipping consultancy Nash Maritime is undertaking vessel traffic surveys in the Irish and Celtic Seas to inform navigational risk assessments for Cobra and Flotation Energy’s offshore wind projects.
The vessel surveys are occurring at the White Cross and Morecombe project sites.
Navigational risk assessments are required as part of the licensing and consent process in the UK.
They are informed by vessel traffic data, historical accident information and key stakeholder views.
To ensure Nash Maritime has an accurate understanding of how the proposed area of an offshore wind farm and its environs are used, vessel traffic surveys, are undertaken to validate existing AIS data.
Nash Maritime director Ed Rogers said: “We are pleased to be assisting Cobra and Flotation Energy in developing their offshore wind ambitions.”
These surveys for Cobra and Flotation Energy are the second undertaken by Nash Maritime and are scheduled to collect data for peak usage of the areas in summer months.
They follow surveys undertaken in early 2022 which captured vessel activity in the winter season.
Rogers added: “The data collected will provide a basis for us to undertake a structured navigation risk assessment for each site to identify key navigation issues and determine appropriate mitigation.”
Vessel traffic surveys’ data will be used to develop a clear baseline understanding of vessel traffic activity in the vicinity of the proposed wind farm sites.
Nash Maritime uses a bespoke data collection and fusing protocol, with near real time data upload and processing which guarantees data fidelity and quality from vessel traffic surveys.
The processed data is also used to facilitate and interface with stakeholder consultation.
The navigation risk assessments will be used to inform the individual EIAs that are in preparation for each site; one of which is a marine license application, and the other is a Development Consent Order.
The White Cross application is expected to be submitted in 2023, and the Morecambe application in 2024.