Effects of operational off-shore wind farms on fishes and fisheries. Review report

Offshore wind farms (OWFs) are a crucial element for achieving a sustainable future due to their provision of renewable energy. The rapid expansion and build-out scenarios of OWFs often surpasses the knowledge of their long-term impacts on biodiversity, specifically on fish communities. Therefore, acceptance of OWFs may vary between areas, and the fishing industry is often concerned, although some cases have revealed the potential for collaboration between OWFs and commercial fisheries. Worldwide, researchers are producing relevant information, ranging from OWF effects on different marine species and ecosystems to management strategies for dealing with conflicts in overlapping areas of OWFs and fisheries. However, the knowledge remains scattered in the scientific literature and may advance at a higher pace than the rate at which the observations are clustering. Aiming to provide an informed understanding of the potential influence of OWFs on fish and fisheries, we conducted a systematic review of peer-reviewed scientific literature. Specifically, we assessed the direct effects of four potential stressors: electromagnetic fields (EMFs), underwater noise (UWN), particle motion (PM), and vibration, relevant for OWFs during the operational stage. We targeted the operational stage, because it is the longest stage of an OWF, covering most of its lifetime. Moreover, to date, environmental research on the potential impacts during the OWF construction stage surpasses previous environmental research relevant for the operational stage. Using results from Web of Science and Scopus search engines, we covered a total of 5,181 records and applied scientific review approaches to identify 67 scientific publications of direct relevance to the review topics. We observed that most literature consisted of non-empirical studies (i.e., not producing new data; n=40), while empirical studies (i.e., producing new data; n=27) were scarce and mainly restricted to EMFs (n=17) and UWN (n=10). Ou