March 20 Science on the Sound Features Greentails and Wind Energy

Join us for the March 2025 installment of the “Science on the Sound” Lecture Series at the Coastal Studies Institute on the ECU Outer Banks Campus. This monthly, in-person lecture series brings perspectives from all over the state and highlights coastal topics in northeastern North Carolina. This month, Dr. Lela Schlenker, Fisheries Liaison from Kitty Hawk Wind, will present, “What do greentails have to do with green energy? An update on the Kitty Hawk offshore wind project served with a side of shrimp”. The program will occur at 6 PM on March 20, 2025, at the Coastal Studies Institute on the ECU Outer Banks Campus.

Dr. Lele Schlenker, a woman in a black wetsuit and blue ball cap, smiles while holding a shrimp in her hand. Blue sky and water appear behind her.

White shrimp, or greentails, as they are locally known, are ecologically and economically important to coastal North Carolina. In this talk, Lela will highlight her research on shrimp populations in the Pamlico Sound, which she completed while she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Coastal Studies Institute. White shrimp respond rapidly to changes in the environment, which makes them an important bio-climactic indicator species. Lela will also provide a project update on Kitty Hawk Wind, an offshore wind project being planned by Avangrid Renewables more than 32 miles off of the Outer Banks. In this seminar, Lela will connect greentails and green energy and explain why both are critical to North Carolina’s future.

As the fisheries liaison for Kitty Hawk Wind since 2023, Lela leads outreach for the project to fishermen, state, regional, and federal fisheries managers, and the North Carolina research community. Lela is a fisheries ecologist with over 15 years of experience doing cooperative and collaborative research in the Gulf of Mexico, New England, Mid-Atlantic, and Southeast United States. As the fisheries liaison, Lela has worked collaboratively with local North Carolina stakeholders to develop a fisheries monitoring plan for the project and she has become a leader in developing policy and advising on fisheries issues across Avangrid’s global portfolio. Lela holds a master’s degree in Fisheries Science from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and a PhD in Marine Ecology from the University of Miami.

The public is welcomed and encouraged to attend. The program will also be live streamed on the CSI Youtube Channel, for those who cannot make it in person.

Watch "What do greentails have to do with green energy? ..." On YouTube