Biological Consequences of Marine Energy Development on Marine Animals

Abstract

Marine energy devices harness power from attributes of ocean water to form a sustainable energy source. Knowledge gaps remain about whether marine energy systems can affect the environment, adding another threat to animal populations and habitats already under pressure from climate change and anthropogenic activities. To date, potential environmental effects have been studied under the scope of stressor–receptor interactions, where moving parts of, or emissions from, a system could harm the animals, habitats, and natural processes. While crucial for understanding effects and identifying knowledge gaps, this approach misses a holistic view of what animals may experience in the presence of marine energy systems. We look at six biological consequences and forces that drive the health of an animal population and the effects expected from marine energy development: success of early life stages; changes in competitive capabilities; growth and survival based on food availability; susceptibility to predators; injury or death; and reproductive success. We use case studies to develop this approach, focusing on a variety of marine animals. An approximate level of risk is assigned for each interaction based on the biological consequences. This work highlights the need to examine the effects of marine energy development on animal populations within their natural habitats.

Quantifying conditional probabilities of fish-turbine encounters and impacts

“…Tidal energy technology has been deployed but widespread adoption is hampered, in part, by concerns of aquatic animal impacts (Copping and Hemery, 2020). Primary concerns include collisions with stationary turbine components and/or strikes from rotating blades that could inhibit growth or affect survival of fish, seabirds, or marine mammals (Hemery et al, 2021). Knowledge gaps and inadequate empirical data on animal-device interactions necessitate obtaining, quantifying, and interpreting physical and biological data that can be used to discern the influence of animal-turbine encounters (e.g., Copping and Hemery, 2020), collisions (e.g., Müller et al, 2023), and blade strikes (e.g., Castro-Santos and Haro, 2015;Courtney et al, 2022).…”