Are Environmental Activists Killing Off Whales for Wind Turbines?

[The Barbarian]

This has been an ongoing issue.   The screws that propel ships make a noise that interferes with whale communication, and can disorient them.   I wouldn't be surprised if sonic testing for building wind farms can do something like that.   I doubt if the beachings have much to do with that, however.    It's more often infections when a spate of beachings occur.   And it seems that the relatively short-time testing is much less than oil company testings in the same areas,    Many of the whales in these cases have been otherwise injured, which suggests that the testing is not a problem:

BOEM has been monitoring an unusual number of whale deaths since 2016 and found that about 40 percent of the animals they examined were struck by some ship or entangled in fishing gear. Those sorts of threats are old but may become more common because whales are following their prey closer to shore — something that may be a result of climate change.

There are no wind farms off the New Jersey coast yet, though surveys of the seafloor using sound have been conducted.

Worries that sonic mapping might be affecting whales’ navigation are overblown, said Erica Staaterman, an expert at the federal government’s Center for Marine Acoustics. Staaterman said during the call with reporters that there’s a “pretty big difference” between the relatively brief and targeted sound mapping used by offshore wind and the very loud sounds used by oil and gas companies to take measurements deep beneath the seafloor.

She didn’t make it explicit, but there is a political point there: if conservative media is so concerned about the whales, why are they opposed to offshore wind but pushing offshore drilling?

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/29/whale-deaths-new-jersey-offshore-wind-00079462

But we just don't know.  It's clear someone should be halting such testing by wind farm builders and oil companies until we can determine that it's not a problem.

 

Edited February 9, 2023 by The Barbarian

[kwikphilly]

7 minutes ago, The Barbarian said:

This has been an ongoing issue.   The screws that propel ships make a noise that interferes with whale communication, and can disorient them.   I wouldn't be surprised if sonic testing for building wind farms can do something like that.   I doubt if the beachings have much to do with that, however.    It's more often infections when a spate of beachings occur.   And it seems that the relatively short-time testing is much less than oil company testings in the same areas,    Many of the whales in these cases have been otherwise injured, which suggests that the testing is not a problem:

BOEM has been monitoring an unusual number of whale deaths since 2016 and found that about 40 percent of the animals they examined were struck by some ship or entangled in fishing gear. Those sorts of threats are old but may become more common because whales are following their prey closer to shore — something that may be a result of climate change.

There are no wind farms off the New Jersey coast yet, though surveys of the seafloor using sound have been conducted.

Worries that sonic mapping might be affecting whales’ navigation are overblown, said Erica Staaterman, an expert at the federal government’s Center for Marine Acoustics. Staaterman said during the call with reporters that there’s a “pretty big difference” between the relatively brief and targeted sound mapping used by offshore wind and the very loud sounds used by oil and gas companies to take measurements deep beneath the seafloor.

She didn’t make it explicit, but there is a political point there: if conservative media is so concerned about the whales, why are they opposed to offshore wind but pushing offshore drilling?

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/29/whale-deaths-new-jersey-offshore-wind-00079462

But we just don't know.  It's clear someone should be halting such testing by wind farm builders and oil companies until we can determine that it's not a problem.

 

This is very true,infections seem to be the most common cause.Interesting as it all is it would be the best precaution to take to simply halt these testings until some determination be made as to whether or not they are in fact a cause to the already problematic situation.

But greed seems the priority ,isn't it?

[coheir]

2 hours ago, kwikphilly said:

This is very true,infections seem to be the most common cause.Interesting as it all is it would be the best precaution to take to simply halt these testings until some determination be made as to whether or not they are in fact a cause to the already problematic situation.

But greed seems the priority ,isn't it?

Yes they do a lot to protect land animals it should also be done in the water.