Xpra Artificial reefs for protecting fishing around offshore wind farms

As offshore wind farms are developed, installing artificial reefs may provide a suitable means of offsetting the farms' impact on the environment and the fishing industry.

The XPRA project will examine an environmentally appropriate reef model based on fibre-reinforced concrete. It will be designed to withstand the hydrodynamic conditions in the Channel and to be economically sustainable.

What makes the project particularly interesting is that it will provide concrete results from a pilot study carried out in the Channel close to future wind-farm sites. Equally important is the impetus it will give to developing collaboration between scientists and fishing industry professionals at various stages of the reef creation process.

Using numerical modelling tools, studies will focus in particular on the stability and the resilience of these constructions in areas of rough seas. The project will perfect a decision-making tool for establishing the reef mass dimensions, immersion depth and sea state. It will identify a proven method for scientifically monitoring conditions in the Channel by adapting methodologies, which have already been tested in the Mediterranean, and will put innovative protocols into practice.

Thus the project is aimed at offering ways, on the one hand, to improve the design, manufacturing and positioning processes for artificial reefs and, on the other hand, to establish and test appropriate methodologies for scientifically monitoring artificial reefs in the environmental conditions of the Channel.