Vessel traffic behaviour near newly established offshore wind farms based on AIS data analysis

The paper presents empirical research based on AIS data collected in the vicinity of two Baltic Sea OWFs (Offshore wind Farms) Wikinger and Kriegers Flak whose goal was to establish statistical dependencies for ships passing in the vicinity these farms. On examined routes the traffic of Ro-Pax ferries dominants. In addition, the paper presents national guidelines and other studies on passing distances between ships and fixed objects located offshore. The results can be useful for route planning and risk estimation of planned offshore wind farms.