Is offshore wind affecting whales? That's the question that we're gonna answer on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Because over the last couple of years, there have been a number of whale strandings that are concerning to researchers. Now the blame is being put on the offshore wind industry for these strandings. There are certain groups that are actually coming out and saying that it's offshore wind. They include politicians, nonprofit organizations, fishing
industries, as well as media outlets. You'll probably guess who those are. We're going to talk about them as well as what's actually causing the whale strandings on this episode. Let's start the show. Hey everybody. Welcome back to another exciting episode of the how to protect the ocean podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin, and this is the podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean, how you can speak up for the ocean and what you can do to live for a better ocean
by taking action. And on today's episode, we're going to be looking at offshore wind industry and if it affects the recent strandings of a number of different whales along the East coast of the U S or we do, if this is your first time to this podcast, whether it's the video or the audio version, there is more information for you over at our website at speakupforblue.com. That's
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show. Let's just get down to it. There have been, over the last couple of years, some whale strandings on the east coast of the US. They're concerning. So we have to ask the question, what's happening there? What are the factors that are causing these whale strandings? And some people think they have the answer. Those people are Donald Trump, the Republican Party, fossil fuel-funded nonprofit organizations, as well as Fox News, like 50 media
outlets from Fox News. They are saying that it's the offshore wind industry. I wonder why they're doing that. But that's what they're saying. They've been perpetuating that message over different channels, whether it be social media or on TV, to say, hey, you know what? This is the problem. Wind is the problem. We know Donald Trump has a problem with windmills for a long time. Right.
There's a famous quote or the famous speech where he's talking about how if you have your your TV hooked up to electricity and a windmill coming out of your house and the wind stops, then your TV goes out and you can't watch TV anymore. I mean, who wants that? Right. It's absolute BS. It doesn't happen that way. That's not the way it works. If you want more information, you can start looking it up on on about windmills and how windmills work. Regardless of that, windmills have
some positive impacts. We're going to talk about that later on in the show. But the first question to ask is, does the offshore wind industry affect whale strandings or cause whale strandings? That's a question you have to ask because there's been an increase of windmills put out into the offshore, in the ocean, in the Atlantic Ocean. We have to ask the question, has it really affected
us? Well, researchers at NOAA, as well as academic institutions, have been studying this and they said they have not found any evidence that are linking the offshore wind industry to Some argue the noise from offshore wind farms can impact a whale's navigation and lead to stranding or death, but
our sources say there's no evidence to support that theory. The Marine Mammal Commission, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, and NOAA Fisheries all say there's no evidence to link these strandings to offshore wind energy development, nor is there evidence linking noise from site surveys causing the death of whales. NOAA has been tracking the increase in whale deaths over the last six years and determined that vessel strikes and entanglement in fishing gear
are the greatest human threats to large whales. So we know there's So why is Donald Trump, non-profit organizations, media outlets, and the fishing industry talking about getting rid of offshore wind or offshore wind causing problems? Well because it causes problem for them. Because the more you have offshore wind, the less you depend on fossil fuels. The more you have offshore wind, there's less area to fish. And the fishing communities are worried about
finding fish. That's their main priority. Also, if you start to talk about offshore wind causing whales, you're taking the attention away from fishing gear entanglements, which I'll talk about in just a sec, about
affecting whales. That is where the real problem exists. So you have the reason why these outlets and why these organizations are and why this these politicians are talking about how offshore winds could be affecting the whale strandings they're just talking out of the butt really there's no evidence so we know that there's no evidence so we have to say it over and over and over again not only do i have to say it over and over again on the video we had to say it over and over again on
a number of different media outlets like social media and stuff because people are just not going to believe it and you have to get that out there. What is causing these strandings is really definitive and it's been studied for years and that is vessel strikes and that is also fish entanglement. Now I've talked about that in depth on these episodes before so I'm not going to go completely in depth. But vessel strikes are a huge cause for whale strandings and
whale deaths. And we know this because of the North Atlantic right whale population is extremely affected by vessel strikes, so much so that they've rerouted shipping lanes to avoid ship strikes with these whales. On the other hand, you have fishing gear entanglement. So fishing gear entanglement affects the whales by the whale swimming over fishing gear, whether it be swimming through a line that's attached down to a
lobster trap or a crab trap. And it goes into their fins. The line cuts into their fins where there's actually bleeding and they get infected and they could die from that infection. And if it's prolonged, they're not rescued in time. So we've seen a lot of whales die with fishing gear entangled on them as they wash up on shore. We also don't see some of the whales that die offshore and they just sink to the bottom. because it's really hard to detect that. It's not easy to detect
that at all, as you can imagine. So those are the two main causes that are affecting whales. Now, the big thing is a lot of people are going to be like, well, hold on a second. You have these windmills, and they are huge, and they're going up against in an ocean where there's a lot of animals, where there's a lot of places, and it's a sensitive area. And yes, You're right, it is a very sensitive area. And there are potential negative impacts when you install these
windmills. So some of the things that could impact is the construction noise and disturbance. So pile driving and other constructing activities generate underwater noise, which can disturb marine mammals, fish, invertebrates, potentially causing stress and displacement. Prolonged exposure to very high noise may impact communication, navigation, and foraging behaviors of whales and dolphins. The other thing is habitat alteration. Installation of the wind turbine foundations
alters the seabed and can displace the benthic species. Changes in sediment patterns can impact habitats such as coral reefs and seagrass beds. Collision risks so that marine animals, particularly birds and bats, may collide with turbine blades, leading to injury and mortality. And the risk is generally lower for marine species like fish and cetaceans and marine
mammals, but you never know. Electromagnetic fields, EMFs, undersea cables transmitting electricity or produce electric magnetic fields, which can affect species like sharks, rays, certain fish that rely on electroreception for navigation and hunting. Displacement of species, so noise, habitat changes, or construction activity, may lead to temporary or permanent displacement of
sensitive marine species from critical areas. and then cumulative impacts, all of them together, of multiple wind farms, especially in densely developed regions, may lead to broader ecological changes. But the creation of artificial reefs. When you put a turbine in, you attract benthic habitats. You attract coral reefs, you attract oysters, you attract mussels, you attract a lot of different animals, which actually lead to the second positive impact is fish aggregation.
Those habitats that gather, fish gather around those and end up benefiting off of those habitats. Of course, windmills are a vessel to reduce carbon emissions. Just the fact that you have windmills makes us more dependent on renewable energies and less dependent on fossil fuels, which cause more carbon emissions. And then of course, research and monitoring
opportunities. There's a lot of things that you can do and there's developing projects that are happening that can actually help us monitoring different types of marine environments that are in and around these windmills. When we talk about the negative impacts, you probably wonder, wow, there's a lot of negative impacts that are happening within this area. But there are mitigation measures
that happen during construction and after. So to minimize those negative impacts, the offshore wind industry implements various measures. So one of those is timing construction to avoid sensitive breeding or migration periods using noise reduction technology, such as bubble curtains or quieter pile driving methods, designing to minimize the EMF impacts, so the electric magnetic field impacts, and then of course the last one, conducting environmental
impact assessments and ongoing monitoring. By balancing these measures, offshore wind can contribute to a more sustainable energy future while reducing harm to the marine environment. There is nothing in here that says there's reason to believe or evidence to believe that windmills present an ongoing problem that
will cause strandings or even deaths of marine mammals. So the fact that you're hearing about this on different types of social media or maybe on either podcasts or right wing information outlets does not mean it's true. Believe the science, listen to the scientists. They know what they're talking about and understand that there are multiple and cumulative effects out in the ocean. One of them is not the offshore wind when it comes to whale strandings. So that's it for today's
episode. I just want to kind of go through that because I think it's important for you to know. If you have any questions or comments, you can hit me up on Instagram at how to protect the ocean. That's at how to protect the ocean. And don't forget to subscribe and hit that notification button on this YouTube channel. If you're watching on YouTube or on Spotify, hit the follow button and on Apple podcasts, as well as any other of your favorite podcast app.
Let me know what you think of the episode. I'd love to hear from you on Instagram. That's it for today's episode. Thank you so much for joining me on this episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I am your host, Andrew Lewin. Have a