The main purpose of this sampling was to study the effects on fish near the monopiles in the OWEZ windpark. A multi-mesh gillnet is used, with six mesh sizes. Each mesh size forms a single panel of 6,7 meters in width. Every mesh-size panel occurs twice in each net, thus a complete net consists of 12 panels and has a length of about 80 meters.

The main purpose of this sampling was to study the effects of the OWEZ windpark on the demersal fish community. Because before installation of the windfarm the main fisheries activity in the area was bottom trawling, it is expected that exclusion of fisheries in the wind farm has the largest effect on the demersal fish community.

Pelagic fish surveys for the Monitoring and Evaluation Programme of the OWEZ wind park

In 2006, the first Dutch offshore wind farm was built 10-19 km from the shore of Egmond aan Zee. A monitoring and evalulation program accompanied the plans for the construction and exploitation of this farm. This dataset focusses on the monitoring and evaluation of potential ecological consequences in the Dutch coastal zone related to this farm for the fish community. Monitoring was executed prior to the construction of the farm (2003/2004), one year after (2007/2008) and five years after (2011). Surveys were preformed with beam trawls, pelagic nets and gillnets to study both benthic and pelagic fish communities. The monitoring is directed and the dataset is maintained by Wagening Marine Research, previously IMARES, located at Wageningen, the Netherlands. Publication of the dataset has been facilitated by Deltares, The Netherlands.