APEM continues wildlife surveys offshore New York

APEM has commenced the second year of aerial marine wildlife surveys at the Beacon Wind project offshore New York.

APEM will design and deliver digital surveys to assess the abundance and distribution of birds, marine mammals, turtles, sharks, and rays present in the lease area over the course of a full year.

The data will provide the information required for conducting impact assessments for the project being developed by Equinor and BP.

In December 2019, APEM began a series of 16 surveys that were designed to capture scientifically robust data on the use of the area by all marine wildlife.

During this time, 193,000 images were captured, of which 3,890 contained objects of interest, the company said.

“Empire Wind was APEM’s first developer project on the US east coast, so we are really pleased to have been retained to provide surveys for the Beacon Wind project using the same industry-leading approach,” said APEM President Stuart Clough.

“Our grid-based survey design provides statistically robust abundance and distribution data across the whole of the lease area plus a buffer which will underpin the impact assessment process required for the construction and operations plan.”

Beacon Wind, which has a potential capacity of more than 2.4 GW, is located 60 miles east of Montauk Point and 20 miles south of Nantucket and covers 128,000 ha. The initial phase of the project is due to commence commercial operation around 2028.