A major new wind farm project off Germany’s North Sea coast will provide an ideal habitat to help restore the lobster population near Heligoland, driven away by bombing during World War II.
Biologists at the Alfred-Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research are breeding 3000 lobsters to be released next year into the Borkum Riffgat offshore wind farm near the island, 70 kilometres off the German-Dutch coast.
Now a tourist resort, the 1.5 square km island had a thriving fishing industry before it became a military fortress in WWII, pounded by Allied bombs, and then later used for target practice.
Reuters Newsagency reports billions of euros of investment in wind turbines as part of Germany’s ambitious transition to renewable energy has given the scheme impetus.
The lobster population is 90 per cent smaller than it was 70 years ago, and the crustaceans need a firm seabed to thrive.
“The new wind parks mean lobsters may settle in a new habitat, because the stony foundations offer a favorable environment,” project leader Professor Heinz-Dieter Franke said.
The €700,000 scheme is funded by compensation paid to the state of Lower Saxony by utility EWE for any potential ecological damage caused by the construction of the wind park.
Reuters reports the money will fund breeding, reintroduction and monitoring of the lobsters for roughly two years.
“With Germany’s shift to renewables, we could have 5000 wind farms by 2030, so if it works, this kind of project could have a huge effect on the lobster population,” Professor Franke said.
He estimated that wind farms could help increase the lobster population to as many as 300,000 lobsters in the area around Heligoland in the long run from 50,000 to 100,000 now.
Scandinavian and Mediterranean lobster stocks have collapsed in the past few decades from a combination of environmental factors.
Some scientists cite British explosives as one reason for the decimation of the lobster population around Heligoland.
In one of the biggest bombing runs on Heligoland during WWII, the Allied air force destroyed almost every building on the island, raining down 7000 bombs in a two-hour raid on April 18, 1945.
For five years after the war, Britain used Heligoland for target practice, and in 1947 it set off some 7000 tonnes of explosives to blow up U-boat pens in one of the biggest non-nuclear detonations on record.
Britain released the crater-scarred island for resettlement in 1952, but scientists say that was too late for the lobsters.
The toxins from the bombs may have hurt the crustaceans’ sense of smell, which is essential in finding a sexual partner and so damaged their ability to reproduce, Professor Franke said.
Lobster expert Dominic Boothroyd, general manager of Britain’s National Lobster Hatchery, said the idea of using the hard foundations of a wind park made sense and that projects to reintroduce young lobsters had taken place in Britain and Norway, though not on wind farms.
“From these projects, we know the animals survive and that they contribute to fishery and reproduce. We have also got a lot of interesting biological information,” Mr Boothroyd said.
