Construction in our hometown is booming and often the lots are bulldozed rapidly, with all the trees cut, then not long after small seedlings are being replanted to bring back a bit of greenery. The ocean, a vast and dynamic space that functions as a dinner table, nursery, and school for many marine mammals, is also facing a global boom. With offshore wind capacity expected to exceed 630 GW by 2050 and ports, oil & gas exploration and other sectors continuing to expand, these environments face similar impacts as our hometown lots.
While it may be tempting to skip ahead by replanting the trees, we must look more strategically at how these impacts can be minimized to balance development with the conservation of marine ecosystems that both humans and marine life depend on. The environmental mitigation hierarchy provides a structured framework to reduce any harm and ensure more sustainable practices across industries.
Understanding the Mitigation Hierarchy
The mitigation hierarchy consists of four key steps. Each step involves strategies tailored to protecting marine mammals and their habitats from noise pollution, habitat disruption, and other disturbances. It is important to apply those concepts to the entire lifecycle of any offshore project, from the early planning stages to the decommissioning phase in order to mitigate impacts effectively.
1. Avoidance: The First Line of Defense
Love tea? Overfilling your kettle can be a serious water and energy vampire. In the UK alone, it is estimated that 2,649,792 kWh of electricity could be wasted daily because we don’t always get the timing or quantity right when filling the kettle. You don’t have to say no to tea altogether. What if you timed your hot water just right? The same goes for big offshore projects. Avoiding harmful impacts is the most effective strategy. Avoiding peak migration or breeding seasons when planning construction is key. Even better, placing sites outside of critical habitats, migratory routes, or breeding habitats significantly reduces the risk to marine mammals. Advanced mapping techniques, leveraging AI-powered species detection tools such as Möbius or Cetus, can help identify and avoid vulnerable marine ecosystems as well as better understand habitat use.
2. Minimization: Reducing the Impact Where Avoidance Isn’t Feasible
If avoidance isn’t technically or economically feasible, the next step is to minimize negative impacts as much as possible. This involves keeping noise levels down for marine species who rely on sound for communication, navigation and feeding. Quieter pile driving technologies, or other mitigation techniques such as a soft start, bubble curtains and deterrent devices can mitigate risk. Operational adjustments should also be considered at this stage. These can include reduced vessel speeds to avoid ship strikes or dynamic management of speeds based on real-time detections. Real-time monitoring, such as Möbius Observer, also has the advantage of confirming presence in close vicinity to the construction site and thus making sure to respect the designated exclusion zones which vary between a 500 m and 1 km radius according to different jurisdictions.
3. Restoration: Repairing Impacted Ecosystems
Despite best efforts, some environmental impact will be unavoidable with offshore operations. Restoration hence aims to rehabilitate affected ecosystems at the project location, ensuring biodiversity recovery. This may include active restoration by replanting seagrass meadows and coral restoration to serve as crucial feeding and breeding grounds for marine species, or more passively supporting biodiversity recovery by designating the area as a conservation zone.
4. Offset/Compensation: Balancing Residual Impacts by Improving Biodiversity Elsewhere
When residual impacts persist despite avoidance, minimization, and restoration, offset or compensation measures may make sense to achieve zero biodiversity net loss or even a net gain. This involves investing in conservation projects that enhance marine mammal populations and habitats elsewhere by establishing artificial reefs, funding marine mammal research, or supporting the removal of marine litter.
STEP | POSSIBLE ACTIONS |
Avoid | ✔ Identify and avoid marine hotspots, including species-at-risk areas and calving grounds. ✔ Work during seasons when sensitive species are less present. ✔ Leverage historical and real-time data to make informed, responsible decisions. ✔ Respect buffer zones around MPAs and other sensitive areas |
Minimize | ✔ Opt for low-noise drilling technologies to limit acoustic disturbance. ✔ Deploy bubble curtains to reduce underwater noise. ✔ Use acoustic deterrent devices or slow starts to temporarily displace marine life before high-impact activities. ✔ Reduce vessel strikes by reducing ship speeds or dynamically manage based on real-time detections ✔ Diligently monitor the exclusion zone by leveraging real-time detection tools like Möbius Observer |
Restore | ✔ Restore damaged seabeds, coral reefs, seagrass beds (in the areas interested by the sea cables reaching the shore) or re-introduce algal forests essential for marine food webs ✔ Protect the marine ecosystems within the wind farm areas to enhance natural recovery |
Compensate | ✔ Removal of abandoned infrastructures, of marine litter and ghost nets ✔ Collaborate with research organizations to advance industry-wide solutions. ✔Support rehabilitation programs (for injured individuals) ✔Help to implement bycatch reduction measures and sustainable fishing practices |
The Role of Technology in Marine Mammal Conservation
Technological advancements play a critical role in every step of the mitigation hierarchy. Whale Seeker’s suite of AI-powered image annotation tools can provide critical insights for environmental impact assessments. These tools allow offshore industries to make data-driven decisions to better quantify project and residual impacts in order to prioritize marine resource conservation while maintaining operational efficiency.
As offshore industries continue to expand, it is essential to not skip forward to compensation measures. All phases, especially avoidance and minimization, coupled with cutting-edge AI-powered monitoring tools, can ensure that marine mammals and their ecosystems are protected while enabling sustainable business decisions.
At Whale Seeker, we provide efficient, data-driven marine mammal monitoring tools designed to help offshore industries meet environmental regulations while ensuring sustainable operations. Explore our solutions HERE.
F.A.Q.
How do regulatory frameworks and policies influence the application of the mitigation hierarchy in different offshore industries?
Regulations play a crucial role in how the mitigation hierarchy is applied across different industries and countries. For example, Germany and the United Kingdom have implemented strict noise reduction requirements, mandating seasonal restrictions and the use of bubble curtains. Companies that proactively integrate best practices, gain a competitive advantage and lead the way in terms of sustainability.
What are the biggest challenges in implementing real-time monitoring and how are they being addressed?
How effective are compensation measures in truly offsetting biodiversity loss and what criteria are used to evaluate their success?