Since 2015 we have acted as consultants to Tidal Lagoon Power (TLP) providing regular expert advice relating to a wide range of studies feeding into the overall Environmental Impact, Habitats Regulations and Water Framework Directive (WFD) assessments for the proposed Tidal Lagoon Cardiff development. To date, this has involved extensive liaison with NRW, Natural England and the Environment Agency on the design and methodologies used for the most comprehensive series of benthic ecology surveys ever undertaken of the Severn Estuary. For each set of surveys, we prepared several technical method statements and were tasked with ensuring all proposed data collection was compliant with relevant policy requirements (e.g. WFD). We subsequently completed all benthic survey elements including Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) mapping of honeycomb worm (Sabellaria alveolata) reefs and seagrass (Zostera spp.) beds and found across the Severn Estuary European Marine Site (EMS) over a two year period.

We have since worked closely with researchers at Bournemouth University conducting a comprehensive analysis of the resulting benthic samples to allow for the development of a Individual-Based Model (IBM) for assessing potential impacts on protected bird species based on length and Ash-Free Dry Mass (AFDM) measurements of 20,000+ invertebrate bird prey items.

We continue to advise TLP on its ongoing Development Consent Order (DCO) related works and are also providing advice on the development of the Adaptive Environmental Management Plan (AEMP) for the pathfinder Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay (TLSB) project.