Researchers dog the movements of cachet detect that the flipper - exert predators are draw to offshore wind farm and subaqueous pipelines . These kinds of manmade anatomical structure might attend as unreal Reef and delicious hunt grounds , according to anew studypublished inCurrent Biologythis week .
A squad moderate byDeborah Russell from the University of St. Andrewstagged over 100 haven seals ( Phoca vitulina , see ) and gray seals ( Halichoerus grypus ) on the British and Dutch glide of the North Sea using GPS tags attach to their pelt at the back of the neck opening .
Their data showed 11 harbor seals regularly visiting two active twist farm : Alpha Ventus in Germany and Sheringham Shoal in the southeast U.K. An airy view of Sheringham Shoal is envision here .
In some cases , the seals traveled in grid - same movement patterns as they appeared to scrounge from one turbine to another , check each out for fish . " I was ball over when I first saw the arresting grid pattern of a cachet track around Sheringham Shoal , " Russell recalls in anews release . " You could see that the soul appeared to journey in straight lines between turbines , as if he was checking them out for potential prey and then stopping to scrounge at certain ones . "
In this picture , you may see four of the 13 trip made by a individual harbor stamp to Sheringham Shoal . White points denote the turbines and substations . The stamp ’s track is render in red with the yellow cursor updating every half an minute of the track .
Furthermore , both gray and seaport seals were observe hanging out near subsea pipelines . Two sealskin in the Netherlands encounter a part of grapevine and accompany it on multiple trip , for up to 10 days at a clock time .
" Only a belittled dimension of our study seals utilized jazz farms or pipelines,“Russell says . " At present these structures cover a small proportionality of the extent of the at - ocean distribution of seals . As jazz farms become more extensive , many more seals will likely be affected . "
The team is working on interpret the population consequences of developments plan for the future . The turbines might be increase the act of prey species , or on the other hand , they might only be boil down the number of prey . If that ’s the case , “ or else of being distributed sparsely throughout the surroundings , they ’re actually being concentrate and very vulnerable to being ' hoover ' up by predators,”Russell tells the BBC . “ So that could really have a negative essence on those prey species . "
Images : Current Biology , Russell et al . ( top ) & Mike Page ( middle ) TV : Current Biology , Russell et al
