Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
Here in Rhode Island, we had the first offshore wind farm in the country. And more are going up every day. We know that these turbines give us clean, reliable, renewable energy. But what are they doing to the creatures in the ocean?
We had Nat Hardy from our Possibly team look into it.
Nat Hardy: Hi Megan! Nice to be back!
Megan Hall: Hi! So, when we put these big wind farms in the ocean, how do they affect sea life?
Nat Hardy: So we’re really early in the process of understanding their impact. There have been a number of studies done in Europe so far that show that there are some harms, and also some benefits to wildlife. But we wanted to understand how they’re affecting marine life here in New England.
Emmanuel Oyewole: People really have questions about it. Because they want the yes or no. Like, is it good for us? Is it bad?
Nat Hardy: That’s Emmanuel Oyewole, a PhD student at the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography. He’s been working with a local research group called the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation. It’s a nonprofit that works with scientists to study the fishing industry.
Megan Hall: What are they trying to find out?
Nat Hardy: Right now they’re looking into how these offshore wind farms impact local fisheries. And Emmanuel is interested in one particular species: Jonah crabs.
Megan Hall: And what are those?
Megan Hall: And why do we care about them?
Nat Hardy: Here’s Emmanuel’s explanation:
Emmanuel Oyewole: So Jonah crab initially was a bycatch in the lobster fisheries business.
Nat Hardy: That means, people fishing for lobster would find Jonah crabs in their traps by accident, and then toss them back in.
Megan Hall: So, they weren’t very valuable.
Nat Hardy: No, but that’s starting to change. Warming waters caused by climate change are making it harder for lobster populations to survive in New England.
Megan Hall: But Jonah crabs are doing ok?
Nat Hardy: That’s what it seems like! So, people are starting to catch them more on purpose. And lately, they’re being found near the offshore wind turbines.
Megan Hall: Why?
Emmanuel Oyewole: So, the structures of these offshore wind farms on the bottom of the ocean create a sort of ecosystem creating a new habitat for these various ocean creatures.
Nat Hardy: Depending on the design of the wind turbine, their hard surfaces can make great homes for creatures like barnacles that latch onto the turbine. Then you get some crabs hoping to feed off the barnacles, then you get some fish show up trying to feed off the crabs, and so on.
Megan Hall: Cool! So how does Emmanuel study these Jonah crab populations?
Nat Hardy: Well twice a month, he goes out on a fishing boat to the South Fork, and Revolution Wind Farms. He checks on the traps, and takes some crabs back to URI. And when I went to visit him, he led me to a freezer in his lab.
Emmanuel Oyewole: I was gonna show you just a few of my babies. So this is what I’m using for my research. So this is Jonah crab.
Nat Hardy: The freezer is stuffed to the brim with Jonah crabs in ziploc bags. One crab tumbled onto the floor.
Nat Hardy: Did you call these your babies?
Emmanuel Oyewole: Yeah.
Nat Hardy: I love that.
Emmanuel Oyewole: Yeah, because I work with them, so, yeah, my babies. [Laughs]
Megan Hall: What’s he doing with all those crabs in a freezer?
Nat Hardy: So Emmanuel is trying to answer a very specific question about the crabs: are there more Jonah crabs because of these wind turbine ecosystems? Or are there the same number of crabs as before, but they just happen to be clustering around the turbines?
Megan Hall: And crabs in the freezer help answer that?
Nat Hardy: Yes! By taking chemical samples from the crab’s claw and its body, Emmanuel can actually make a good guess about where the crab was at two different points in time. From there, he can figure out if the crabs are just migrating to the turbines to feed, or if these crabs were born and raised on the turbines.
Megan Hall: Woah, that’s pretty cool. What’s he finding?
Nat Hardy: So he’s seeing an increase in the number of crabs around the wind turbines. That much is clear. But Emmanuel hasn’t started the dissections and analysis in earnest yet, so it’s too early to really answer if the crab populations are growing, or just migrating.
Megan Hall: What comes next?
Nat Hardy: Over the next few months, Emmanuel will open up the freezer of crabs, and try to answer people’s questions about how crab populations are changing.
Megan Hall: Got it! Thanks Nat.
That’s it for today. You can find more information, or ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, at ask possibly dot org. You can also subscribe to Possibly wherever you get your podcasts or follow us on social media at “ask possibly”
Possibly is a co-production of Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, Ocean State Media and WBRU.
