An effort to create ‘carbon-free energy’ is resulting in the injury and death of sea creatures, including protected ones.
As the Biden administration expands its offshore wind projects as part of its goal to reach a carbon-free energy system, whales and other marine life may become collateral damage, according to new research.
Two independent studies measuring ocean wind turbine construction noise found that the sound emitted by vessels mapping the seafloor was significantly louder than estimated, and that noise protection for whales and other sea creatures during wind turbine pile driving doesn’t work.
Intense noise causes hearing loss in whales, other marine mammals, turtles, and fish, compromising their ability to navigate, avoid danger, detect predators, and find prey, according to scientific studies.
Robert Rand, an acoustics consultant with 44 years of experience, took underwater readings of the sonar survey vessel Miss Emma McCall off the coast of New Jersey. He also recorded acoustic readings of pile driving for Vineyards Wind 1, an offshore wind farm project under construction 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard.
In his pile-driving report, published March 28, Mr. Rand found that even the most advanced sound-dampening technologies didn’t adequately control harmful noise. The pounding was just as loud as seismic air gun arrays used for oil and gas exploration, long known to cause injury, hearing loss, and behavioral changes in fish and marine mammals.
Furthermore, the noise made by the construction vessel itself, which is not monitored, was almost as loud as the pile driving. Mr. Rand found that the standard formula used by the National Marine Fisheries Service to calculate how noise, over a period of time, affects a mammal’s hearing, significantly underestimates the sound levels experienced by dolphins and whales.
“These are real data,” Mr. Rand, who testified at a Congressional field hearing on January 20, told The Epoch Times. “I measured it. This is not a computer model. This is not a political press release. These are data.”
Many environmentalists fear that noise related to ocean wind farm construction is contributing to “unusual mortality events” affecting whales. From 2016 through April this year, 220 humpback whales have died, according to data collected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
“Elevated humpback whale mortalities have occurred along the Atlantic coast from Maine through Florida,” since 2016, the NOAA states.
The NOAA also reported an “unusual mortality event” for North Atlantic right whales, in which 126 have died since 2017.
“The numbers have been decreasing, especially since 2017, when offshore operations really swung into gear,” Mr. Rand said.
“From my experience in noise control, that’s not a coincidence. Noise is an environmental pollutant. In human terms, it’s measured in life years lost.”
The North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium estimates 350 North Atlantic right whales exist in the world’s oceans today.
Here Here!!
OPEN LETTER: To the Prime Minister of the "New World Order"
TO: The Right Honourable Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada
FROM: Jennifer Elizabeth Telfer
I. The Banker in the PMO
You have famously stated on camera, "I'm a banker, not a career politician." That much is evident. Your leadership has treated Canada not as a sovereign nation of citizens, but as a balance sheet to be "optimized" for global investors. You are a technician for a vision that seeks to dismantle national independence in favor of the "variable geometry" of global power you promoted at Davos 2026.
II. The Death of the Trades & The "Build Canada" Scam
As someone who has worked in the trades for over 15 years, I see the "holes" in your Build Communities Strong Fund. You talk about "supercharging" homebuilding, but your policies are crushing the people who actually do the work:
The Productivity Trap: You demand 500,000 homes a year while your "hidden" fuel taxes and inflation make it impossible for ...
Someone finally put the truth in print in a Red Deer obituary. She was 71.
" Six years ago. Val’s health began to be compromised. She battled every day to reverse the vaccine injury after long battle in excruciating pain."