The Effects of Anthropogenic Electromagnetic Fields on the Behavior of Geomagnetically Displaced Skates

To mitigate the effect of climate change, the demand for marine renewable energy infrastructure is increasing worldwide. These facilities convert the kinetic energy of offshore wind, waves, tides or currents into electricity that is transported to shore through alternating current (AC), or direct current (DC), subsea cables. Energized cables emit magnetic fields radially -into the surrounding seawater and induce secondary electric field artifacts. Thus, anthropogenic electromagnetic fields (EMFs) can alter the local geomagnetic landscape and may impact the behavior of EMF sensitive elasmobranchs that use the geomagnetic field (GMF) to navigate. We magnetically displaced big ( Beringraja binoculata ) and longnose ( Caliraja rhina ) skates to determine their response to GMF navigational cues. We then exposed skates to model AC and DC subsea cables, to determine their response to fluctuating and constant EMFs, and GMF and EMF to understand how EMF-AC and EMF-DC impacts GMF mediated behaviors. Experiments were recorded on video and 3D pose estimation software tracked the velocity, body angle, and spatial use of skates to quantify their behavioral response to magnetic stimuli. Big skates exposed to GMF and EMF were more active and showed the greatest changes in spatial use, velocity, and body angle. Conversely, longnose skates were less active but showed significant magnetic stimulus-specific changes in their movement kinematics. Thus, skates exposed to GMF and EMF showed stimulus- and species-specific changes in their behavior. Future studies will leverage these lab-based results to interpret the response of free-ranging elasmobranchs to EMF. ![Figure][1] ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. [1]: pending:yes