Threat to endangered whales gets LOUDER

[rebewranger]

Threat to endangered whales gets LOUDER
By David Wojick |July 26th, 2022|Energy, Environment|

The Virginia wind-versus-whales story has taken a turn for the worse. Worse for the severely endangered Right Whales that is. My research has found what may be some really bad news.

Meet Tethys. Not the real Tethys, the mythical Greek titaness of the sea, but DOE’s center for reporting research on the environmental impact of energy technology on sea life, including whales. This is the science side of DOE (where I used to work), not the Ocean Energy development side.

Tethys has some profoundly disturbing things to say about offshore wind and really loud underwater noise. Noise that could easily adversely affect the North Atlantic Right Whales.

It is all about pile driving, or in this case tower driving. The hundreds of huge offshore wind towers proposed for Virginia do not have poured concrete foundations like onshore towers do. Instead they are literally driven into the solid seabed by floating pile drivers. The lower part of the tower is designed to be driven.

https://www.cfact.org/2022/07/26/threat-to-endangered-whales-gets-louder/

[Kamaji]

The article's primary concern is about noise generated during the construction phase, but what about vibrations that these towers will transmit into the water during their operational phase?

[rebewranger]

If the Durante Nosed Snot Snail in a Louisiana swamp were threatened by putting a civil defense siren there, the FBI, congress, and Greta Thunberg would be involved.  But not for the Right Whale, huh?

[DefiantMassRINO]

Why can't they be put on shore?  It's still gets windy by the shoreline, its probably less to build and maintain, wouldn't be a navigation threat, and would have less effect on marine life.

... of course, there's the bird holocaust, but that's the National Audubon Society's problem.

Has anyone studied the impact that Cape Wind would have on Great White Sharks off Cape Cod?