A special event to celebrate COWRIE’s contribution to the UK offshore wind industry, and thank all of those who have supported the work of COWRIE, was held on 28th June. The event took place on board The Royal Daffodil, a Mersey Ferry, which departed from Liverpool and steamed around Burbo Bank Offshore Wind Farm whilst guests enjoyed a drinks reception, light dinner and musical entertainment from up-and-coming Liverpool band, Sound of Guns.COWRIE Board Members were pleased to welcome onboard members of the COWRIE Working Groups, who have generously contributed their time and expertise to support the work of COWRIE, as well as representatives of offshore wind farm developers, RenewableUK, the Marine Management Organisation, government bodies, statutory conservation agencies, conservation NGOs and others. The evening kicked off with short speeches from: Alan Moore, Chairman of COWRIE; Rob Hastings, COWRIE Board Member and Director of Marine at the Crown Estate; Maria McCaffery, CEO of RenewableUK; and Ashley Holt of the Marine Management Organisation. Carolyn Heeps (Company Secretary) completed the presentations and encouraged guests to network freely for the rest of the evening. There was a particular emphasis on the unique, collaborative nature of COWRIE, which has enabled offshore wind farm developers to work with regulators and conservation organisations to develop best-practice standards and ensure the environmental sustainability of their industry. Ashley Holt reminded those present of the need to ensure that the function COWRIE has performed is not lost once the charity is wound up later this year. For the remainder of the evening guests were free to mingle over food and drink, get a rare view of Burbo Bank Offshore Wind Farm from the water and enjoy the musical entertainment – Sound of Guns put on a great show! By selecting a new, young band, already enjoying early success, COWRIE was once again able to demonstrate their innovative and fresh approach to the offshore industry! Many people took this opportunity to make new connections and, in some cases, put faces to names previously known only by email.The event was a great success, with thanks due to all of those whose hard work went into the planning and execution. We would like to thank everyone who attended for helping us to celebrate the achievements of COWRIE in style, and further develop our legacy of collaboration between developers, conservation agencies, regulators and others, to ensure the sustainable development of the UK’s offshore wind industry. We look forward to seeing everyone at our final appearance at the RenewableUK Annual Conference in Glasgow, in early November. Drop by the stand to say hello.(Photo courtesy of Stuart Rayner)
June 2010
COWRIE provided sponsorship for the RSPB Firth of Forth Stakeholders Seabird Cruise, held on 16th June. The event brought together a wide variety of stakeholders, including offshore wind developers, and was an excellent opportunity for those attending to discuss common issues whilst experiencing some of the Firth’s wildlife at first-hand. By running and funding this event, RSPB and COWRIE hope to pave the way for the sustainable and responsible development of this ecologically sensitive and commercially important area. (Photo courtesy of RSPB)
Dr Carolyn Heeps, Secretary of COWRIE Ltd, chaired a plenary session on Project Development and Consenting at RenewableUK’s Offshore Wind 2010 Conference, held in Liverpool 29th – 30th June. The session explored whether the new consenting regime is equipped to cope with the scale and speed of the projected development of offshore wind and explored what will be required to consent the 40GW of capacity that has been licensed. The panel included 2 leading industry legal advisors, Marcus Trinick QC and Julian Boswell, who posed questions directly to Pauline Lane, Deputy Commissioner of the IPC, and Ashley Holt, Round 3 Wind Energy Programme Manager at the MMO. Additional questions from the floor ensured a very lively and informative debate. (Photo courtesy of RenewableUK)
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COWRIE are pleased to publish the above report prepared by the Marine Biological Association. The report is a review of aspects of documenting and disseminating marine biological data. In January 2007 two separate workshops were held; one looking at marine biological data standards and the second on image and video standards. This report continues the work of these workshops in establishing guidance for best practice in documenting and disseminating marine biological data. The aim of the report is to put forward a number of ideas for discussion to facilitate more efficient and effective flow of data between contractors and data commissioners and between data providers and archive centres. Included is a brief review of current work in collating protocols, prior to looking at the key information required to document methodologies. Data requirements were reviewed by data collection methods and a checklist of essential metadata and archiving formats has been provided. Examples of data standards are provided, collated from organisations attending the original workshops. The report reviews different data formats and some minimum and recommended standards are suggested. A number of areas requiring further clarification are identified and recommendations for future work are also made. The full report can be downloaded here.
November 2008
COWRIE is pleased to announce the release of the above report, prepared by Ichthys Marine Ecological Consulting Ltd. This research was commissioned to explore the benefits and disadvantages of co-locating windfarms with marine conservation zones, with a focus on commercial fishing. The final report can be downloaded here.
March 2011
COWRIE are pleased to publish the above report prepared by EMU Limited. EMU was commissioned by COWRIE to produce guidance on how best to achieve the integration of offshore geotechnical investigations and their data outputs, arising from offshore renewable energy projects, with archaeological historic environment analysis, and ensure optimum use of geotechnical data. This guidance is specifically concerned with offshore areas likely to be affected by renewable energy projects, including the area up to the cable landfall, which is defined for the purposes of this document as the Mean Low Water Mark. For a number of years, geotechnical data generated by offshore renewable energy projects have been archaeologically assessed as part of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process. Although there is a broad level of consistency in the approaches to archaeological assessment of geotechnical data adopted by the archaeological community, the manner in which this assessment process has developed and become accepted within EIA requirements has meant that there are some fundamental issuesthat need to be addressed – in particular the integration into the geotechnical programme of archaeological assessment.With the major site investigations that will flow from the Round 3 offshore renewable energy programme this guidance is a response to a clear need to ensure that historic environment considerations form part of the process of planning and implementing geotechnical investigations undertaken for future offshore renewable energy projects, and that data and samples from these investigations are available for archaeological assessment. The aim of this document is to provide best practice options in relation to the integration of archaeology with offshore developmentled geotechnical investigations. This will assist offshore renewable energy developers, geotechnical, archaeological and environmental consultancies and contractors, industry regulators and other authorities, and national and local historic environment curators in managing the marine historic environment during the EIA process. The full report can be downloaded here.
January 2011
COWRIE has funded workshops for primary school children, to introduce them to offshore wind and related topics through games and interactive learning. The workshops have run at a number of locations around the country, with hundreds of children able to participate. Please see the Education section of the COWRIE website for more information and teaching resources. Law Primary School participated in the St Andrews workshop - you can read what they had to say about the day here.
December 2010
The introduction of offshore windfarms and marine conservation zones (MCZs) in UK waters has the potential to affect the viability of fishing activities. Establishing windfarms and MCZs in the same places, termed co-location, could reduce any impacts on fishermen through minimising any loss of ground, but other benefits and some disadvantages may also result. Ichthys Marine is currently undertaking work for COWRIE with the aim of identifying the benefits and disadvantages of co-location to inform the MCZ designation process. A draft report is now out for consultation until the 6th December and can be downloaded here. Comments on the report are welcomed and can be sent to Dr. Rob Blyth-Skyrme at rob@ichthysmarine.comPlease note: The consultation deadline has been extended from 29th November to 6th December
15 November 2010
There are no current tender opportunities.
© COWRIE 2008
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