BSEP116B Biodiversity in the Baltic Sea - Helcom

Figure 6.3.2. Left: High-voltage electric power cables in the Baltic Sea. Right: Location and status of wind farms in the Baltic
Sea (Compiled from: BSH - German Hydrographic Agency; EWEA - The European Wind Energy Association; Elsam Engineering
A/S, 2004 – Denmark; Georg Martin – Estonia; Maritime Offices – Poland; Pasi Laihonen – Finland; Ulla Li Zweifel –Sweden;
www.vattenfall.se).
of cargo, 3.3 million containers, 60 million passengers
and 200 000 port calls (BPO 2007). The capacity
of Baltic ports is constantly increasing and almost all
Baltic ports have new development projects. Large
development projects have been planned for Primorsk,
Ust-Luga and St. Petersburg in Russia; Ventspills,
Riga and Liepaja in Latvia; Klaipeda in Lithuania;
Tallinn and Sillamae in Estonia; and Gdańsk and
Świnoujście in Poland.
Traditionally, ports have been constructed in estuaries,
which are biotopes of high biological value. Ports
are also places of increased risk of accidental pollution,
emissions of contaminants to the atmosphere
and sea, and introduction of alien species. Construction
of ports generally leads to degradation of the
seafloor and coastal habitats and alteration of coastal
currents. For example, during the construction of the
new port of Helsinki, extensive environmental monitoring
showed an increase of TBT in bivalves, a deterioration
in the spawning of herring and degraded
macroalgal zonation (Vatanen & Haikonen 2008).
However, impacts from increased turbidity on nearby
areas remained smaller than expected and the construction
work did not visibly affect marine or coastal
bird populations (Yrjölä 2007).
Offshore wind power farms
Although there are currently only a few large wind
farms in operation in the Baltic Sea, there are many
that have been planned (Figure 6.3.2, right) or are
already going through an EIA process. Despite the
fact that wind farms are not a source of chemical
or biological pollution, they remain controversial.
They may have environmental effects such as: i) the
possibility of bird collisions, ii) emission of noise and
vibration, iii) possible disruption of fish migration, iv)
loss of feeding and spawning grounds, v) creation of
electromagnetic fields, vi) possible alterations of sea
currents, and vii) changes in the natural landscape.
According to recent studies on wind farms, their
construction phase causes more harmful effects on
the environment than the operational phase (Prins
et al. 2008). The reactions of fish and mammals to
noise, vibrations and electromagnetic fields created
by wind farms are still rather poorly known but there
are several ongoing projects addressing the issue.
At the Nystedt wind farm in the southern Baltic Sea,
harbour porpoises clearly avoid the operating wind
farm area, possibly owing to noise pollution (Elsam
Engineering & ENERGI E2 2005). On the other hand,
in the North Sea such behaviour has not been found
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