"....there is at least a possible link between the proliferation of offshore turbines and the increase in whale deaths. It's logical, no?"
Perhaps a bigger mystery even than the unexplained deaths of up to 100 whales washed up on Scottish and Irish beaches during the past few months, is the fact that much of the media has been strangely quiet over the matter. It's thought that very many more of the mammals might have perished at sea, meaning that several hundred whales might have died. While there is, with some justification, an overload of publicity about plastics in our seas causing harm to wildlife, there have been few reports highlighting the shocking numbers of whale deaths that appear to be due not to plastic but more likely to sound pollution at sea which affects the delicate sonar that the whales use to navigate and communicate. Military Sonar And Oil Exploration Blamed.... Fingers have been pointed at military manoeuvres in the waters of the North Atlantic as well as deep sea oil and gas exploration. But what many of those pointing the fingers seem to ignore entirely is that there are now vast banks of huge wind turbines around the Scottish coast, throughout the North Sea and in the Irish Sea which emit low level noise capable of disorientating the sensitive marine mammals. While it is important to consider all explanations for the whale deaths, it seems suspicious to me that the notion of wind farms contributing to the huge number of beached whales is no longer even mooted as a possibility. Yet, to many, the correlation between wind farms and whale deaths is substantial. Unusual whale mortality has also been reported from the East coast of the USA and Denmark, both areas in which there happen to be offshore turbines. As recently as last year the idea was put forward that wind farms might play a part in the demise of the mammals when some dead Minke whales were washed up in Norfolk, UK, close to an offshore wind farm. Suggestions That Wind Farms To Blame Dismissed Out Of Hand.... But suggestions that noise from the turbines was to blame were hastily dismissed as paranoia and ridiculed by wind industry sympathisers. What was an apparently plausible link is now ignored - and those implicating turbines with the whale deaths are mocked and treated with contempt. Perhaps there is too much money at stake, invested in the wind industry, to risk considering the possibility that the vast industrial scale turbines are a contributory factor to the whale deaths. Environmentalists Critical Of Wind Energy.... While genuine environmentalists remain highly critical of the wind industry and its motives, perhaps the faux greens are too blinkered to see the harm they might be doing, heaven forbid that anyone should threaten their fantasy of a planet powered by wind and inhabited by Unicorns. But to me there is at least a possible link between the proliferation of offshore turbines and the increase in whale deaths. It's logical, no? Or are we just going to bury our heads in the sands of ignorance and allow the demise of our precious whales (and birds and bats...) while we listen, in blissful stupidity, to the whirring of turbine blades...?
9 Comments
Jennifer Wall
23/10/2018 07:19:13 pm
I have read of many accounts of humans being affected by the air bourne pressure living close to Turbines. They appear to suffer from a variety of symptoms. With large sea mammals who have exceptional hearing, especially at low level frequencies, then these animals will be particularly sensitive to the noise of turbines. Apparently the building of off shore turbines can cause damage to sea mamanls hearing. The builders of turbines will of course dismiss the damage done to whales and other marine life, just like they dismiss the damage that is being done to humans. Naturally they don't want anything like this to interfere with filling their pockets!
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Mark Hathaway
24/10/2018 04:30:29 am
Anything is possible, of course, but I think right now this is pure speculation. Have whale strandings increased significantly since the wind farms began? How does the noise level of the wind turbines in water compare with the noise level of marine engines, sonar, etc. None of that information is present here. My understanding is that other sources of noise are likely much, much louder than what the turbines produce.
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George Herraghty
24/10/2018 09:16:18 am
Russell
24/10/2018 05:13:26 pm
It’s not how loud that’s an issue, so much as the frequency. Turbine emissions are actually pretty loudin those low level frequencies though. The under water cables can also emit electrical and magnetic interference, though how much and what it interferes with seems intentionally not monitored or studied.
Bill Christian
1/11/2018 05:07:16 pm
Mark Hathaway is spot-on. The cresting wind-swept waves are thousands of times louder than the wind turbines. I understand science and am open to any link between whale deaths and wind farms, but a simple review of sound levels indicates this is beyond preposterous. Undersea oil exploration could certainly account for it, because these seismic blasts are strong enough to penetrate and echo through miles of rock below the sea. These blasts might render whales temporarily or permanently deaf and disoriented, leading to a quick death. I don't know. It is possible. Unlike the sound of wind farm blades, which are very surprisingly quiet. In the mountains of Vermont, if you are 1500 feet from a wind turbine in a strong wind, you cannot hear it if there is a car driving at 30 mph a quarter mile away. You have to wait until there are NO cars within even a faint hearing range. Total silence. Then you may hear them, unless they are drowned out by the sound of the wind in the trees around you. These machines are NOT loud. At ALL. A wave would totally overwhelm its sound. The myth of loud wind farms shows that a lie, repeated belligerently and often, becomes a putrid zombie that will not die. 25/10/2018 09:17:29 am
I am extremely concerned about the 355 turbines proposed for the Moray Firth, 84 under construction now (Beatrice), 186 consented and adjoining Beatrice plus another 85 in planning also in the same site. Also 269 underwater turbines planned in the Pentland Firth. These are all popular whale watching sites, plus dolphins and porpoises, but no concern has been expressed. All this construction must have an effect.
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David O'Neill
23/8/2020 12:35:56 pm
Sorry, I only became aware of this today. Are there publicly available statistics on these events?
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alan m Dransfield
23/8/2020 12:41:08 pm
Notwithstanding the veracity of the allegations that the Wind Farms are the root cause for these Mammal Deaths, it behoves the relevant governments to eliminate the connection between the WF and the Dolphins and Whale Deaths. The manner in which the UK has dismissed this topic out of hand as they did with the 5G Connection is reprehensible.
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Carmel McCormack
23/8/2020 04:21:44 pm
'Is noise pollution killing whales and dolphins?
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