Seahorses v Wind Farm

[Yacht Yogi]

Surely the construction of a massive wind farm in and to the south of Christchurch Bay will raise thousands of tons of sediment and debris off of the sea floor to float back and forth with the tides. It is inevitable that much of this will wash ashore on the beaches of Bournemouth and the Isle of Wight and stain the sea a muddy brown for all of the several years that construction will take.

The natural pattern of sedimentation in Christchurch and Poole Bays seems to drop sand and silt along the Studland shore. That is surely why it has to be regularly dredged to maintain the shipping channel into Poole Harbour.

So how is the fragile eel grass ecosystem that the seahorses live in going to survive with a layer of mud settling over it? Will construction of the wind farm destroy the sea horses?

 

[Searush]

There are a number of HUGE windfarms off the N Wales & Wirral coastline. They were installed with no detectable impact on 60 mile coastline with potentially high risk to flocks of waders, seals, cockles, mussels, dabs & other bottom or filter feeders.

Nice try, but not a realistic scare story I suspect.

 

[oldharry]

Checked that one out spome time ago. It gets far more fallout from nearby harbour dredging and beach replenishment than anything the wind farms 12 miles away are likely produce. So no reprieve there I am afraid.