Fugro

Fugro led the BeWild project’s offshore ecology survey campaign at CrossWind’s Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind farm in the Netherlands, delivering what the company described as the world’s first fully remote ecology survey at an offshore wind farm. The work supported environmental monitoring objectives by providing data on marine biodiversity and ecosystem health around offshore wind infrastructure. The survey integrated computer vision and environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling into Fugro’s Blue Volta electric remotely operated vehicle (eROV). The eROV was deployed from Fugro’s Blue Essence uncrewed surface vessel (USV), with both the USV and eROV controlled from Fugro’s remote operations centre in Aberdeen. Fugro stated that this remote approach improved efficiency and reduced operational disturbance offshore while maintaining high-quality data acquisition. CrossWind indicated that the campaign aligned remote asset inspection practices with ecological monitoring needs, including monitoring associated with nature-inclusive measures at the wind farm. The survey was reported as the first of four research and development assessments planned at the site under the BeWild project, which was supported by a Mission-driven Research, Development and Innovation (MOOI) subsidy from the Dutch Enterprise Agency (RVO). This role is associated with the wind farm’s operational phase environmental monitoring.