From Australia but the same story in UK and US waters
Remember when ‘Save the Whale’ was a thing?
The Southern Ocean is just one of six key regions the Albanese government has identified for intensive offshore wind development over the coming decade.
The zone stretches 5,100-square-kilometres from Warrnambool in Victoria to Port MacDonnell in South Australia.
Another 15,000 square kilometres off the Gippsland coast has also been declared a designated offshore wind zone.
The two areas overlap with the annual migration route and calving zone of the threatened Southern Right Whale.
If displaced, these animals could be forced to abandon their habitats in our southern waters altogether.
There aren’t too many places left where the Southern Right Whale can go.
Saving whales from extinction was once one of the most important priorities of Australia’s so-called ‘green movement’.
What happened?
Groups like WWF and Greenpeace, who were so ‘gung ho’ when it came to saving whales from offshore oil and gas projects, are now conspicuously silent on the harmful impacts of off-shore wind.
It is hard to understand why underwater sonar and seismic surveying can be regarded as deadly for whales when carried out by the fossil fuel industry, but ‘fine and dandy’ when it comes to Big Wind.
Clearly these Green phonies couldn’t care less about whales.
In the US, where huge swathes of the East Coast have been carved out for offshore wind developments, an unprecedented number of dead whales have started washing up on New Jersey beaches.
Between 1 December 2022 and 8 January 2023 – a period of 6 weeks – there were over 60 recorded whale deaths along the Eastern coastline.
In July, two Humpback Whales washed ashore at Martha’s Vineyard, coincidentally only a few days after Piledriving started at a nearby wind site.
As one US Senator said at the time:
“The sonic surveys and other work related to offshore wind projects is the primary difference in our waters. It’s hard to believe that the unprecedented deaths and strandings of these whales on our beaches is just a coincidence”.
A few weeks earlier, beaches on the shores of Nantucket were carpeted with dead crabs, clams and other organisms susceptible to seismic testing, which coincidentally was taking place nearby.
Australians have all this and more to look forward to with the coming mass industrialisation of our oceans.
By 2040, thousands of wind turbines, 750 to 900 feet high, will tower over our southern coastline.
Planting 300 tonne whirling steel monstrosities out to sea will put many of our most vulnerable and endangered marine species, including whales, on a one-way path to extinction.
Oh well.
At least the climate will be lovely.
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