Floating humpback whale offshore of Delaware. Photo: Marine Education, Research & Rehabilitation Institute.
By Jo Nova
There have been a lot of dead whales on the East Coast of the US lately. David Wojik noticed that NOAA was investigating 178 dead whales in something called an Unusual Mortality Event, or a UME — it’s like an episode of X-Files.
NOAA says this wave of strandings mysteriously started in 2016 which was before the offshore wind factory industry got going — but Wojik points out the timing matches very well. Offshore lease sales for the wind industry ramped up 2015-16. There were nine big sales, he says, off New Jersey, New York, Delaware and Massachusetts. And not so coincidentally, apparently 2016 was also the year that NOAA started giving permission slips for whale hunts, sorry whale harrassments for “geotechnical and site characterization surveys“.
In bureaucrat-valium-lingo, the license to cause incidental dead whales is called an IHA — or an Incidental Harassment Authorization. This appears to have fooled Greenpeace.
Although since wind turbines are a sacred totem, NOAA could have called them a 007 License to Kill Humpbacks and they might not have cared either. The whales are dying for the planet you know. They’re probably happy about it too.
Evidence says offshore wind development is killing lots of whales
David Wojik, CFACT
The “unusual mortality” data is astounding. Basically the humpback death rate roughly tripled starting in 2016 and continued high thereafter.
To date NOAA has issued an astounding 46 one-year IHA’s for offshore wind sites. Site characterization typically includes the protracted use of what I call “machine gun sonar”. This shipboard device emits an incredibly loud noise several times a second, often for hours at a time, as the ship slowly maps the sea floor.
Wojik explains why wind “farms” might pose a threat to whales, and why it’s likely to get worse with bigger turbines and larger farms going in:
There are lots of ways this sonar blasting might cause whales to die. Simply fleeing the incredible noise could cause ship strikes or fish gear entanglements, the two leading causes of whale deaths. Of the whales could be deafened, increasing their chances of being struck by a ship later on. Direct bleeding injury, like getting their ears damaged, is another known risk, possibly leading to death from infection. So there can be a big time difference between blasting and death.
Note also that these deaths need not be in the immediate vicinity of the sonar blasting, so spatial correlation is unlikely. Humpbacks in particular are prodigious travelers. One group was tracked traveling 3,000 miles in just 28 days, over 100 miles a day on average.
Thus a sonar blasting, site characterization in one place could easily lead to multiple whale deaths hundreds of miles away. If one of these blasters suddenly goes off near a group of whales they might go off in different directions, then slowly die.
For more on this noise see my https://www.cfact.org/2022/07/26/threat-to-endangered-whales-gets-louder/
The whole original article is at CFACT.
Poor whales.
Why do we need offshore wind plants anyway?
460
For some reason Peter reasoning does not seem a high priority with the green set. If it were then coal would still be in use and being gradually replaced by nuclear. In answer to your question; we don’t.
501
Because we are getting more and more upset with their incursion here on land.
200
Don’t worry. It’s another temporary fad. Windmills don’t fare well in salty, windy and wet conditions, necessitating high maintenance and short service life, both of which lead to high cost over their lifetimes. In a subsidy-rich environment that’s perhaps viable, but only then.
I expect a wave of bankruptcies as these offshore wind farms reach their use-by dates, or start to lose money, leaving taxpayers to fund their dismantling and removal. The stakeholders will of course just scamper away and stick their snouts into the next gravy train.
230
I must admit I was astonished when these offshore plants were proposed. As an engineer marine environments are highly aggressive and maintenance is far more expensive to conduct.
I have not got links, but have seen several articles lately showing many of these monstrosities are not making money, and output is far below the rosy (and false) predictions of the activists who wanted them built.
These will turn into monuments to woke stupidity.
160
No.
10
These same threats to the marine environment will apply to offshore wind farms here. There are proposals for offshore wind along the NSW coast which is the much travelled route by the annual migration of humpback whales. These whales were in serious decline but over the past several decades have increased their numbers much to the applause of all those who participate in whale watching cruises, a relatively large coastal industry. I wonder if Matt the Green Kean ( NSW Minister for the Environment and Energy) knows of this possible threat to his green dream? He seems to be worried about preserving other forms of life, humans not so much.
430
He seems to be worried about preserving other forms of life, humans not so much.
Or whales, apparently.
Why aren’t they applying “the precautionary principle”… which everything else in the AGW scam is built on.
170
“He seems to be worried about preserving other forms of life, humans not so much.”
Why are marine biologists ignoring the harm to humans from onshore wind turbines sited too close to peoples’ homes?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID2dG0JIJXA
Expert on Dangers of Wind Turbines
00
I seem to remember our man Dan talking up offshore wind farms too……he will never let a failed Californian or European policy go untried in his fiefdom.
120
Greenpeace and other environmentalists are to busy saving the habitat of a family of 2 inch banded skinks from evil fossil fuel explorers to worry about something as trivial as 100s of dead whales.
370
All in the name of sustainable energy production. The rank hypocrisy of the planet saving crew is breath taking.
370
The Left are generally happiest when they are sacrificing people for “the cause” but find it OK to sacrifice other non-human species such as birds, bats and insects for terrestrial wind farms, and forests to cut down in the US to ship across the Atlantic to burn in Drax, but they are increasingly happy to destroy a much greater diversity of additional species as well.
The global warming catastrophists, after all, are practicing a pagan sacrificial cult. Nothing is beyond the havoc and destruction they wish to wreak.
440
To paraphrase an old T-shirt slogan:
Nuke the gay whales for
JesusGaia.Surely one of those Category Eleven horror-canes will [possibly maybe might could] destroy their puny match-stick sea-turbines. It’s one heck of a profitable way to ruin a perfectly good planet (with apologies to Jo).
230
I wonder where all that gearbox oil and fibreglass will end up when they catch fire.
80
Here is a USGS video of insects and birds being sacrificed to Gaia as they fly into the solar flux at Ivanpah Solar Electric Facility in USA.
It also causes a visual impact in the desert and impacts on the desert tortoise, and burns fossil fuel in any case (not thst burning hydrocarbon is a pribkem).
https://youtu.be/ICLXQN_lURk
70
IIRC, there was a study about the sound emissions from offshore wind turbines that also affected marine life. I believe it was about issues in the UK area a few years ago. Human reports of noise proximity issues were raised also for land-based installations.
210
The EM fields from the power cables affect crab behaviour.
https://joannenova.com.au/2021/10/crabs-are-just-another-victim-of-wind-turbines-thanks-to-emf-pollution-from-undersea-cables/
90
It’s stated that the crabs are mesmerised and can’t or don’t move. Large numbers of dead crabs have been washed up over a 40 mile length of shore. If they can’t move they will starve to death . Nobody seems to have thought of power cables. Why?
140
Defenders of wildlife have commented on this issue.
https://defenders.org/newsroom/vessel-strikes-blame-series-of-whale-deaths
Locally, here in NovoCastria, we occasionally have a dead whale washed up on the beach. It’s sad and very noticeable.
What’s even sadder is the largely unremarked damage done to humans who have land based wind turbines dumped near them.
The damage from the ULF pulsing is horrible and involves heart and lung and overriding the Central Nervous system.
The greeenies say it’s just a noise thing in trying to misdirection attention from the real issue, namely, that wind turbines are nothing more than overpriced, woke
STUNGUNS.
For
350
Who remembers Sydney’s trains in the days of the 40 foot fishplated rails?
Nobody complained about the noise because if the railway was close enough you could live without a car.
70
Took me a while to get that 🙂
30
Clippety clappity.
20
Where are those ‘Save the Whale People’ now?
And isn’t there some Feral Guv’ment Enviromental Agency somewhere looking into this in Australian waters. How can you have giant windmills plonked off the east coast of Australia right in the way of migrating whales? If we can save the ‘lesser spotted pink frog’ from a proposed open cast Coal Mine on land, then we can Save the Whales………Let alone all the other marine animals impacted.
230
Sea Shepherd was supposed to be concerned about whales.
Maybe they can attack the sonar ships. Or even better destroy a few offshore wind turbines.
Where is Dr Bob Brown these days?
220
The last I heard he was in his backyard fighting off a wind turbine development.
150
Yes and a Greenie NIMBY. What a hypocrite.
100
Peter… https://www.seashepherdglobal.org/latest-news/winds-of-wrath/
They actively campaign for responsible
you can dig deeper into internet searches and find a lot of other sea shepherd concerns.
37
I just think they are pirates born 200 years too late.
20
https://www.seashepherd.org.uk/who-we-are/honorary-president.html doesn’t mention Bob Brown per se; last heard going nimby over wind installation off north-east Van Diemen’s Land
20
According to their ABC, Guardian etc the humpbacks were nearly driven to extinction, but have made a big recovery in the last 50 years and ditto the Blue whale, see wiki etc.
They travel in big numbers up and down our east coast and of course that’s where donkey Bowen and stupid Albo want to install many 100s of new wind turbines.
I mean who gives a stuff about whales when you BELIEVE that we have a climate CRISIS?
And yet clueless Aussies actually voted for these delusional idiots.
You have to shake your head and soon you’ll have the chance to wreck our Constitution by voting YES for their racist so called “Aboriginal voice.” DUH?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-26/humpback-whales-no-longer-listed-as-endangered/100862644
211
In all fairness it was fewer than a third of first preferences elected this government, well short of a ringing endorsement what.
90
Beat me to it, but I was going to emphasise his opposition by pointing out that two thirds of people voted against him and his, and he won by voters being caught by the question: “Who do I put last?” in our compulsory preferential system. Which I oppose.
Cheers
Dave B
50
Offshore wind will never be a thing in Qld. The north is covered by GBRMPA who would NEVER allow it. /s
SA and Vic are much more suited for wind being in the Roaring 40s. The tropic and temperate lats? Not so much.
20
I wonder does anyone in “greenie world” ever think of consequences. In the past year or two the devastation of the environment around the world is appalling. When we consider the amount of raw products, mining and processing of materials alone for these monstrosities it becomes obvious the natural world is the last thing on mind of money hungry greenies. We had such a fanfare in the past about whales, now its crickets!
220
Here, I fixed it.
I think most Green types, and the Left in general can be characterised by extremely short and superficial attention spans and what psychologists call an “impulse control disorder”.
They rapidly move from one trending cause to another, cause havoc and destruction, forget about it and move on to the next trending cause.
None of them have deep knowledge about anything and they can’t maintain focus on any one subject.
180
I fixed it again:
I wonder if anyone in “greenie world” is capable of thinking.😁
50
Some videos featuring the environmental destruction of wind turbines.
Obviously, infrasound pollution will have a major effect on whales and other animals, apart from humans. I suspect even wind subsidy farms built close to water will still affect whales because infrasound travels long distances and will also likely couple into the sea from the air or land.
Infrasound https://youtu.be/ywWNx3OJyuo
Wind farm issues (bird killing, shadow flicker, audible noise, infrasound) https://youtu.be/zr3z_7iQ35s
The last one, YouTube / Goolag have made very hard to find with a search. It appears shadow banned.
Reference:
https://asa.scitation.org/doi/10.1121/1.4783827
Infrasound propagation and coupling between air, soil, and water
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 115, 2553 (2004); https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4783827
Propagation of low‐frequency sound is enhanced by very low absorption in air, water, and soil.
60
In Australia, look at all the people, animals and plants the Left sacrifice to Gaia when they cause fuel reduction burns in forests to be banned and the consequently massive bush fires.
150
S & W are supposed to solve their so called crisis, but we also have the copper crisis to consider.
Willis Eschenbach has added up the latest data and found that there isn’t enough recoverable copper to see us to 2050.
And China is the main player AGAIN and we all know what decent chaps they are to deal with don’t we? sarc.
So why don’t we just leave our Aussie east coast free for the migrating whales? Again, why don’t they just stop and THINK?
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/01/24/the-copper-conundrum/
100
Never heard of Roxby Downs? or the COPPER coast in SA????
02
I just did a quick search on Roxby Downs, no mention of a mine, just a town.
SA has as much mineral resources as Qld but they would rather be a mendicant state with the dubious distinction of occasionally powering its deindustrialised mess with W&S, than actually generating economic activity.
50
Roxby Downs is a town, purpose built to support the Olympic Dam Mine Site. The mine is owned by BHP and produces four products: copper, uranium, gold and silver.
30
Looking further the mine is Olympic Dam. That changes little of what I said. As I read it that resource is NOT being fully exploited. It is a massive deposit.
SA still needs a pro mining government. Labor only want the royalties with out concessions during development.
50
5 mins ago you did not know the mine existed now you are an expert on SA mining ;policy FFS
21
You said Roxby, I knew it was in SA but I gave up investing many years ago so I tried a refresher.
Of course I know Olympic Dam, potentially a super-mine, but I remember Qld under Premier Joh and he encouraged mining with royalty holidays, building the rail lines or power stations for the drag lines. SA has never had a pro mining premier and it shows.
You will need to find any extra Cu somewhere else. SA is a basket case.
40
There aren’t enough known copper resources in the whole world to supply a fraction of that required for nut zero, they know this, yet they still go down the path. It isn’t ignorance its purposeful destruction of the economy.
20
Wrong again, the copper deposit is in the shape of a pot (pointing down), we have only just dug into the handle a little bit. To expand into the body of the pot will require large investment. This investment will be made when the market drivers are there to make it financially viable.
The same reason why a multitude of gold mines shut down and start up all across the country, it has nothing to with the “booga, booga” nasty government
20
The Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia is expected to produce 500,000 tons of Cu/y upon completion. But it was discovered in 2001, why do you reckon is isn’t completed already?
The government is too hungry and they and the miners can’t agree on much. it is producing but needs billions more spent.
Money goes where it is welcome. SA would do well to remember that.
40
There have been more discoveries of Cu made in South Australia it seems the area is loaded with the stuff . The mine I worked at near Tennant Creek although closed still holds considerable reserves .
00
Never heard of Roxby Downs? or the copper coast in SA?
21
If everyone plays by the rules Nth Qld coast is safe, it is all marine park where it takes years to get approval to dredge a channel into a port.
Whale watching inside the GBR is a popular pastime in season.
40
Neville, I read the WUWT article, too, and thought that it overlooked an enormous source of refined copper right here in the USA. There’s probably some left in Detroit to be looted, but that’s mostly exhausted. Other great US cities misgoverned by dems are about to become very lootable- Philly, San Fran, LA, Chicago, Atlanta, etc. have lots of copper waiting to be taken while law enforcement is engaged with peaceful protestors. Our cities are becoming, what does John Kerry say, stranded assets?
10
Personally I think this is all BS and David et al are clutching at straws. More likely it is our weakening magnetic field playing a large role here.
Caveat: I am not a marine biologist or a biologist of any kind
210
If that were the case we’d also see issues with other animals that use magnetoreception such as various birds, bees and turtles. Most off-shore wind subsidy farms aren’t near populations of sea turtles.
80
Not really, the magnetic field does not weaken uniformly across that planet. The south Atlantic anomaly is but one example.
04
To add, if you were correct why do we only see dead whales, where are all the dead fish etc?
04
1. Whales are mammals. Fish are fish.
2. Most fish don’t migrate.
3. How would we know if there were dead fish? Say death rates increased 5%. Who could tell?
4. What if sonar damaged the whales and made them more vulnerable to the next solar “thing”. Who is even recording that data?
5. There are only straws to clutch here. But that’s the point. Those that say they care “for the planet” don’t care enough to even demand we collect the data…
If humans are affected by wind turbines on land, it’s hardly rocket science to wonder if aquatic mammals suffer too. Especially ones that are more dependent on magnetic fields, infrasound, etc than we are.
70
Mot interested in a tit for tat exchange here the CFACT statement says
And yet your 5 points above clearly show the evidence is not clear, so lets not get carried away here. Lets stick to the facts and as you show we have very little. We should expect the same level of scientific/engineering rigour applied to a discussion about the log effects of CO2 in our atmosphere as we do with wind mills and whales……surely?
23
Your caution is understandable however whales are not in a habit of dying in in large numbers along a coastline and the death rate suddenly increased greatly in 2016 which needs to be accounted for.
10
Mr. 24: You admit your ignorance of marine biology, so you definitely want to avoid a tit-for-tat when you have no tat. Maddison points out it would affect other creatures, and you add “across the globe”? Why did you assume that? Do magnetic fields weaken where there ARE sea turtles? The article justifies the evidence “seems” to support the harm to whales, your points notwithstanding.
20
I agree and think the wind farms are just red herrings.
Mass beachings have been happening for centuries.
Take the stranding of 500 whales at the Falkland Islands in 1897 or 1,000 in NZ in 1918. Both radar and sonar were invented in the early 20th century so they’re ruled out too.
Given the high level navigation skills of our watery brethren, their echo location abilities and indeed intelligence along with our incomplete knowledge of exactly how they navigate, we can’t point the finger at wind farms, as much as we’d like too. They may have an effect but probably not.
Solar storms influence perhaps?
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/solar-storms-might-throw-migrating-whales-course-180974278/
But perusing historical date there is no correlation for major strandings.
Another factor at work here?
This is interesting:
Putman is one of a host of experimental biologists teasing out details of how wild species find their way around, whether returning to a burrow after a foraging trip or migrating between hemispheres. With each new study, the science of animal navigation is becoming less mysterious but more amazing.
Dead Reckoning
At the simplest level, animals on the move use visual landmarks, just as people do. Eagles fly along Adirondack ridges. Gray whales follow California’s coast, bobbing upright from time to time to keep tabs on nearby headlands. Nearsighted honey bees rely so heavily on visual landmarks that they’ll make midflight detours to pass close by a bush they’re using as a guidepost.
Slightly trickier is a strategy called “path integration,” which an animal can use to determine its position by assessing how far and in what direction it has been moving. In the absence of a landmark or other positional fix, path integration is the best method available. Sailors call it dead reckoning and use it reluctantly—the farther they travel and the more turns they make, the more errors accumulate.
https://www.nwf.org/Home/Magazines/National-Wildlife/2014/FebMarch/Animals/Animal-Navigation
You’ll note that whales use visual cues, so beachings seem pretty odd.
Killer whales hunting their prey can get very close to the shore without problems too. The mystery goes on…
11
Don’t rule out solar electromagnetic events.
00
There are many reasons and little clarity as to the major culprit, but there are some patterns. The kind of whales that beach en masse are more likely to be open-ocean species that don’t spend a lot of time in the shallows (though this is not an absolute rule), and are those that live in close-knit social groups. Whales that strand are often toothed species – such as sperm whales, common dolphins, and pilot whales – not filter-feeding baleen whales. More than 3500 long-finned pilot whales have been stranded in Tasmania since records were first kept.
Sometimes strandings are down to navigational errors. Research from the University of Tasmania and the University of WA shows that the flow of cold, food-rich ocean currents close to shore, and places that have wide, gently sloping coastlines, can lead to confusion, which results in disaster. Strandings at Tasmania’s 33km Ocean Beach are thought to be down to such topography. Ear infections, which limit the use of echolocation, have also been implicated – and if one pod member becomes stranded, its distress calls can lead other members of the group to follow, with often fatal consequences.
In some cases, sickness from toxic algal blooms, viruses and other agents have been implicated. In that situation, the animals may simply have been too sick to swim anymore.
There’s also evidence that shipping noises and military sonar frighten or distress whales, causing internal haemorrhaging or decompression sickness as they flee towards the surface. There’s little doubt sonar is responsible on some occasions, but since mass strandings were written about by Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle in 350 BC, it’s clearly not the only explanation.
https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildlife/2016/05/why-do-whales-strand-themselves/
350BC – sorta rules out every manmade cause.
Maybe the elderly pod leader is a bit mutt & jeff through disease and parasites and leads the whole pod to their fate.
Occam’s razor.
30
We are not talking about a mass stranding. It is the sudden roughly tripling of the rate of deaths, not all of which are strandings, over most of the East Coast and lasting many years. The data is the first graph in Jo’s article. I do not think there is a single mass stranding in it.
00
and then followed by
You’ve done well on the red thumbs
35
For the love of God GA, read and comprehend English.
I am not the one claiming beyond any shadow of a doubt this wind farm is killing whales without a shred of evidence.
All i say is “more likely” it is magnetic fields, i don’t claim it is mag fields i merely say more likely.
In regards to red thumbs, well you know how it works if you sacrifice a sacred cow you upset the local natives and their cargo cult mentality. In this case my crime was to suggest a wind farm was not to blame for the plague of frogs, fly’s and boils.
43
And I think it reverberations from those FBGs. Prove me wrong.
25
What are FBG’s again?
And once again but in more detail to assist your understanding GA we have this statement without a shred of evidence to support
Compared to
Remember GA i am not the making the claims about sound waves killing whales
20
You complain about their evidence free guess but are happy with your own. I got that the first time. No need to repeat the error.
Just for the kiddies at home. It is permitted, common and often prudent in science to offer a refutation of something without providing an alternative explanation or theory.
24
So crackar, the 178 dead whales are “not a shred” and the data on IHA approvals is “not a shred” either. The graph is also not …?
What sort of shreds would qualify as “A strange coincidence”?
I made no big claims, and I had plenty of shreds.
Are you having a bad day?
80
What did the 178 whales die of?
What actually killed them, was it the:
1, under sea noise from the pile drivers
2, The sonar mapping the sea floor
3, The infra sound from the blades
4, The IHA
5, a combination of all 4?
Its all circumstantial, sure great talk about it but dont get the $hts up when i say its circumstantial (comment directed at many not just you) and WTH is sonar blasting?
Why would i be having a bad day? I am simply pointing out errors in the post, if you dont like it simply moderate me off your site.
23
Cracker, I have yet to hear of any errors in the post. You apparently do not accept the statistical evidence as strong, which I do, but that is just differing personal opinions. Wojick’s first law is “The weight of evidence is relative to the observer”. Juries prove this every day.
The death rate tripled just when highly intrusive OSW development began. I explain how this is possible,and no other cause has been advanced, which makes the statistiics strong evidence in my view. (Some of the things you say suggest you have not read my article, much less looked at the evidence.)
If you can show sudden magnetic field variation beginning in 2016 and confined just to the East Coast USA, we might have a second hypothesis. But until then not.
20
Cracker, regarding your five “causes”. There are no pile drivers and no blades so those are out. The jump in deaths coincides with the start of sonar surveying.
IHA’s are permits to harass whales using that sonar, not causes. H stands for Harrassment. Each IHA actually specifies the maximum number of each species of marine mammal that can be caused by the sonar to make behavioral changes. My article includes a link to all the IHA’s. As I explain in the article, behavioral changes can be fatal. Fleeing into ship traffic for example.
The errors in your list suggest you either have not read my article or you misunderstand it.
20
In fairness to Dr Bob Brown, one of Australia’s most extreme greens, even he is opposed to some wind subsidy farms, at least ones near where he lives. NIMBY
https://stopthesethings.com/2019/07/23/green-turns-brown-australias-head-climate-warrior-slams-wind-turbine-eagle-slaughter/
https://defrock.org/2019/07/18/greens-exposed-as-bob-brown-baulks-at-turbines-in-his-backyard/
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jul/15/bob-brown-rebukes-tasmanian-windfarm-project-as-the-new-franklin-dam
50
The Victoria (Australia) dictator is going to build lots of off-shore wind subsidy farms.
No mention of the whales or other marine life that will be killed when they plant these monstrosities in Bass Strait or the Southern Ocean, however.
https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/victoria-launches-australias-first-offshore-wind-targets
60
There won’t be any whales left to worry about. A report put out a while ago claimed that “Climate Change”tm was affecting the reproductive cycles of whale along the Victorian/ South Aust coast line. Victorian Dept of Conservation (DELP) was investigating why female southern right whales were taking longer in between calving, with new calves only being produced once every 4 years rather than once every 3 years. How this was established was not mentioned however a research group was set up to investigate.
20
If there’s a research group set up, you cant bet that they will come up with some nefarious finding. It’s almost guaranteed that when the research grant money time runs out, they will not say” ..she’s right mate, nothing to see here”.
20
AGAIN, here’s the latest satellite data from NASA showing a decline in global fires 1998 to 2016.
See the graph at the link and Aussie fires also show a similar trend. See cooler blue map for countries and global as well. THINK.
But the biggest drop in fires are in Africa, even though their population has boomed to the highest numbers in human history.
AGAIN in Africa just 227 million in 1950.Life expectancy just 36 years.
365 million in 1970.Life expectancy 46 years.
And 1400 + million today in 2023 and life expectancy now 64 years. When will our donkeys stop to think?
IOW stop to think and save the whales.
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/90493/researchers-detect-a-global-drop-in-fires
70
Here is some history on restrictions applied to sonar. Do a search on this topic and note the names of the organizations and publications that agitated for restrictions.
2015
The U.S. Navy agreed this week to limit its use of sonar and other activities that unintentionally harm cetaceans and other marine mammals.
Continues …
U.S. Navy to limit sonar testing to protect whales.
2008
The Navy’s use of low frequency active sonar will remain restricted to certain military training areas of the Pacific Ocean, according to an agreement approved by a U.S. district court in San Francisco today. The comprehensive agreement between the Navy and conservation organizations follows a court injunction issued early this year against the Navy’s Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System Low Frequency Active (LFA) sonar system, which blasts vast areas of ocean with harmful levels of underwater noise.
Continues …
Agreement Limits Navy’s Use of Low-Frequency Active Sonar.
60
These wind farm windmills are outright ugly wherever they are and a blot on the environment.
They are esthetically detrimental and highly implicated as harm to animal life such as eagles and whales. Where are the Greens and PETA on this issue? Or would that clash with WEF policy?
60
They banned it’s use all during early 2000’s, but now? No problem
20
As with all the wind plant installation on – shore, the wind companies will do some wind speed testing prior. Sometimes this wind testing will go on for at least 2 years prior to approval. Although the test turbines are much smaller in size it could be possible their presence may have kicked off these whale deaths prior to 2016.
30
From the CFACT link:
This statement is very misleading, ELF sound waves propagate farther through water all other frequencies are attenuated very quickly. If the author seriously expects the reader to buy into this then they could have at least provided data from measurements taken from the pile driving activities clearly demonstrating ELF sound waves being produced.
Once this has been established the author could then have attempted to demonstrate how this increase in ELF sound waves is causing whales to die, alas the author has done none of this except play on the minds of those who hate wind turbines.
In short the CFACT story has no basis of fact at all.
12
That quote is from the federal ocean science website called Tethys. Here is the context from my article:
> Tethys makes it clear that noise from offshore wind is a very serious matter, saying this:
“Sound propagates farther and faster in water than in air, which can result in greater consequences for the marine environment. Coupled with the many other sources of anthropogenic noise in the marine environment (e.g., ships, seismic studies), the noise from offshore wind and marine renewable energy devices may impact many marine species. Noise may interfere with marine organisms’ communication, navigation, detection of prey, and ability to interact with their environment, as well as causing attraction to or avoidance of devices. Additionally, some marine organisms may be physically harmed from excessive noise exposure (e.g., tissue and nerve damage).”
So your disagreement is with Tethys not me or CFACT. I give their URL if you want to contact them.
It is also important that underwater sound travels much farther and very complexly in shallow water, where offshore wind lies, than in deep water. This is because soind angled upward reflects off the surface and sound angled downward reflects off the bottom, making most of the sound trapped in a duct like fashion, where is zigzags forward without dissipating up or down.
81
By having the Tethys statement in your story as evidence to support your claim indicates you agree with the Tethys statement I would presume, why else would you include it? and why would I bother contacting them?
The point I am making is you provide zero evidence that the turbines are contributing to the death of whales or these whales at least.
Its a nice story but that’s all it is.
24
“where is zigzags forward without dissipating up or down.”
It could also go laterally where more energy could be drained and each rebound in the vertical movement would also see energy loss.
31
There’s no change in direction without a loss of energy in the turnaround.
20
Sound doesn’t have mass. I have never heard of attenuation of electromagnetic waves when refracted.
20
“Sound doesn’t have mass”
It most certainly does.
It is moving air (or water) compressing and decompressing. (or moving backwards and forwards.)
Air has mass, Water has mass. Also has velocity, momentum, energy etc etc .
10
Sound is not an electromagnetic wave DUH
11
Don’t tell him, now you’ve spoilt it 🙂
00
Hilarious 🙂 🙂 🙂
00
Where is the calculation of attenuation. If it attenuates, there is the math somewhere.
The inverse Sq law calculates dispersion only.
00
Attenuation?
https://joannenova.com.au/2023/01/the-strange-coincidence-of-the-offshore-wind-industry-and-178-dead-whales/#comment-2625770
00
Attenuation
In physics, attenuation is the gradual loss of flux intensity through a medium. For instance, dark glasses attenuate sunlight, lead attenuates X-rays, and water and air attenuate both light and sound at variable attenuation rates. Hearing protectors help reduce acoustic flux from flowing into the ears.
Wikipedia
00
Also, can David W stop referring to them as wind “farms”? Plus everyone else. There’s nothing more annoying when this topic comes up. It makes the “installations” or “plants” sound all cute and cuddly. Which is what the proponents of these things want the people to believe.
32
I usually call them arrays but farms is their name in English so it may be necessary to use that misleading word when communication is the objective. I do like “subsidy farms”.
101
David, I have heard that reasoning before in science discussion communication but it is a wrong philosophy. All that happens is that you fall into the language trap sent by proponents of various controversial subjects. As an example, in this subject, calling wind and solar “renewable” or “green” energy is another anachronism.
31
Why not use “eolian industrial complexes”
00
In a slightly lighter but closely-related vein:
What to do when a a dead whale ends up on your favourite beach:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6CLumsir34&t=1s
Classic footage and timeless narration.
30
Back from the days when journalists actually impartially reported on events that really happened.
Lesson learned – never ask a highway department engineer how to dispose of a dead whale…
20
Check there’s no golf ball in the whales blow hole. Constanza reports one instance of this on the US East coast. This was documented in a Seinfeld episode.
20
Titleist?
00
wasnt it Kramer who was hitting the golf balls into the sea in the first place?
00
“To err is human, but to REALLY f** up, consult an expert.”
50
Unusual Mortality Event …. now where have I heard that before? Hmm, sounds like Par liar men having a go at critters now too
30
Nobody says anything about the thousands or millions of seabirds slaughtered by these offshore wind farms. A few feathers on the ocean? No bodies, no problem.
40
That is completely untrue.
Google it mate
(plus my sea shepherd link above mentions it)
26
Speaking of red thumbs you are on track for a nice tally today
20
There are seldom enough for anyone else when I post.
23
There was more than a little hyperbole in Damon’s post: Of course a few care, just not as many as there should.
As with many things, the outrage is optional – depends.
10
Optional on whose part? Not on the field ecologists, biologists or conservationists I know it’s not optional.
You are falling into the trap I’m sure you’ve accused me of; believing that public sentiment is reflected in the MSM. But maybe you aren’t aware since your preferred section of the media is even less concerned about these things
03
The MSM FORMS public sentiment, not this blog.
Like 99% of Australians I have never met your friends and would not agree with them on everything, in fact I would prolly disagree on most things if you are simpatico with them.
20
Leaf, this is a topic on which you and the rest of us are in basic agreement yet you are still hostile. Why?
20
I am not hostile though I could tone it down. Your assumption comes from your experience.
On the topic, I think that too much caution has been thrown to the wind (ha ha) on this and many other things. I am a conservative of a type that has nothing to do with current left and right – though it was once a part of the old right.
The specific story linking to whale is likely complete bollox and I’ll happily agree with Mr 24 on this, but not if it means signing up to silly conjecture.
03
This is not a left/right family, don’t feel so smug.
10
The figures for land birds are alarming enough. Are you suggesting that there are fewer birds at sea, or do you agree that the body count is not as obvious?
10
If you know of relevant links, feel free to post them. Otherwise your comment is ridiculous.
10
You used an absolute so it is ridiculously easy to refute “nobody”.
I’m not going to list the thousands of article I got when I googled “offshore wind farm seabird deaths” or the dozens since 2010 using Wind AND farm AND offshore AND bird in the web of science. Did you make your statement without trying something so simple?
My position on this is that not enough is being done or reported but, having read reviews on the topic, it is an enormously difficult (ie expensive and time consuming) thing to get empirical data on. The estimates of impacts using modeling of flight patterns, heights, paths and of animal avoidance behaviour are not great but not all doom and gloom either.
23
If you are so familiar with the data, perhaps you could provide best estimates of the annual seabird mortality? Or is that dependent on modelling of flight patterns, heights, paths and of animal avoidance behaviour?
30
of course it is.
00
The environmental movement is going to be responsible for destroying the environment,how ironic…
But just wait until the whale alien spaceship from startrek turns up, then we’re all in trouble.
40
Or whales drop improbably from the sky.
20
I guess blubber and whale oil are the consolation prizes in the windmill bonanza.
20
No, even dead whales are a protected species with people forbiddento to touch, take, disrespect, dismember or keep as souvenirs any part of whales that wash up dead on Victorias coastline
30
Leaving VicDanistan aside, the Whale is a great source of hydrocarbons.
30
As the Oirish would say:
Whale
Oil
Beef
Hooked
(St. Paddy’s Day T-Shirt from few years back).
40
Along the same lines I have read on another site that the U.S. wildlife agency Authorises up to 2,000 bird strikes with land based wind farms before they are penalised. ( It may have been on Stop These Things ) This even includes bald eagles, their national symbol.
40
Self reported I assume.
00
Self reported I assume.
00
And, just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water….
This article will not copy and paste.
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/breaking-researchers-warn-that-sars-cov-2-could-also-infect-aquatic-mammals-such-as-dolphins-and-whales-creating-new-viral-reservoirs
10
AND
SEE LINK FOR REST
10
Do you think its not underwater sounds killing the whales after all?
03
I certainly don’t think they’re dying of covid.
20
Did they take advantage of this and use the whale oil?
00
Nothing to do with the wind farms. It’s the Russians who are killing the whales. Or maybe Ivermectin leaking from India.
20
We have known that sound travels most efficiently through water for a very long time.
We have known that low frequency sound both within human hearing frequency range and below it can harm people’s health at distances very, very far from the source (in some cases the sounds are audible/detectable over tens of miles).
We claim to care about whales and yet we subject them to painful lives and deaths because we misguidedly beiieve, with absolutely no proof, that carbon dioxide is able to increase temperatures on Earth.
We need to call out the frauds who claim carbon dioxide is harming all our futures just what other harms they propose to do to people and the environment via their lunatic beliefs they can somehow control climate. These people claim to have a consensus and so let them tell us how far they will go to preserve humanity and at what cost to our fellow earth dwellers? What is worse – efficient burning of liquid fuels on an ICE or inefficient production and use of batteries, wind turbines and photo voltaic materials which includes the damage to children in the mines and those wonderful whales.
The IPCC have a lot to answer for and we need to start asking the questions we know they have no clue about answering e.g. how does carbon dioxide magically heat stuff up?
80
“the frauds who claim carbon dioxide is harming all our futures”
The truth in that statement is that they are really frauds.
Human Origin CO2 is scientifically incapable of doing what they claim and overheating the atmosphere.
Analysis from several angles shows conclusively that the idea is false.
It fails under basic physics, atmospheric physics, quantitative analysis and thermodynamic assessment.
That’s settled science, but the ruthless IPCCCCC and supporters have crushed anyone who tries to show the Truth.
It’s a problem of corruption not science.
10
To save the planet, you have to kill it first seems to be the ecofascist plan.
10
A better chart would have shown the number of Humpback whales stranded PER 1000, say, of the local population of the creatures.
There is a clear pattern of increased strandings over five years but a similarly clear sudden drop for the last three years.
I have no idea whether the numbers are significant compared to the total local population, but could it be that after those five years the local population has been so reduced as for there to be fewer around to strand, as it were.
00
Wind Turbines Are Burning, Collapsing in Green Energy Setback
00
[…] The strange coincidence of the Offshore Wind Industry and 178 dead whales […]
00