Ireland's fishing crisis: Trawler operators fear they will lose out to offshore windfarms

However, to the fishing industry, the first step of a process to get planning permission to build the windfarms brings their fears closer.

Fishers are not just worried they will lose fishing waters — there are also concerns about how the construction and operation of windfarms might scare fish away from some traditional fishing grounds.

Irish Fish Producers Organisation CEO Aodh O'Donnell said: "There is significant and serious concern about the displacement impact on fish stocks from the proposed windfarms.

"This is because areas targeted for windfarms are the main spawning and catching areas."

Impact statement

References to the impacts of offshore windfarms on fish can be found in a variety of reports.

One is the January 2012 Environmental Impact Statement of the Kish and Bray Banks’ windfarm project, one of the seven to be allocated a seabed lease.

Impacts are listed as “the loss of habitat and species” under the footprint of the turbine foundations and cable laying. They also include the effects of vibration, noise, and electromagnetic fields.

The impact statement noted there could be a likely increase in suspended sediment in the water, which “may clog the gills of fish”.

It adds: “High levels of suspended solids settling on the seabed can alter habitat, resulting in a potential loss of feeding and spawning grounds.”

Given the 50-metre steel supports onto which wind turbines are secured can take up to five hours to install and need up to 4,000 blows from a pile-hammer to get it into place securely, noise is also a factor.

It was also noted: “Cod and herring will be able to perceive piling noise at large distances, perhaps up to 80km from the source.

“Behavioural effects, like avoidance and flight reactions, alarm response and changes of shoaling behaviour are possible due to piling noise.”

Auditory injury to fish, such as herring, from the noise of a single pile strike would be possible from up to 3km away, the impact statement noted.

Meanwhile, it also noted of the impact on the behaviours of fish, that “piling noise is likely to be aversive to fish species in ranges varying from 4km for bass to 28km and 30km for cod and herring respectively”.

Mitigation factors

However, the extent of the impacts on the fishing industry of wind farms on the Bray and Kish bank is repeatedly played down in this particular impact assessment study.

Instead, it envisages a range of mitigation factors that would or could minimise any of the worst kind of impact.

Once cables are installed, for example, the report states “habitats and feeding grounds are expected to return to their original state within a short timeframe”.

It also stresses “the impact of noise from the piling operation will be of negligible significance”.

While pollutants and chemicals “could contaminate the area” around the wind turbines, the report notes “suitable precautions and best practice for the storage, handling, and disposal of such material will be followed”.

Seven windfarms already in the pipeline

The initial seven projects, which are among more than 60 in the pipeline, will create at least 487 offshore wind turbines across project sites covering hundreds of square kilometres up to around 25km off the Irish coast.

By the time each project has been completed, the number of turbines from all seven Phase One projects could be more than 680 in total and that is just the start of Ireland’s so-called ‘wind rush’.

As well as turbines and associated underwater cable channels, offshore substation platforms will need to be built for some of the wind farms.

Two, for example, will be needed for the €2.2bn 62-turbine Arklow Bank II project off the Co Wicklow coast.

The biggest of the Phase One offshore projects is the Codling Wind Park which covers a project site area of 125 square kilometres alone about 20km off the Co Wicklow coast.

While the initial estimate for the number of turbines required had been put at a maximum of 140, the project team says advances in wind turbine technology, combined with a more detailed understanding of the wind farm site, means a maximum of 100 turbines – almost a third less – will now be required.

Electricité de France (EDF) owns half of the massive wind project but the French company was recently nationalised by French president Emmanuel Macron.

This means France will own, via Codling, 50% of one of the most significant developments in offshore renewables in the Irish State, as well as other significant renewable projects in solar and onshore windfarms across Ireland.

EDF also owns Wexford Solar, which has plans for eight sites across Ireland and other onshore wind projects, including a windfarm in Co Carlow, that amount to a further 1GW of power-generating potential.

Next in size is Arklow Bank II, where it has been reported that up to 200 wind turbines in total are expected to be built over time.

There will be another 145 turbines of both the Bray and Kish Banks projects, all also off the Co Wicklow coast.

There is also the 55-unit Oriel Wind Park southeast of Dundalk, and the 50-turbine North Irish Sea Array project off the coasts of Dublin, Meath, and Louth.

The seventh project in Eamon Ryan’s announcement is the Sceirde Rocks, off the Galway coast, which proposes to build at least 35 turbines.