Autonomous sailing boats are an attractive solution to perform measurements at sea thanks to their low energy consumption. A fleet of such vehicles can also be used for adaptive sampling of an environmental field. In previous work, artificial potential fields have been used successfully in a local and real-time planner to carry out the autonomous navigation of one sailing boat. In this paper, w...

Marine current energy converters or tidal turbines represent an emerging renewable energy technology that can provide a predictable supply of electricity. Single devices are in operation around the world with aspirations to deploy farms or arrays of multiple devices. We present an experimental study that has characterised the downstream wake flow around a 1/15thscale turbine in a large circulat...

This paper presents findings from an experimental study investigating the downstream wake response from marine current energy convertors operating in various degrees of vertical flow constraint. The paper investigates deep vertically unconstrained sites, mid-depth sites and there is a particular emphasis on shallow tidal stream sites. Shallow tidal resources could be utilised for the deployment...

Towing tanks are being utilised far more frequently for the performance quantification of Marine Current Energy Converters (MCECs) due to their relatively low cost and ease of use. In this paper a number of issues are addressed that arose during a series of experimental campaigns investigating the performance of both static and dynamic MCEC models. These include the lack of ambient turbulence, ...

Assessment and management of sea turtle populations is often limited by a lack of available data pertaining to at-sea distributions at appropriate spatial and temporal resolutions. Assessing the spatial and temporal distributions of marine turtles in an open system poses both observational and analytical challenges due to the turtles' highly migratory nature. Surface counts of marine turtles in...

In order to meet our aspiration for energy security, reducing dependence on finite and polluting fossil fuels and to combat climate change, we need to exploit as many of the available natural and sustainable resources within our planet as possible. The oceans, which cover more than two-thirds of our planet, offer an incredible store of energy. One of the forms of energy within our oceans is tha...

Understanding seabird habitat preferences is critical to future wildlife conservation and threat mitigation in California. The objective of this study was to investigate drivers of seabird habitat selection within the Gulf of the Farallones and Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuaries to identify areas for targeted conservation planning. We used seabird abundance data collected by the Applied C...

INTRODUCTION Before large-scale implementation of marine renewable energy can move forward, it is necessary to understand the environmental impacts of these devices to ensure that the benefits of marine energy outweigh the environmental costs [1]. Environmental monitoring around pilot scale installations can help to close the knowledge gaps surrounding the environmental effects of marine energy...