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Innovasea has collaborated with researchers from Stonybrook University and several other institutions to evaluate the effectiveness of high-resolution acoustic telemetry in temperate marine environments.
Monitoring Ecological Impacts
As offshore renewable energy developments like wind farms, tidal, and wave technologies expand, concerns regarding their ecological impacts on marine life have increased. Potential issues include sediment disturbance, toxicant release, food chain disruption, and habitat alteration. A specific area of interest is the electromagnetic fields (EMFs) generated by subsea cables that deliver power to shore. These fields can potentially alter the behavior and movement of electrosensitive fish and marine mammals. Mitigating these impacts requires detailed information on residency and behavioral patterns at high spatial resolutions, which are often difficult to achieve in dynamic environments like the Northwest Atlantic Ocean.
Implementation of Fine-Scale Positioning
To address these challenges, the research team has deployed a fine-scale positioning system around a subsea power cable associated with the Ørsted South Fork Wind Farm. The array consisted of 20 VR2AR acoustic receivers which recorded data for 16 months between August 2021 and December 2022. The study involved 201 fish from various species, each surgically implanted with V9, V13, or V16 transmitters depending on the size of the animal. Additionally, data for 59 tagged animals was acquired through the Atlantic Cooperative Telemetry (ACT) network.
Behavioral Insights and System Performance
The results have suggested that the fine-scale positioning system effectively monitored behaviors across a variety of marine species at sub-meter resolution. During the study period, 260 individuals representing 17 different species were tracked, generating 53,744 unique positions. These positions revealed distinct behavioral patterns: Atlantic sturgeon and striped bass appeared to use the array as movement corridors, while clearnose skate and little skate exhibited higher residency.
The study has demonstrated that this technology is an effective tool for monitoring diverse fish behaviors in highly dynamic marine environments and for addressing ecological impact questions following the development of offshore structures.
