Underwater images show a lot of marine life in Blauwwind wind farm

A team of researchers have visited the offshore wind farm Borssele III & IV twice now for monitoring of 2,400 released flat oysters. The oyster tables were originally placed on the base of some wind turbines in October 2020.

In addition to the survival, growth and presence of oyster larvae, the researchers from The Rich North Sea and Eurofins AquaSense also investigated biodiversity. For this they used E-DNA traces in the water and an underwater camera. The underwater videos show lots of life around the rock substrate and foundations of the wind turbines. A total of 65 animal species were recognized with the video footage and another 24 species groups were found from the analysis. Our results show that the composition and development of species is still forming and emerging in the young wind farm. This summer, the researchers will return for the next monitoring activity. We hope to see that the first oysters have settled on the shell layer and rock formations around the wind turbine.

Photo: ‘Common starfish’ by Joost van Uffelen

The images in the following video give you a selection of the animal species that are present in the Borssele wind farm