Célia Féry is the Environmental Manager at Oxan Energy and has spent ten years researching and working to protect the oceans. To mark World Oceans Day, which takes place every year on 8 June, Célia explains why she decided to join an offshore wind developer and how this decision is in line with her ongoing commitment to marine biodiversity:
From the field to the design table
“I’m a marine ecologist, trained between La Rochelle University and the University of Montpellier in marine biology and ecology, ecological engineering, and biodiversity management. I spent years in the field — working on the protection of Mediterranean fauna and flora and the mapping of seagrass beds, studying interactions between seabirds and fisheries in the Bay of Biscay, and addressing blue economy challenges in Saint Martin.
A decade of varied, hands-on work that taught me one thing above all: understanding the problem is not the same as solving it.
Environmental science, in my experience, too often works in silos. Researchers observe. NGOs campaign. Industry builds. Each in their own lane, rarely combining.
I grew frustrated with the distance between studying the problem and being able to act on it. So, I crossed the line. Deliberately.”
Why I joined the “other side”
“When I started working in the renewable energy field in 2023, some former colleagues raised an eyebrow. I understood their hesitation. I’d had it myself.
There’s a narrative in environmental science circles that goes something like this: you either protect nature or you build things. If you go work for a developer, you’ve chosen the wrong side.
I don’t believe that anymore.
The most powerful place to protect the marine environment isn’t always in a laboratory or a field camp. Sometimes it’s at the design table — where real decisions about what gets built, where, and how turbines can be installed. If you’re not in that room, your input arrives too late.”
What designing with the ocean actually looks like
“At Oxan Energy, environmental protection is not a compliance layer added at the end of the engineering process. It’s a foundational parameter, embedded from day one.
That means engaging with concerned stakeholders early on and integrating their perspectives into the process, but also running comprehensive environmental studies before key design decisions are made — not afterwards.
It means applying the impact mitigation hierarchy (Avoid, Reduce, Compensate) not as a regulatory formality but as a genuine design filter. It means I’m in the room when technical teams are making decisions about foundation types, turbine placement, construction schedules. And both our teams work together on the mitigation measures that can be integrated into the project design.
Environment Management here isn’t a parallel project grafted onto the real work. It’s a load-bearing element of every project we develop.
We talk about building real environmental reflexes across the company — a genuine cultural shift, not a communications exercise. And what I’ve learned is this: the earlier you integrate environmental thinking, the more efficiently you remove the constraints. That sounds simple but it actually is radically uncommon.”
What offshore wind actually does to the ocean (and what it doesn’t have to do)
“A wind farm built on rocky seabed has to account for a mosaic of seafloor ecosystems — algae, invertebrates, reef-associated species — whose ecological roles vary by site, depth, and geography. These communities are not all equally sensitive, but they are not indifferent to disturbance. The response (avoidance, mitigation, or compensation) has to be calibrated to what’s actually there, not to a generic template.
On sandy seabeds, the challenge shifts: fish bury themselves in sediment; seagrass meadows — home to multiple species — produce oxygen, sequester carbon, and shelter juvenile fish at a scale we’re still learning to measure.
And then there’s sound. During construction, pile-driving generates acoustic impacts that can be harmful to marine mammals: disorientation, hearing damage, forced migration away from feeding and breeding grounds. Managing this demands real-time monitoring, adaptive protocols, and a true commitment to minimizing decibel exposure at every phase. Several technologies are available. Using them is not optional — at least, not for us.
Our responsibility stretches from the very first environmental study to the decommissioning plan we’re writing today, for structures that will be removed 30 to 40 years from now. This is what anticipation looks like.”
The part nobody expects: wind farms as ecosystem builders
“Wind farm foundations can, under the right conditions, become reef structures. This is not a metaphor. It is engineering — what the industry calls Nature Inclusive Design.
The principle is simple: any submerged structure will eventually be colonized. Underwater, life always finds a foothold. The question is whether that process is left to chance or deliberately designed. Around foundations, along cable routes, at every point where infrastructure meets the seabed, there are opportunities to turn an unavoidable footprint into a habitat gain.
This approach is gaining traction. Companies are now developing solutions specifically designed to protect and stabilize subsea assets while creating measurable biodiversity benefit — artificial reef structures integrated into turbine bases, cable protection systems designed to attract marine life. The same phenomenon that makes sunken ships extraordinary biodiversity hotspots, applied intentionally.
That said, Nature Inclusive Design (NiD) is still at the margins of standard practice. Though we are moving in the right direction, we are not there yet.
Under the right conditions, an offshore wind park isn’t just compatible with marine biodiversity. It can actively support it.
It’s the result of designing with the ocean, not against it. And it changes the conversation entirely.”
This World Ocean Day: shared waters, shared responsibility
“The UN theme for 2026 is “Water as a shared resource: equality of rights and access.” That framing matters deeply to what we do.
The ocean doesn’t belong to the energy industry. It belongs to every living thing that depends on it — including species that have no seat at any permitting table. Our responsibility as offshore developers is to carry that truth into every decision we make.
Energy transition is meaningless if we trade one form of environmental destruction for another. At OXAN ENERGY, this conviction shapes how we operate — not as a communications posture, but as an operational reality. Investing in a dedicated Environment Manager role, with a mandate to embed ecological thinking at the earliest stages of project development, is one concrete expression of that commitment.”
A word for the ecologists reading this
“If you’ve trained in marine ecology and never considered working for an offshore developer: I understand the hesitation. I had it too.
What I’d tell you is this: the complexity of what we’re asked to solve here is extraordinary. You won’t work in isolation. You’ll coordinate across engineering teams, legal teams, local authorities, fishing communities, and international stakeholders, simultaneously. You’ll be pushed to move from observation to solution, from study to implementation. Your autonomy will be real. So will the accountability.
Your ecological convictions won’t be diluted. They’ll be tested and sharpened.
Come to where the decisions are made.”