Abstract
The Dutch Government has decided to allow the construction of a Near Shore Wind Farm (NSW) demonstration project under the condition that a monitoring programme on - among other things - the ecological impacts is carried out. The Dutch government is responsible for providing a thorough description of the present ecological situation in order to evaluate future effects of planned wind farms. This report describes the detailed plan of approach to establish the occurrence, density, population structure and migration patterns of demersal fish fauna in the Dutch coastal zone. Sampling stations have been selected such that they cover the planned location of the Near Shore Wind Farm and three reference areas. These areas have been selected such that they are similar to the wind farm area (regarding depth, sediment, distance offshore) and that they overlap reference areas for benthic fauna and/or pelagic fish. Demersal fish will be sampled with two nets at the same time: a 6 m beam trawl with a fine mesh size (20 mm) to sample smaller fish representatively, and a 6 m beam trawl (40 mm mesh size) to sample larger fish representatively. The latter net is also used in a RIVO survey (SNS) that has been carried out in the coastal zone since the 1970s. Length distributions will be assessed for all fish species caught in the trawl, and functional biological data (age, weight, sex and maturity) will be collected for a selection of species. At each station, abiotic data will be collected using a CTD measuring device. Data collected will be delivered in the standard Donar Interface Format. The final report will focus on a detailed description of the demersal fish community in the Dutch coastal zone, on an integration of all results and on a discussion of the possible effects of a wind farm on the demersal fish community.