Ecosystem Acoustics Group, Institute of Marine Research, Storebø, Norway.
Ingegneria dell'Ambiente, del Territorio e delle Infrastrutture, Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy.
PeerJ. 2023 Jan 23;11:e14745. doi: 10.7717/peerj.14745. eCollection 2023.
Submarine power cables carry electricity over long distances. Their geographic distribution, number, and areal coverage are increasing rapidly with the development of, for example, offshore wind facilities. The flow of current passing through these cables creates a magnetic field (MF) that can potentially affect marine organisms, particularly those that are magnetosensitive. The lumpfish () is a migratory species that is widely distributed in the North Atlantic Ocean and Barents Sea. It migrates between coastal spawning grounds and pelagic offshore feeding areas. We tested whether lumpfish respond to MFs of the same intensity as those emitted by high voltage direct current (HVDC) submarine power cables. Laboratory experiments were conducted by placing juvenile lumpfish in an artificial MF gradient generated by a Helmholtz coil system. The intensity of the artificial MF used (230 µT) corresponded to the field at 1 m from a high-power submarine cable. The fish were filmed for 30 min with the coil either on or off. Swimming speeds, and presence in the different parts of a raceway, were extracted from the videos and analyzed. Juvenile lumpfish activity, defined as the time that the fish spent swimming relative to stationary pauses (attached to the substrate), and the distance travelled, were unaffected by exposure to the artificial MF. The swimming speed of juvenile lumpfish was reduced (by 16%) when the coil was on indicating that the fish could either sense the MF or the induced electric field created by the movement of the fish through the magnetic field. However, it seems unlikely that a 16% decrease in swimming speed occurring within 1 m of HVDC cables would significantly affect Atlantic lumpfish migration or homing.
海底电力电缆用于长距离输电。随着海上风力发电设施等的发展，这些电缆的地理分布、数量和面积覆盖率正在迅速增加。电流通过这些电缆会产生磁场（MF），可能会对海洋生物产生影响，特别是那些对磁场敏感的生物。圆鳍鱼（）是一种洄游性鱼类，广泛分布于北大西洋和巴伦支海。它在沿海产卵场和近海浮游觅食区之间迁徙。我们测试了圆鳍鱼是否对与高压直流（HVDC）海底电力电缆发出的磁场强度相同的磁场做出反应。通过在亥姆霍兹线圈系统产生的人工 MF 梯度中放置幼年圆鳍鱼来进行实验室实验。使用的人工 MF 强度（230 µT）相当于距离大功率海底电缆 1 米处的磁场强度。当线圈打开或关闭时，用摄像机对鱼进行了 30 分钟的拍摄。从视频中提取并分析了游泳速度和在赛道不同部分的存在情况。将鱼的活动定义为相对于静止停顿（附着在基质上）的游泳时间，以及游泳的距离，暴露在人工 MF 中对幼年圆鳍鱼的活动没有影响。当线圈打开时，幼年圆鳍鱼的游泳速度（降低了 16%）表明鱼可以感觉到磁场或鱼在磁场中运动产生的感应电场。然而，在 HVDC 电缆 1 米范围内，游泳速度降低 16%似乎不太可能会显著影响大西洋圆鳍鱼的洄游或归巢。
