No, Offshore Wind Does Not Cause Whale Strandings

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Is offshore wind affecting whales? That's the question that we're

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gonna answer on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Because

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over the last couple of years, there have been a number of whale strandings that

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are concerning to researchers. Now the blame is being put on

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the offshore wind industry for these strandings. There are

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certain groups that are actually coming out and saying that it's offshore

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wind. They include politicians, nonprofit organizations, fishing

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industries, as well as media outlets. You'll probably guess

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who those are. We're going to talk about them as well as what's

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actually causing the whale strandings on this episode. Let's

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start the show. Hey

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everybody. Welcome back to another exciting episode of the how to protect the ocean podcast. I'm

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your host, Andrew Lewin, and this is the podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean,

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how you can speak up for the ocean and what you can do to live for a better ocean

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by taking action. And on today's episode, we're going to be looking at offshore

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wind industry and if it affects the recent strandings of a number of different whales

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along the East coast of the U S or we do, if this is your first time to

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this podcast, whether it's the video or the audio version, there is more information

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for you over at our website at speakupforblue.com. That's

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News, Ocean Job, and our latest episodes. So check that out,

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speakupforblue.com forward slash newsletter. Let's get into the

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show. Let's just get down to it. There have been, over the

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last couple of years, some whale strandings on the east coast of the US.

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They're concerning. So we have to ask the question, what's happening

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there? What are the factors that are causing these whale strandings? And

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some people think they have the answer. Those people are

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Donald Trump, the Republican Party, fossil fuel-funded nonprofit

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organizations, as well as Fox News, like 50 media

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outlets from Fox News. They are saying that it's the offshore wind

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industry. I wonder why they're doing that. But that's what they're

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saying. They've been perpetuating that message over different channels,

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whether it be social media or on TV, to say, hey, you

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know what? This is the problem. Wind is the problem. We know Donald Trump

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has a problem with windmills for a long time. Right.

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There's a famous quote or the famous speech where he's talking about how if

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you have your your TV hooked up to electricity and a windmill

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coming out of your house and the wind stops, then your TV goes out

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and you can't watch TV anymore. I mean, who wants that? Right. It's

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absolute BS. It doesn't happen that way. That's not the way it works. If

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you want more information, you can start looking it up on on about

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windmills and how windmills work. Regardless of that, windmills have

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some positive impacts. We're going to talk about that later on in the show. But the first

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question to ask is, does the offshore wind industry affect whale

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strandings or cause whale strandings? That's a question you have to ask because

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there's been an increase of windmills put out into the offshore, in

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the ocean, in the Atlantic Ocean. We have to ask the question, has it really affected

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us? Well, researchers at NOAA, as well as academic institutions, have

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been studying this and they said they have not found any

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evidence that are linking the offshore wind industry to

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Some argue the noise from offshore wind farms can impact

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a whale's navigation and lead to stranding or death, but

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our sources say there's no evidence to support that theory. The

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Marine Mammal Commission, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, and

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NOAA Fisheries all say there's no evidence to link these strandings

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to offshore wind energy development, nor is there evidence linking noise

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from site surveys causing the death of whales. NOAA has

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been tracking the increase in whale deaths over the last six years and

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determined that vessel strikes and entanglement in fishing gear

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are the greatest human threats to large whales. So we know there's

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So why is Donald Trump, non-profit organizations, media

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outlets, and the fishing industry talking about getting

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rid of offshore wind or offshore wind causing problems? Well because it

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causes problem for them. Because the more you have offshore wind, the

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less you depend on fossil fuels. The more you have offshore wind,

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there's less area to fish. And the fishing communities are worried about

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finding fish. That's their main priority. Also, if you start to

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talk about offshore wind causing whales, you're taking the attention away

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from fishing gear entanglements, which I'll talk about in just a sec, about

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affecting whales. That is where the real problem exists. So you

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have the reason why these outlets and why these

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organizations are and why this these politicians are talking about

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how offshore winds could be affecting the whale strandings they're just

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talking out of the butt really there's no evidence so we know that there's no

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evidence so we have to say it over and over and over again not only do

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i have to say it over and over again on the video we had to say it over and over again on

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a number of different media outlets like social media and stuff because people

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are just not going to believe it and you have to get that out there. What is

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causing these strandings is really definitive and

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it's been studied for years and that is vessel strikes and

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that is also fish entanglement. Now I've talked about that in depth

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on these episodes before so I'm not going to go completely in depth.

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But vessel strikes are a huge cause for whale strandings and

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whale deaths. And we know this because of the North Atlantic right whale population

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is extremely affected by vessel strikes, so much so that

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they've rerouted shipping lanes to avoid ship strikes

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with these whales. On the other hand, you have fishing

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gear entanglement. So fishing gear entanglement affects the

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whales by the whale swimming over fishing gear, whether it

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be swimming through a line that's attached down to a

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lobster trap or a crab trap. And it goes into their fins. The

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line cuts into their fins where there's actually bleeding and they get infected and

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they could die from that infection. And if it's prolonged, they're not

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rescued in time. So we've seen a lot of whales die with fishing

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gear entangled on them as they wash up on shore. We also

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don't see some of the whales that die offshore and they just sink to the

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bottom. because it's really hard to detect that. It's not easy to detect

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that at all, as you can imagine. So those are the two main causes

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that are affecting whales. Now, the big thing is a lot of

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people are going to be like, well, hold on a second. You have these windmills, and they

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are huge, and they're going up against in an

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ocean where there's a lot of animals, where there's a lot of places, and it's a sensitive

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area. And yes, You're right, it is a very sensitive area.

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And there are potential negative impacts when you install these

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windmills. So some of the things that could impact is the construction noise

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and disturbance. So pile driving and other constructing activities generate

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underwater noise, which can disturb marine mammals, fish, invertebrates, potentially

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causing stress and displacement. Prolonged exposure to

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very high noise may impact communication, navigation,

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and foraging behaviors of whales and dolphins. The other thing

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is habitat alteration. Installation of the wind turbine foundations

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alters the seabed and can displace the benthic species. Changes

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in sediment patterns can impact habitats such as coral

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reefs and seagrass beds. Collision risks so that marine animals,

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particularly birds and bats, may collide with turbine blades,

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leading to injury and mortality. And the risk is generally lower for

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marine species like fish and cetaceans and marine

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mammals, but you never know. Electromagnetic fields, EMFs,

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undersea cables transmitting electricity or produce electric magnetic

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fields, which can affect species like sharks, rays, certain

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fish that rely on electroreception for navigation and hunting. Displacement

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of species, so noise, habitat changes, or construction activity,

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may lead to temporary or permanent displacement of

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sensitive marine species from critical areas. and then cumulative impacts,

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all of them together, of multiple wind farms, especially in

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densely developed regions, may lead to broader ecological changes.

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But the creation of artificial reefs. When you put a turbine in,

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you attract benthic habitats. You attract coral reefs, you

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attract oysters, you attract mussels, you attract a lot of different animals, which

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actually lead to the second positive impact is fish aggregation.

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Those habitats that gather, fish gather around those and end

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up benefiting off of those habitats. Of course, windmills are a

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vessel to reduce carbon emissions. Just the fact that you have windmills makes

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us more dependent on renewable energies and less dependent on fossil fuels,

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which cause more carbon emissions. And then of course, research and monitoring

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opportunities. There's a lot of things that you can do and there's developing projects that are happening that

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can actually help us monitoring different types of marine environments that

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are in and around these windmills. When we

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talk about the negative impacts, you probably wonder, wow, there's a lot of negative impacts that

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are happening within this area. But there are mitigation measures

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that happen during construction and after. So to minimize those negative

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impacts, the offshore wind industry implements various measures.

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So one of those is timing construction to avoid sensitive breeding or

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migration periods using noise reduction technology, such

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as bubble curtains or quieter pile driving methods, designing to

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minimize the EMF impacts, so the electric magnetic field

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impacts, and then of course the last one, conducting environmental

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impact assessments and ongoing monitoring. By balancing these

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measures, offshore wind can contribute to a more sustainable energy

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future while reducing harm to the marine environment. There is nothing in

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here that says there's reason to believe or evidence to believe that

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windmills present an ongoing problem that

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will cause strandings or even deaths of marine mammals. So

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the fact that you're hearing about this on different types of social media or

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maybe on either podcasts or right wing information outlets

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does not mean it's true. Believe the science, listen to the scientists.

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They know what they're talking about and understand that there are

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multiple and cumulative effects out in the ocean. One of them

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is not the offshore wind when it comes to whale strandings. So that's it for today's

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episode. I just want to kind of go through that because I think it's important for you to know. If

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you have any questions or comments, you can hit me up on Instagram at how

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to protect the ocean. That's at how to protect the ocean. And don't forget to

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Let me know what you think of the episode. I'd love to hear from you on Instagram. That's

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it for today's episode. Thank you so much for joining me on this episode of

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the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I am your host, Andrew Lewin. Have a