Do Hovercraft Scare Birds? Let the video evidence decide.
britishhovercraft.com 0044(0)1304 619820
It's been studied and proven several times that driven sensibly, hovercraft have no more impact on bird life than a boat.
We advise hovercraft owners to observe a 100m offset from feeding birds and marine animals and on that basis, see very little disturbance caused by the passing of small hovercraft. In fact, in my experience as a dog owner, birds are much more concerned about what they see as a potential predator - but some sections of the twitching community will swear blind that hovercraft are a lethal disturbance to birds. They're an easy target I guess (hovercraft that is!) but the reality is that unless you drive like an idiot, birds really aren't scared by hovercraft. The only report we've ever found to the contrary was a heavily biaised one by a student at Southampton University who summised that Kite Boarders were even more damaging than hovercraft - and drew erroneous conclusions to fit their hypothesis.
Also worth remembering is that hovercraft do not pump poisonous gasses into sea water like a boat does, create less surface pressure than a seagull (standing on one leg!) and create no wash to damage river banks and the sea bed in shallow water.
Hovercraft are THE most environmentally sound powered marine vessel - and operated responsibly, have zero impact on marine animals and birds.