While clean energy motives have always been predominantly positive, a strange side effect indicates that whales may be affected by a certain clean energy generation method. This surely is causing controversy. While the clean energy sphere is what people should be flocking towards, clean infrastructure in the U.S. and Australia may be causing harm to marine life. While petitions and protests has increased against wind project installations since the news of whales acting weirdly broke out, reality may be far from what it seems.
Is offshore wind projects affecting whales?
While many offshore wind projects have earned the scorn of many, it seems as if there is no link between offshore wind projects and the whale death in the U.S. In fact, it is proven by the Environment America’s renewable energy and ocean protection campaigns and voiced by the Government Accountability Office that there is nothing relating wind energy initiatives to whale death.
The problem may be attributed to the construction phase in these wind projects. Due to increases in noise levels under the water’s surface, whales may be disturbed. While installation of wind projects may cause disturbances, other activities such as oil exploration, shipping, and fishing can result in the same type of disturbances that also affect whale activity.
When turbines are in place, there is no effect on whales and thus federal agencies in all countries and the U.S. are suggesting halting of installation during whale migration seasons and looking at putting in more effort and finances towards reducing overall noise during installation processes.
What is provoking strange whale behavior?
The strange whale behavior discussion was started due to the the 30 whale deaths that was reported during 2017 and 2024. Almost all of those deaths resulted from whales getting entangled in fishing gear. The other reason for an escalation in whale death in North Atlantic is due to climate change and the increase in water pollution.
With climate change being the biggest problem being faced worldwide, there is simply no justification for getting rid of wind projects completely. By continuing our reliance on fossil fuels we may be shrinking the feeding grounds of certain whale types. Dr. Matt Edmunds, a marine ecologist, suggested that doing nothing to remedy the climate change situation would be far more harmful to our whales then taking action.
The wind turbine dilemma
All the speculation about wind turbines being directly related to the deaths of many whales and the images put forward whereby these whales are impaled on turbines seems to have resulted in a divided opinion in Australia and in the U.S.
The concern for whale life has provoked certain political party leaders to put forward the promise of canceling all offshore wind projects located very near to whale migration pathways. Although caution is always best, in these cases caution is being seen by some marine scientists as being far from strategic.
Since it has been mentioned quite often that wind turbines are behind the strange behavior spotted in whales, more research is required, especially for attempts to move forward in responsible ways.
Making important decisions to ensure whale protection
Although more local research needs to be tapped into to understand what is causing whale behavior to be rather strange and what may be causing an escalation in whale deaths, we cannot blame offshore wind projects entirely. Various initiatives can also be put forward to reduce strange whale behavior such as:
- Reducing plastic waste in the ocean and ensuring oceans are plastic-free zones.
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Taking action to reduce the effects of climate change instead of not acting at all.
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Minimizing the use of fossil fuels entirely so as not to harm marine life.
We cannot blame wind power projects entirely for its role in changing whale behavior or for the deaths of more whales in Austrailia and the U.S. Nevertheless, we can rely on options like Seaflute which is not a traditional turbine as these may be more lucrative options to generate clean energy and move away from fossil fuel usage.
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