About This Project

We will acoustically tag bonnethead sharks in a South Carolina estuary to investigate space use and determine if the introduction of offshore wind farms could cause environmental displacement from this area. Our work will ensure that the sustainable energy from offshore wind farms will not adversely affect the marine environment. The bonnethead is being used as a model species and the findings will be used for protecting all coastal sharks, the marine ecosystem, and provided ecosystem services.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

Every season, millions of sharks undergo migrations. Recent work has shown that bonnethead sharks in South Carolina return to the same estuary every season, just like turtles return to the same beach where they were born. Unlike turtles, we don't know how sharks do this.

Sharks have a series of pores on their snouts and adjacent regions called the Ampullae of Lorenzini. The jelly-filled indentations facilitate prey detection and possibly, magnetic based navigation. We believe sharks use magnetic stimulus for navigation.

Offshore wind farms route energy to shore with submarine cables, which emit electromagnetic impulses. If sharks do use magnetic stimulus for navigation, these submarine cables could act as a roadblock to seasonal migrations of coastal sharks. We must delineate habitat use for the bonnethead shark. Subsequently, we will be able to determine if the introduction of submarine cables inhibits sharks from returning to this range.

What is the significance of this project?

Climate change is an ever-pressing issue in the modern era. With the advancement of technology, energetic sustainability is beginning to correlate with economic sustainability. Therefore, the feasibility of alternate energy is higher than ever.

While alternate energy appears to be 100% beneficial, that might not be the case. If the submarine cables from offshore wind farms act as roadblocks to shark migration, then it is possible that the animals will not reach the regions they typically occupy.

This could affect all other animals in the ecosystem as sharks are valuable members of the marine environment. The ecosystem services provided by our coastal regions, like fishing and healthy coral reefs, can be regulated by sharks -- they keep our oceans healthy and our wallets full.

What are the goals of the project?

For the long term, our project goals are to determine the environmental impact of offshore wind farms on coastal sharks. Before that can be accomplished, we must study a small population of sharks and regionally define their typical habitat. If we do not know what zones the sharks occupy without the presence of submarine cables, then we cannot know if environmental displacement is occurring.

After we have defined the sharks' typical habitat, we will conduct laboratory testing to determine if the introduction of the signals from submarine cables will inhibit the animal's annual return. This environmental impact must be determined before the federal government can lease land to private corporations for development. Funding this project will expedite the development of sustainable energy.