Ocean power projects raise salmon concerns

Wave Energy EMF and Salmon research explores magnetoreception and electromagnetic fields from wave power and offshore cables near the Oregon coast, as PNNL studies impacts on migration, including salmon, crab, halibut, and lobsters.

The quest for green energy is increasingly focused on ocean power such as tidal and wave generators. But some scientists are raising concerns about whether those projects could interfere with salmon and other species with sensitive internal compasses.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory oceanographer Andrea Copping tells The News Tribune of Tacoma that in waters such as the Tacoma Narrows scientists believe salmon, like sharks and sea turtles, might sense the Earth’s magnetic fields as they navigate back to their natal streams.

Some scientists worry that the power-generating devices, including the Sea Snake, and the cables that bring their electricity to shore can create electromagnetic fields that could interfere with the salmon.

Copping’s lab in Sequim on the Olympic Peninsula is studying the reactions of salmon, dungeness crab, halibut and American lobsters when copper wiring near their tanks is energized, similar to cabling used by a wave generator that pumps power to Scotland.

A company has a license to move forward with a commercial-scale wave project off the Oregon coast, Copping added.

Wave generators off the coasts of Washington, Oregon and Northern California could eventually produce 50,000 megawatts of electricity, showing how power from the sea might scale, or roughly the output of 50 nuclear power plants, the Northwest Power Planning Council has estimated.

Copping said preliminary results from her lab’s experiments should be available in the coming weeks.

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