ID: 2016
Presenting Author: Pauline De Rock
Session: 713 - Technical Outreach and Storytelling: Key to Investing in Biodiversity
Status: pending
RETEX transformed two decades of offshore wind monitoring data into actionable knowledge, revealing biodiversity trends and guiding future impact assessment and sustainable planning.
The RETEX project, commissioned by the French Ministry of Energy, Ecology and the Sea for the national offshore wind observatory, sought to transform two decades of dispersed environmental monitoring data into coherent, usable knowledge. Conducted by Biotope and its partners (BioConsult SH, HiDef Aerial Surveying, BRL Ingénierie, RBINS), the study reviewed 514 monitoring reports from 35 European offshore wind farms across six countries.
Beyond its scientific ambition, RETEX aimed to make environmental evidence accessible and meaningful for decision-makers, regulators, investors and the public. By synthesizing long technical reports into clear narratives, it revealed both achievements and gaps in biodiversity monitoring. Harbour porpoises consistently showed construction-related disturbance followed by recovery, while birds exhibited site-specific attraction and displacement patterns. Yet, entire biological groups—such as bats and plankton—remained largely overlooked.
As offshore wind expansion accelerates globally, countries like France have set ambitious targets—18 GW by 2035 and 45 GW by 2050. Achieving these goals requires a solid, shared understanding of environmental effects and monitoring practices. RETEX demonstrates how regulatory monitoring reports, often overlooked in international discussions, provide valuable long-term data to complement peer-reviewed studies. This first large-scale review of regulatory monitoring reports offers a robust knowledge base to inform future environmental impact assessments.
Marine ecologist and project manager at Biotope, Pauline has eight years’ experience in offshore wind, marine mammals and bird studies in France, the Caribbean and South Africa.
Coauthor 1: Magali Sabino
Coauthor 2: Florian Lecorps