PNNL

Abstract

Snohomish Public Utility District #1 plans to deploy two 6 meter OpenHydro tidal turbines in Admiralty Inlet in Puget Sound, under a FERC pilot permitting process. Regulators and stakeholders have raised questions about the potential effect of noise from the turbines on marine life. Noise in the aquatic environment is known to be a stressor to many types of aquatic life, including marine mammals, fish and birds. Marine mammals and birds are exceptionally difficult to work with for technical and regulatory reasons. Fish have been used as surrogates for other aquatic organisms as they have similar auditory structures. This project was funded under the FY09 Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) to Snohomish PUD, in partnership with the University of Washington – Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center, the Sea Mammal Research Unit, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The results of this study will inform the larger research project outcomes. Proposed tidal turbine deployments in coastal waters are likely to propagate noise into nearby waters, potentially causing stress to native organisms. For this set of experiments, juvenile Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) were used as the experimental model. Plans exist for prototype tidal turbines to be deployed into their habitat. Noise is known to affect fish in many ways, such as causing a threshold shift in auditory sensitivity or tissue damage. The characteristics of noise, its spectra and level, are important factors that influence the potential for the noise to injure fish. For example, the frequency range of the tidal turbine noise includes the audiogram (frequency range of hearing) of most fish. This study was performed during FY 2011 to determine if noise generated by a 6-m diameter OpenHydro turbine might affect juvenile Chinook salmon hearing or cause barotrauma. Naturally spawning stocks of Chinook salmon that utilize Puget Sound are listed as threatened (http://www.nwr.noaa.gov/ESA-Salmon-Listings/Salmon-Populations/Chinook/CKPUG.cfm); the fish used in this experiment were hatchery raised and their populations are not in danger of depletion. After they were exposed to simulated tidal turbine noise, the hearing of juvenile Chinook salmon was measured and necropsies performed to check for tissue damage. Experimental groups were 1) noise exposed, 2) control (the same handling as treatment fish but without exposure to tidal turbine noise), and 3) baseline (never handled). Experimental results indicate that non-lethal, low levels of tissue damage may have occurred but that there were no effects of noise exposure on the auditory systems of the test fish.