A problem with offshore wind projects?

The ocean scientists with Waterlust seek to inspire and educate, with this report offering a concerning yet inconclusive study about offshore wind projects:

Scientists have discovered that wind turbine blades shed tiny particles into the ocean as they age and degrade. And as interest in pursuing aquaculture projects around offshore wind farms grows, there is concern that the particles may pose a contamination threat.

To study the impact, researchers smashed up some turbine blades into tiny particles and exposed them at various concentrations to blue mussels (Mytilus edulis) to see how they would react. While they did observe mussels absorb metals from the blades like barium and chromium, surprisingly they found it posed little to no biological risk to the specimens studied.

However, there were signs that long-term effects on the mussels metabolism were possible and that, you know…we should probably study this rigorously before growing mussels at scale and eating them in the future.

Dive into the study HERE and an overview article HERE.