At sea bird surveys for marine developments: when you need to conduct a survey

At sea bird surveys are needed for some marine licensing applications.

There are four steps to determining if project specific at sea surveys are likely to be needed:

1. Identify potential impact pathways
2. Determine the marine licence band and understand consenting risk
3. Identify if the zone of influence of the proposed activity overlaps with areas that are protected or important for birds at sea
4. Determine the suitability of existing data

We'd advise any developers planning surveys to contact us before starting. This will help avoid delays to the overall project programme. If surveys are beyond 12 nautical miles offshore, developers should also seek advice from the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) who are the statutory adviser for offshore waters.

Potential impact pathways

Key impact pathways for birds at sea are:

• disturbance and displacement effects due to:
  • airborne and underwater noise
  • and/or visual stimuli as a result of human activity e.g. during construction or maintenance works
• displacement as a direct result of anthropogenic structures
• collision with moving structures both above and below the water
• habitat loss and change, including changes in prey resources
• changes in turbidity as a result of increased suspended sediment concentrations
  
  

Licensing band and consenting risks

Band 1 licences and activities

Project specific at sea bird surveys will not be needed for:

• activities with no, or negligible, impact pathways affecting birds at sea
• marine licensing Band 1 activities which are small scale with a low consenting risk

Band 2 licences

These activities are generally considered to be of low consenting risk for birds at sea and are unlikely to require at sea surveys.

There may be some cases where at sea surveys are required such as:

• larger scale navigational maintenance dredging in areas subject to limited dredging campaigns
• overlaps with protected sites and/or areas with functional linkages

Read more about Band 2 and Band 3 marine licensing activities.

Band 3 licences

Band 3 licences are any applications that require an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) determined through a screening process, or projects over £1 million - typically larger scale developments.

Some Band 3 activities are considered to have a low to moderate consenting risk for birds at sea including:

• aquaculture
• aggregates
• cables
• pipeline projects

These activities are generally considered to have a low likelihood of project specific surveys being required.  But, if the zone of influence of a project extends into protected sites and/or areas with functional linkages - and where existing data for these areas is considered insufficient - the likelihood of surveys increases.

Band 3 activities that are considered to have a high consenting risk for birds at sea include:

• offshore renewable energy projects
• large coastal developments with extensive marine works
• nuclear energy developments with marine works

These activities are generally considered to have a high likelihood of requiring project specific surveys. 

Zone of influence overlap

The potential requirement for at sea bird surveys is considered to increase for Band 3 activities, and more rarely for larger scale navigational maintenance dredging (a Band 2 activity) if the zone of influence:

• directly overlaps with a designated site for marine birds (SPA, Ramsar, Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI))
• overlaps with a recognised important area which has functional relationship/connectivity with the designated site (such as a foraging ground for an SPA or SSSI designated for breeding seabirds)

Suitability of existing data

For Band 3 activities considered higher consenting risk, existing survey data will typically need to provide robust distribution and abundance estimates within the project specific ZOI (based on using appropriate surveying techniques).

The data will also need to be contemporary. Data older than 5 years could provide useful contextual information. More recent data is typically required to provide accurate distribution and density estimates for characterisation purposes.

For Band 2 activities and Band 3 activities that are lower consenting risk, survey data collected at a project level is less likely to be required. Existing data collected over a broader scale may be potentially suitable for characterisation purposes.

Read more about Band 2 and Band 3 marine licensing activities.

Survey design, methods and analysis

If it's determined that project specific surveys are required - for both baseline and post consent surveys - download our guidance on at sea ornithological surveys.

It gives information about:

• factors to consider to help identify the most appropriate survey techniques
• what we need to see to assess the suitability of the proposed survey and monitoring work