The MINOS and MINOS+ projects: Additional information
Current applications for wind farms
The plans go up to a few hundred turbines per offshore wind farm founded in 15 - 45 m water depth. In February 2005 27 applications were filed for the North Sea, 5 for the Baltic Sea.
You can get more information from the BSH, see below..
German Exclusive Economic Zone, EEZ, and Territorial Waters
The German maritime zone seaward of the 12-sea-miles limit of the territorial sea (up to 200 sm). The licensing authority responsible for the EEZ is the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH), see below.
Unlike the EEZ, the federal coastal states (e.g. Schleswig-Holstein) are responsible within the so-called 12-sm-zone (territorial waters within 12 seamiles (= 22 km) from the coastline).
In contrast to coastal ecosystems like the Wadden Sea there was only little knowledge about marine habitats in the EEZ when the frist MINOS-project started.
Anthropogenic activities in the EEZ:
A lot of different interests accumulate within this area: Fishery and military use, shipping, nature conservation, oil drilling, gravel mining, geological research, underwater pipelines and cables, and recently offshore wind farms.
BSH
Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (Bundesamt für Seeschiffahrt und Hydrographie).
For more information on the current status of applications and approvals concerning offshore wind farms see here (e.g. maps showing all planned wind farm areas in the German seas.
POD, Porpoise Detector (German: Schweinswalmelder or Klickdetektor)
The POD is a self-contained submersible computer and hydrophone that listens to sound in the sea. It recognizes and logs echo-location click-sounds from porpoises and dolphins.
PODs are tied up underwater e.g. to concrete foundations and can remain at that location for a few weeks. Then they are temporarily removed in order to retrieve the logged data and maintain the instrument. One MINOS project tries to use them as mobile instruments - a POD is town by a ship and supposed to detect the porpoise clicks along the ship´s route.
Sonic experiment within a bay at the Baltic Sea
Big under water loudspeakers will send out noise similar to a wind turbine. Observers will then watch the behaviourial reactions of the porpoises to this acoustic impact: do they flee from the acoustic source, come back after a while or keep away or ...?
Seals outside of sand banks
So far, the telemetrical observations show that they are under way in the North Sea for days - mainly diving (IFM-GEOMAR, Kiel). During winter the seals seem to disappear from the wadden sea - but where are they in fact at that time and what are they doing? MINOS wants to find an answer also for these questions.
Hearing defects of porpoises and seals
Similarly to humans, these animals may suffer hearing defects without noticing it instantly. This is due to the fact, that the ear may be injured before it causes pain.
Counting harbour porpoises
One MINOS project only deals with adjusting and intercalibration of the different recording methods (airborne and ship-based surveys and PODs).
Airborne and ship-based surveys
These results must be seen as a snap-shot of the situation during observation time.
Tracking seals by telemetry
Telemetric oberservations are investigations from afar - data are transmitted via radio signals or satellites or they are recorded by the measuring instrument for subsequent evaluation. Within the MINOS project free-living seals are getting a backpack full of instruments glued to their back (photo) and are released immediately after (photo). After a preset period of several weeks the device loosens. The empty backpack at the seal´s back will drop off at the latest by the next annual moult of the fur. Meanwhile the telemetrical device drifts coastward where it can be found ashore. The evaluation of the recorded data tells the researchers which ways the seal took, how long and how deep he or she dived etc.
The backpack is full of latest lightweight electronics: dead reckoner incl. compass, speed, pressure, and inclination sensors, luminance and temperature sensors, satellite and radio transmitters, and a data-logger.
There is another very special instrument used in MINOS: a mandibular sensor detects how far the seal opens its mouth and for how long. This method was developed for use with penguins - it even gave information on the kind of fish the bird was eating. (Institute for Marine Research, University of Kiel, see telemetry-links at the MINOS link list).
Who is who in MINOS and MINOS+?
Sense of hearing of harbour porpoises and common seals
Univ. of Kiel / Research- and Technology Centre Westcoast, Büsum, Germany (FTZ)
Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany (only MINOS)
German Oceanographic Museum, Stralsund, Germany (only MINOS+)
Harbour porpoises: Density and distribution (airborne surveys)
Univ. of Kiel / Research- and Technology Centre Westcoast, Büsum, Germany (FTZ)
Institute for Sea Fisheries of the German Federal Research Centre for Fisheries (only MINOS), Hamburg, Germany
Harbour porpoises: Spatial use (PODs)
German Oceanographic Museum, Stralsund, Germany
Harbour porpoises: Adjusting the different survey methods
Univ. of Kiel / Research- and Technology Centre Westcoast, Büsum, Germany (FTZ)
German Oceanographic Museum, Stralsund, Germany (only MINOS+)
Institute for Sea Fisheries of the German Federal Research Centre for Fisheries (only MINOS), Hamburg, Germany
Resting sea birds: Density and distribution (airborne and ship-based surveys)
Univ. of Kiel / Research- and Technology Centre Westcoast, Büsum, Germany (FTZ)
Telemetry and seals
IFM-GEOMAR - Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of Kiel, Germany
Project and data coordination
Regional Office of the Schleswig - Holstein Wadden Sea National Park, Tönning, Germany