PELAgIO: Combined hydrodynamic and ecological assessment at the Seagreen windfarm

The ECOWind PELAgIO project investigates ecosystem effects of offshore wind farms. As part of this project, an Origin 600 ADCP was deployed in the vicinity of the Seagreen wind farm in Scotland. The ADCP gathered velocity and echosounder data concurrently, enabling investigation of the hydrodynamic and ecological aspects of the deployment site with a single instrument, operating at 625 kHz. The current and wave results obtained from the ADCP data showed good recovery of the tidal cycle and several wave events; the echosounder data revealed a range of biological activity, including interactions between fish schools and zooplankton layers, and possible detections of diving birds. Comparing the current and echosounder data enabled estimation of the physical length and velocity scales of the features identified.