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As Marine Mammal Deaths Continue, 50 Blue State Mayors Call for Offshore Wind Farm Moratorium

As Marine Mammal Deaths Continue, 50 Blue State Mayors Call for Offshore Wind Farm Moratorium

The whales may not wait for our politicians. Killer whales appear to be organizing attacks against sailboats off the coast of Europe.

Earlier this month, I reported that New Jersey Republicans were demanding that construction on offshore wind farm projects be halted for up to 60 days to see if it will reduce the number of whales washing up dead on East Coast beaches.

Now 50 mayors from the Blue States along the East Coast, where marine mammals continue to wash ashore dead, are also calling for a moratorium.

Dozens of East Coast mayors representing cities in three Democratic-led states — New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland — are calling for an offshore wind development moratorium in light of recent marine wildlife deaths.

In an open letter to Congress sent Tuesday, 50 mayors from across the three states said offshore wind development should immediately cease until a thorough investigation is conducted. The mayors expressed concern that the increasing number of whale and dolphin deaths is negatively impacting the ocean ecosystem their communities rely upon.

“Our coastal economies rely on a healthy ocean ecosystem to function, and we are increasingly concerned about the environmental impacts offshore wind may already be affecting our communities,” the mayors wrote to Congress.

“The current level of marine mammal mortality is unacceptable, and we need answers,” the letter continued. “In the absence of scientific evidence explaining the increase in marine mortality, we believe the connection between offshore wind activity and marine mammal mortality must be investigated now.”

The messaging is becoming more urgent as half a dozen marine mammals, including four dolphins, have washed up dead in New Jersey in four days.

The dolphins, a porpoise and another mammal washed ashore between May 18 and May 21, according to the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in the state.

Strandings occur all over the world for a variety of reasons, but there has been an uptick in cases across the New York and New Jersey coast since December.

…Nearly 200 humpback whales have been discovered and 40 percent of them displayed signs of injury from humans, in the form of either a ship strike or fishing line entanglement, according to NOAA Fisheries.

Environmentalists and some political groups have suggested that offshore wind development in the area could be responsible for the injuries.

There is no evidence to support this, however, and NOAA Fisheries has reiterated that the development should not be harming marine life.

Meanwhile, a multibillion-dollar energy developer has wired tens of thousands of dollars to Democratic Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine’s campaign in recent years while aggressively pushing a massive offshore wind project off that state’s coast.

Dominion Energy continues to trudge forward with plans to develop Virginia’s first offshore wind farm. The project, known as Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) and located off the state’s southeastern coast near Virginia Beach, consists of two operational pilot wind turbines and is on track to be fully constructed by 2026 with 176-205 turbines across 112,800 acres.

Kaine has been a vocal supporter of the project, which would be the largest offshore wind development nationwide, urging federal regulators to fast-track its permitting process and successfully winning millions of dollars in funding for supporting projects.

The whales may not wait for our politicians to obtain moratoriums. Killer whales, also known as Orcas, appear to be organizing attacks against sailboats off the coast of Europe.

Sailors have reported a series of “coordinated” attacks by a group of orcas, including a May 22 strike on a 26-foot vessel sailing off the coast of Cape Spartel, near the Strait of Gibraltar.

“[Six] orcas arrived, 2 adults very big, 4 smaller ones,” sailor JP Derunes wrote in Orca Attack Reports, a Facebook group dedicated to flagging orca activity. “Both rudders destroyed and blocked … Boat to be hauled off later this week.”

That attack followed a nighttime strike on May 4, when a Swiss yacht named Champagne, which was also sailing through the Strait of Gibraltar, was attacked by three orcas. They struck its rudder, eventually sinking it, reported Yacht, a German boating news outlet.

Here’s hoping the problems off our East Coast are resolved before the orcas begin staging off the New Jersey coast.

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Comments

The Green blight spreads globally over land and sea through environmental arbitrage and empathetic appeal under cover of the [catastrophic] [anthropogenic] climate cooling… warming… change cargo cult. Throw another carbon-based baby on the barbie, it’s over?

    docduracoat in reply to n.n. | May 25, 2023 at 11:21 am

    Do not forget the thousands of birds these windmill kill every year.

    lc in reply to n.n. | May 26, 2023 at 6:51 am

    Oh, let’s hope so. I doubt it though.
    They may mix the windmills, but climate alarmism is their road to tyranny.

Tethered whales swimming in circles could turn a turbine, like oxen used to be used for irrigation.

    GWB in reply to rhhardin. | May 25, 2023 at 9:30 am

    You’d need to send fish and plankton and stuff their way, though.
    Like a farming operation. Oooh, and if it were game fish, you could increase their presence in the ocean (because people could make money off of it, they would work to do it). I think I’m seeing the germ of an idea here….

      MattMusson in reply to GWB. | May 25, 2023 at 10:46 am

      Did you know that whales actually fertilize the oceans with iron? They consume Krill in the arctic circle and then travel south spreading iron rich whale poop in the process. When whales were nearly hunted to extinction, this iron cycle almost collapsed and global sea productivity dropped significantly.

      When a research study fertilized the coast of Washington with powdered iron, it triggered a bloom of microscopic plants that were consumed by small fish and crustaceans that were consumed by larger and larger fish. The following Samon run was the largest in 80 years.

Suburban Farm Guy | May 25, 2023 at 8:05 am

Religious fanatics don’t care about whales or anything else that threatens their power to make everybody conform to their Vision of the Anointed

    MattMusson in reply to Suburban Farm Guy. | May 25, 2023 at 10:48 am

    There is a civil war coming between the Sierra Club Environmentalists and the Climate Alarmists. The Climateers are happy to sacrifice Whales for Wind Energy and Orangutans in Indonesia for nickel for EV batteries.

So how are the wind farms causing this? I have yet to read something credible here. Is it lots of ships going out and back to do the construction….and hitting the sea life? What? Look…I’m all about highlighting the idiocy of the non-fossil fuel green utopia, but I’m not jumping on this bandwagon based on something that seems more than gut feelings. Show me some real causality here, and I’ll jump.

    GWB in reply to jaudio. | May 25, 2023 at 9:27 am

    The theory relates more to construction at this point, than operation. The problem is that marine mammals use sound for a vast amount of their navigation, etc. And the constant construction is screwing that up with explosions and equipment. Which also explains why fish aren’t washing up on shore in job lots.

    There is also a claim that the operation of the windmills causes vibrations in the range of their echo-location and such. That one has some engineering behind it (a set of rotating blades at the top of a tall tower causes oscillations in the tower, which translate to low frequency sounds in water). And, of course, you can also hear a hum from the machinery if you are near a windmill – that translates down the tower, as well.

    I’m not convinced it’s overwhelming evidence at this point. But, using the normal environmentalist standards, we really ought to shut it all down until we figure it out.

      Concise in reply to GWB. | May 25, 2023 at 10:04 am

      And what a lovely, pleasant view they afford. Nothing like a sunset on an ocean landscape dotted with these giant machines. Post card stuff.

      Joe-dallas in reply to GWB. | May 25, 2023 at 11:21 am

      I dont know if the sound and/or frequency of the sound is the problem, though it certainly is logical.

      Somewhat similar with land based windmills. While the windmill hum is just annoying for humans, the frequency is can be very painful for some animals.

      The Wind advocates note that the actual footprint of windmills is very small and therefore you can still farm and raise cattle under and around the windmills. However, they fail to note the lose of productivity around the windmills.

      I recently did a 72 mile bike ride in north central texas in an area populated with several wind farms. There was not a single cow near the windmills, while numerous cattle were herded in areas 1/2 to 1 mile away. I dont think cows like those things.

      markm in reply to GWB. | May 27, 2023 at 10:20 am

      Construction is preceded by sonic surveys to find solid rock under the bottom muck for foundations. That is done with a series of underwater explosions while boats move sensors around to record the sound waves reflecting off the buried rocks. This damages the whales’ sensitive ears.

      Construction itself is noisy, causing further problems for the whales. By the time the wind turbines come into operation, it’s likely that the original whale population is gone, but it’s unclear how much the wind turbine noise will adversely other whales that swim into the area.

    The noise of construction, (which is greatly amplified under water) and the extra activity is driving sea mammals into the commercial shipping lanes.

LOL. NIMBY => NIMOP (Not In My Ocean Preserve)

    The Gentle Grizzly in reply to GWB. | May 25, 2023 at 10:52 am

    NIMOV: not in my ocean view.

    H’mmm. Nimov. Russian collusion!!1!!2!!

So, the climate cult agenda wreaks havoc on ocean habitats, the mining necessary for the “green” machinery pollutes pristine land areas (as well as harming and impoverishing indigenous peoples),the excess waste is going to be a never-ending toxic landfill pollutant, and the planned replacement electric system is vastly more expensive and less reliable than present infrastructure. All for zero benefit to the average person bearing the cost of this insanity. But what really amazes me is that all this is happening with almost no real push back from the average person.

    TrickyRicky in reply to Concise. | May 25, 2023 at 10:11 am

    This.

    BierceAmbrose in reply to Concise. | May 29, 2023 at 6:04 pm

    “Positive detriment”, vs. “zero benefit.”

    Wreaks havoc everywhere they do one of their grand schemes; often in new, and creative ways.

    It’s like the goal is grabbing authoritah, making your life smaller, or maybe ginning up more excuse for their hysteria. Not surprising that every one of their schemes picks off all three. They’ve been at this for a while, and it’s a target-rich environment.

E Howard Hunt | May 25, 2023 at 10:35 am

Ongoing Orca Onslaught Obliterates Objectionable Odd Oceanic Obelisks

ThePrimordialOrderedPair | May 25, 2023 at 1:37 pm

Leftists killed the entire West Coast logging industry over a useless owl, that couldn’t compete in the forest and that lefties didn’t care about and couldn’t identify with a handbook, and California farming over the Delta Smelt, that matters not one whit to any one or anything. But they are gung ho to go kill whales wholesale in order to get windwills erected in the ocean which will end up being useless hunks of rust and deliver no useful energy.

Western Leftists are a scourge on the Earth. And they know it, which is why they are self-hating nihilists.

healthguyfsu | May 25, 2023 at 2:41 pm

“Kaine has been a vocal supporter of the project”

Kaine is a dirty whore and so is his wife.

Blue State residents are no doubt very concerned that Lizzo may wash up on their shores, dressed in one of her awful outfits. The horror!!

Weasel-wording copied from the Fox News article: “blue state mayors”. Does this mean the Democrat mayors of large Democrat cities on the coasts, or Republican mayors of small towns on the coasts of states that are controlled at the state level by Democrats?