Environmental assessment and monitoring of ocean energy sites — A rapid, proven, and economical approach

In the search for non-petroleum based energy, development of Marine and Hydrokinetic Energy (MHK) projects is proceeding at an exciting pace around the world. There are a myriad of devices (wave, tidal, thermal) and locations (metropolitan, remote, nearshore and offshore) being considered for development of ocean energy projects. One thing that they all have in common is that the biological resources at the project site must be understood and the relationship between these resources and the project must be addressed. MHK power generation relies on the dynamic nature of the physical environment, which is paralleled by the dynamic nature of the biological environment and brings into question the dynamic of continuous interaction of biological resources with the project infrastructure. Therefore, it is important to have information not only of the presence and absence of plants and animals in the environment, but of both the "normal" and project imposed variations in the abundance, distribution, and behavior of these biological components. From the resident and migratory fish to marine mammals which may transit the area, all must be addressed during project development, piloting, and operation. These environmental considerations are of concern to government agencies, environmental regulators, the public, as well as the project developer and their investors when assessing potential ocean energy sites. In the United States, the MMC and FERC have committed to streamlined permitting processes to allow projects to move ahead quickly in order to prove their viability this includes their environmental viability. There are few proposed MHK energy project sites that have a continuous set of data on the habitat, pelagic invertebrates, fish, and marine mammals, addressing the abundance, distribution, and behavior on annual, seasonal, or daily variations. Seasonal or annual "snapshots" are often available, but are often associated with fisheries or protection and focus on specifi- behaviors or seasons and leave large gaps in the understanding of temporal variation in abundance and behavior. Recently, based on hydroacoustic (SONAR) technology, automated and continuous monitoring of MHK sites has provided both developers and regulators with the ability to collect and analyze high spatial and temporal resolution information on the changes in biological abundance and behavior at project sites. These monitoring and analysis systems provide information on the location and abundance of fish and other organisms in the water column, direction of travel, relative size, and abundance. Measured on a scale of seconds and duration of months to years, this information enables has proven useful for both planning installation and operation of power generation systems. Further developments and automation are now enabling realtime "biological triggering", changes in operation initiated by the presence and abundance of fish in the vicinity of operating equipment. An added benefit of continuous monitoring may be protection from drifting debris which could prove detrimental to the operation of these MHK devices.