Save the Right Whales Coalition Slams NOAA and NMFS for Covering Up Big Wind's Complicity in Whale Deaths

I’m done taking a cautious approach to this issue. What the U.S. government is doing to protect offshore wind developers from their complicity in killing dozens of whales off the Northeastern U.S. coast is too ghoulish to tolerate.

I don’t have the capacity to engage in the activism and research efforts being made by Meghan Lapp, Michael Shellenberger and others in this area, but I can use this growing Substack platform as a regular clearinghouse for helping to amplify their efforts. So, look for regular posts from me on this topic going forward, because these ghouls must be stopped.

If you aren’t following Michael Shellenberger and Alex Gutentag in their efforts to address the matter at public.substack.com, you should be. Here’s an excerpt from a piece they published yesterday, slamming NOAA and NMFS for their complicity in covering for Big Wind:

There is no evidence that industrial wind turbines cause whale deaths off the East Coast, says the US government’s National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which is charged with monitoring oceanic conditions and protecting marine life.

“I want to be unambiguous: There is no information supporting that any of the equipment used in support of offshore wind development could directly lead to the death of a whale,” said a representative from NOAA in January of this year.

But now, a new investigation by Save the Right Whales Coalition finds that sonar activity from offshore wind lease areas is producing high noise levels at distances that violate the limits set by NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).

Acoustics experts say the sound levels measured are similar to those of a loud jackhammer being used outside of your home.

This is significant because research finds that when North Atlantic right whales encounter high sonar levels, they flee. In the case of the East Coast, that means they flee into areas of greater vessel traffic, a main cause of death.

Sonar also causes whale mothers and their calves to separate, say marine biologists. Whales use sound to communicate. If they get separated, they can’t see each other. And if they can’t hear each other, the calves can die.

[End]

READ THEIR FULL STORY AT THIS LINK

Below is the full text of the letter sent to NOAA by Save the Right Whales:

Stay tuned.

That is all.