TLP launches Fisheries Peer Review Group

Tidal Lagoon Power (TLP) has formed a Fisheries Peer Review Group to act as independent advisors on the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon impacts on fish.

The aim of the Fisheries Peer Review Group is to advise Tidal Lagoon Power and the fisheries research contractors on the methodology being adopted for the prediction of effects and impacts on fish as part of broader environmental impact assessments relating to Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon and future lagoon developments, TLP’s press release reads.

Chris Mills, who has been appointed as Chair of the Fisheries Peer Review Group, said: “Peer review is an essential part of achieving high quality, independent and authoritative outputs, which are accepted by regulators and other key stakeholders including the public.”

Graham Hillier, Managing Director of Development Services for Tidal Lagoon Power, added: “Building on existing knowledge and expertise, we continue to progress engineering-based feasibility studies to investigate which options could minimise environmental effects and maximise the tidal energy that can be harnessed through a series of lagoons, starting in Swansea, Cardiff and Newport.

“The Fisheries Peer Review Group has therefore been created to provide us with expert, professional, independent validation of data requirements, survey objectives, survey methods, survey findings, modelling methods and parameters, model outputs, model interpretation and impact assessment.”

The Group will provide additional support to Andy Schofield who has joined TLP as Head of Fisheries.

Other members of the Group include Steve Colclough, a fisheries scientist and Director at Colclough & Coates – SC2 Limited, and Graeme Harris, also a fisheries scientist and former Chair of the statutory Fisheries, Ecology & Recreation Committee (FERAC) for Wales.