To address the continued high level of uncertainty surrounding many interactions of marine renewable energy devices and the environment, Expert Forums bring researchers together for the purpose of discussing topics in an informal online setting. The topics chosen for Expert Forums are technical topics that are proving to be difficult to solve, and are being pursued by several research groups around the world. Ongoing Expert Forums on Tethys are sponsored by Annex IV.
Led by prominent marine renewable energy researchers and with a group of experts invited to participate, these discussions are recorded and hosted on Tethys so that stakeholders can benefit from the conversations. Compared with Tethys webinars, topics covered by Experts’ Forums are typically more technical in nature, and are part of an effort to encourage interaction and collaboration across the research community. If you have additional thoughts or feedback, please feel free to leave comments at the bottom of each expert forum page.
Expert Forums Archive
| Series Number | Title | Date | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Expert Forum #4 | Risk of Collision between Marine Mammals and Tidal Turbines - Assessing at the Population Level | Aug 16, 2016 | This expert forum will focus on the population level assessment of collision risk. Discussion will focus on the frameworks available for understanding and evaluating the population consequences of collision related mortality e.g. PBR based thresholds, PVA, stochastic population modelling and how regulators in different countries make decisions. We will also hopefully explore the idea of setting threshold levels of impact and ‘apportioning’ impact between different potential sources. |
|
Expert Forum #3 |
Potential Risks to Larvae and Plankton from Tidal Turbines | Aug 11, 2016 | This forum focused on whether lobster and fish larvae and other zooplankton may be at risk from tidal energy development, whether there is a suitable way to evaluate that risk, and how that risk may be communicated to regulators and stakeholders. The experts concluded that tidal turbines would be unlikely to pose a risk to these small size classes of marine life. |
| Expert Forum #2 | Risk of Collision between Marine Animals and Tidal Turbines | Dec 16, 2014 | This forum focused on the following: reaching some consensus on defining interactions; discussing the scales over which these interactions occur; examining lessons learned from collisions of birds with wind turbines and exploring their applicability to collision with tidal turbines; and setting the stage for discussing the different sensory modalities and varying scales of associated behavioral actions that may govern the risk to marine animals from turbines. |
| Expert Forum #1 | Analyzing Acoustic Data around Marine Energy Devices | Jul 24, 2014 | The use of active acoustic instruments to measure interactions of marine animals and seabirds around marine energy devices is hampered by inherently high water flows around the energy generating devices. Experts in this field were gathered to discuss techniques and challenges in an unforgiving environment. |
