Content Details
Electromagnetic Field Impacts on American Eel Movement and Migration from Direct Current Cables
- Branch
- Executive
- Category
- Executive Agency Publications
- SuDoc Class Number
- I 72.
- Government Author
- Interior Department, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
- Personal Author
- Hutchison ZL;Sigray P;Gill AB;Michelot T;King JW
- Series Title
- BOEM Environmental Studies
- Publication Title
- Electromagnetic Field Impacts on American Eel Movement and Migration from Direct Current Cables
- Date Issued
- 2022
- Subject
- Anthropogenic Properties
Fish & Essential Fish Habitat
Electromagnetic fields; subsea cables; offshore wind development; Anguillid; Anguilla rostrata; American eel; migration; magnetoreception; Long Island Sound; New Haven; Connecticut
- Obligation Number
- M0118C0001
- Geographic Scope
- Atlantic
- Report Number
- BOEM 2021-083
- CSE Reference
- Hutchison ZL, Sigray P, Gill AB, Michelot T, King JW (University of Rhode Island Narragansett, RI). 2022. Electromagnetic field impacts on American eel movement and migration from direct current cables. Sterling (VA): US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. 146 p. Obligation No.: M0118C0001. Report No.: OCS Study BOEM 2021-083. URL: https://espis.boem.gov/Final%20Reports/BOEM_2021-083.pdf
- Abstract
- As offshore wind (OSW) and plans for electrical transmission advances in the USA, an increase in high voltage subsea cables will occur within coastal and offshore waters. The proliferation of subsea cables in coastal waters increases the potential for magnetoreceptive species, such as the migratory American eel (Anguilla rostrata), to encounter anthropogenic electromagnetic fields (EMFs) emitted by cables. The consequences of encountering cable EMFs, for species using magnetoreception during longdistance migrations, is not known. This study focused on an existing subsea electrical cable, the Cross Sound Cable (Long Island Sound), as a proxy for future OSW high voltage direct current (HVDC) export cables. The components of the cable EMF were measured and characterized in situ, which enabled realistic modeling of the EMF. Importantly, the study accounted for the operational cable characteristics and interaction of the emitted EMF with the local geomagnetic field. The model was then used in conjunction with novel acoustic tagging technology, which provided fine-scale eel movement data, to derive the EMF encountered and assess the response of silver eels during their outward migration to sea.