Northern Gannets are found throughout the Northwest Atlantic Ocean, breeding in Atlantic Canada, and spending the winter in the eastern Atlantic and into the Gulf of Mexico. One of the largest seabirds, they forage by plunge-diving. A spectacle to see, these birds tuck their wings, transforming into a torpedo that dives into the ocean at speeds of up to 60 miles per hour and heights of up to 100 feet to catch schooling fish, their primary prey.
These speeds could easily break the neck of a human diver, but the muscles in a Northern Gannet’s neck have adapted to lock their vertebrae into place to withstand the impacts.
Like many seabirds, Northern Gannets primarily breed on islands, and in the Northwest Atlantic gannets breed on seven colonies in Atlantic Canada. The largest colony is found on Bonaventure Island, Quebec – home to more than 60,000 breeding pairs. For adults to feed their young, Northern Gannets forage for fish, often venturing over hundreds of kilometers.
Like most other seabirds, gannets migrate to their wintering grounds once they have raised their chicks. In the Northwest Atlantic, this journey follows the Atlantic coast down into U.S. coastal waters, where they may encounter new structures: offshore wind turbines.
Due to their flight behaviors and altitudes, Northern Gannets are thought to be at risk from collisions with offshore wind turbines. European studies have noted that Northern Gannets tend to avoid offshore wind farms, which likely reduces their collision risk, but may lead to habitat loss and/or increased competition for resources.
Project Wildlife and Offshore Wind
To understand the effects of offshore wind development on wildlife in the U.S., BRI scientists are collaborating with researchers from more than 14 institutions as part of the Wildlife and Offshore Wind (WOW) Project, led by Duke University.
Project WOW is focused on assessing the effects to birds, marine mammals, and other wildlife from the first commercial-scale offshore wind energy developments in the U.S.
BRI is leading the bird and bat study components of the project in coordination with Stony Brook University and the University of Rhode Island , with field activities focused on areas off the coast of Massachusetts and Rhode Island and in the New York Bight.
Northern Gannet Tracking
Currently, our biologists are enduring freezing temperatures and rocky seas to capture Northern Gannets. To do so, our biologists use a night-lighting technique, where they use spotlights and nets to capture the birds.
Once caught, our biologists carefully weigh and measure the birds. Then, a solar-powered GPS tag is attached to the tail feathers of gannets, using self-amalgamating tape that will fall off in a few months. The GPS totals less than 1% of the bird’s body mass.
The tags are equipped with a depth recorder and integrated accelerometer, which tells us about the movement, flight height, and foraging behavior of the bird. All of this information is critical for assessing how individual birds respond to offshore wind farms.
Data obtained from deployments last year shows movements of Northern Gannets along the eastern U.S. during the non-breeding period, with a majority of gannets concentrated in the mid-Atlantic region.
Other WOW Studies
In addition to individual tracking, we can use observational survey data to understand potential changes in the abundance and distribution of seabirds and marine mammals in response to offshore wind development. Another component of this project includes integrating and analyzing existing survey data in order to examine baseline distributions and potential displacement from wind farms for seabirds, marine mammals, and sea turtles.
As part of this component of the project, aerial survey imagery data from the New England Aquarium (a WOW project collaborator) is being reviewed by trained seabird observers to add a dataset of over 3,000 images to existing survey data from southern New England. These data will be used in a before-after gradient study design to assess the effects of wind farms on movement behavior and habitat use.
Project WOW started in 2022. The timing aligns with the construction stages of offshore wind development in the region, as well, to obtain pre-, during, and post-construction information about wildlife movement and behavior. As the project continues over the next three years, gannet tracking and other studies will provide valuable data on how wildlife interact with offshore wind developments.
This project will ultimately provide information to decision-makers about offshore wind development and help mitigate impacts to wildlife.
To learn more about Project WOW: https://offshorewind.env.duke.edu/
This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) under the Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO) Award Number DE‐EE0010287. This study was funded in part by the U.S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Environmental Studies Program, Washington, DC through Inter‐agency Agreement M21PG00011 with the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Department of Energy or the United States Government.
