The Offshore Wind Industry Council is welcoming the funding by the Offshore Wind Evidence and Change Programme (OWEC) for further research into an environmentally friendly way of catching scallops, using underwater LED lights, enabling more diversified fishing around offshore wind farms.

The 18-month project will explore ways to co-locate scallop fisheries and offshore wind farms together, using alternative fishing methods to the traditional practice of dredging along the seabed which disturbs marine habitats and species. The LED lights, which use the same technology as disco lights, are placed into modified lobster and crab pots. Early trials showed that scallops are drawn towards them leading to an increase in the catch of up to 500 per cent. These will now be rolled out at a regional level by fishing crews in Scarborough, Bridlington and Whitby who fish around and within offshore windfarms.

The team working on the LED lights project includes the Offshore Wind Industry Council, Ørsted and the University of Exeter, as well as Fishtek Marine. Funding has also come from Natural England and the Fishmongers Guild.

RenewableUK’s consents and environment assistant manager Oscar Wilkie said: “As the offshore wind sector expands, it’s increasingly important that we find ways to work together with other industries at sea such as commercial fishing. We’re keen to ensure that the sea continues to be a shared space which benefits everyone, including nature and industry. We hope that this project will show that innovative environmentally friendly fishing methods can be used to enable us to use the same areas of seabed.”

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