National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration Falsely Claims that its Noise Guidelines Protect Whales
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). The investigation also finds that the wind industry and the government have made wrong assumptions about noise levels. Acoustics experts say the sound levels measured are similar to those of a loud jackhammer being used outside of your home.
Defenders of the wind industry say that 40% of whales likely died due to “human interaction,” such as entanglements in fishing gear, and none of the deaths were caused by wind turbine construction or operations. But that 40% number is not accurate because it only refers to those whales on which a necropsy was performed.
Since NMFS’ protective safety distances are derived from the sonar noise levels, the distances were set much shorter than they should have been. 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. While reports from Save the Right Whales demonstrate a correlation between whale deaths and offshore wind development, causality remains outstanding yet concerning as NOAA and other similar institutions remain hesitant to investigate the issue.
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