The increase in deaths of whales, dolphins and other cetaceans on the US East Coast since 2016 is not due to the construction of large industrial wind turbines, US government officials say.
Their scientists have done research, they say, to prove that whatever is killing the whales has absolutely nothing to do with the wind industry.
But now, a new documentary, “Thrown To The Wind,” by director and producer Jonah Markowitz, which I executive produced, proves that US government officials have been lying.
The film documents the shockingly high-decibel sonar emitted by wind industry vessels when measured with state-of-the-art hydrophones. And this suggests that increased wind industry boat traffic is directly linked to certain whale deaths.
Humanity has a spiritual connection with whales, Shellenberg said. This is an amazing view of a humpback breaching in the Gulf of Maine. Universal Images Group via Getty Images
But whales are in danger, especially the North Atlantic right whale, whose population has dropped to 340 from 400. Members of the species were photographed feeding off Cape Cod in May.REUTERS
My nonprofit, Environmental Progress, which is independent of all energy interests, funded the documentary because, like millions of Americans, we love whales and believe their extinction is an avoidable tragedy.
The species in question is the North Atlantic right whale. Its population has dropped to 340 from more than 400 in recent years.
And, there have been more than 60 recorded whale deaths of all species on the East Coast since Dec. 1, 2022, a number that has increased significantly since 2016 when the wind industry began to ramp up.
The documentary may not prevent industrial wind projects from being built. After all, the wind project is proceeding despite urgent warnings from leading conservation groups and leading scientists at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
New York and New Jersey waters have seen a sharp increase in whale deaths this year.
But our documentary has hit a nerve. In the first 48 hours after it was online, over 20,000 people retweeted it, and over 6 million people in total, across two tweetssaw a post with an embedded trailer for “Thrown To The Wind.”
And, now, Republican members of Congress are telling me they want to hold hearings to investigate.
I have been involved in many big things during my 35 years of being politically active. This one, saving the whales, is one of the most noble and important. One of my first political memories as a child was a Greenpeace “Save the Whales” sticker in my father’s food co-op.
Pope touches something deep inside us. They care deeply about their offspring. They form a community. They sing.
The latest fatality in New York waters was the discovery on August 15 of a young humpback man on the Atlantic Coast, in Long Beach, Long Island. AMSEAS/ Instagram
Whales are, as conservationists explain in “Thrown to the Wind”, great spiritual beings, not just great biological beings.
There appear to be at least two different mechanisms by which wind industry activity kills whales.
The first is through boat traffic in historically untrafficked areas. The second is through high-decibel sonar mapping that can confuse whales, separate mothers from their calves, and send them into harm’s way, either to boat traffic or poorer feeding grounds.
The whale deaths caused by boat strikes are not related to the work of the wind farms – as some try to claim – but are driven by it.
We can’t ignore the real cause of whale deaths like this one washed ashore in Brigantine, NJ, in January, Shellenberger said: wind farm development is a clear and present danger.AP
Waters around New York and New Jersey have seen three humpback deaths in August alone; two of them had blunt force trauma while the third was too decomposed for necropsy.
Filmed in the hand-held style made famous by Paul Greengrass, creator and director of the Jason Bourne films, Markowitz’s “Thrown To The Wind” provides the experience of being on the ocean and in the room with the film’s star, Lisa Linowes, who links the whale’s death to industrial activity wind with Eric Turner, and Rob Rand.
Linowes is a lifelong environmental activist, data analyst and co-founder of the Save the Right Whales Coalition.
She’s also an obsessive data nerd who, working with her husband, sold their startup software company more than a decade ago and moved to New England where she does conservation work full-time and without pay.
The film follows Lisa Linowes, who links the deaths of whales to the activities of the wind industry. Thrown to the Wind / Public publication
Linowes was able to hear the sounds the whales were making during filming. Shellenberger writes that the effect of the noise is to confuse the whales, and keep the mother and calf away — and become a danger. Cast to the Wind / Public production
Rand is a conservationist and one of the world’s leading underwater acoustic experts with over 30 years of experience.
Markowitz’s commitment to investigative documentary filmmaking led him to travel to the ocean with Rand to measure the sound of industrial wind activity.
It was during that trip that Rand and his team encountered high-decibel noise emissions that appeared to violate NOAA’s protection standards for marine life.
When combined with the work of Linowes and Turner, linking whale deaths to wind industry ship traffic, Rand’s acoustic research should have far-reaching implications, including halting all industrial wind activity along the East Coast.
A barge off Smith Point, Long Island, is part of survey work for wind turbines. A dead humpback washed ashore at Smith Point on August 11. Newsday via Getty Images
After a dead whale washed ashore at Takanassee Beach in New Jersey two weeks ago, police cordoned off the area so tractors could be brought in to remove it.
“We were sitting on the beach yesterday, and I noticed when people started running over there,” Soraya Nimaroff, who lives nearby, told the Ashbury Park Press. “I am very sad. It is very sad.”
Our research should not be necessary. Dr. Sean Hayes, a top NOAA scientist warned last year that industrial wind projects “could have population-level impacts on already endangered and stressed species.”
“Population-level effects” include extinction.
On Lido Beach in January, the ravages of humpback death were evident as heavy machinery was brought in to bury the 35-foot adult.AP
This is a warning from NOAA’s species conservation chief about the dangers of wind farms. It was ignored, Shellenberger wrote.
Dr. Hayes, NOAA’s chief of protected species warned that “oceanographic impacts from installed and operating turbines cannot be mitigated for the 30-year life of the project unless it is terminated.” His warning was ignored.
Likewise, scientists representing many of the same environmental groups supporting industrial wind energy projects wrote in a 2021 letter that “North Atlantic right whale populations cannot withstand any additional pressure; any potential disruption of foraging behavior could lead to population level and is a critical concern.”
But the scientists then stood by when their organization sold them and the whales.
Under pressure from the White House, the US government has ignored its leading scientists and pushed ahead to industrialize the oceans and risk the extinction of the North Atlantic right whale.
The Jersey Shore has become an all-too-frequent host to the most unwelcome form of whale visitor: washed-up carcasses.
This 2021 letter from scientists, many from groups that support wind energy expansion, warns of how vulnerable right whales are. “Population-level effects” include extinction.
Part of the problem is that the wind industry spent years bribing the US government, scientific organizations, and aquariums to lie to the American people.
Wind energy companies and their foundations have donated nearly $4.7 million to at least three dozen major environmental organizations.
And Facebook went so far as to censor my post linking whale deaths to wind energy on the East Coast of the United States.
The censorship was done in the form of adding a link to the “FactCheck.org” article from March 31, 2023, which relies entirely on the US government source “Thrown to the Wind”.
Rhode Island hosts the nation’s first offshore wind farm. Shellenberger argued it would be reckless not to stop the giant’s offshore expansion.AP
“Thrown To The Wind” exposes the reality that US government agencies and the scientists working for them have either not done the basic mapping and acoustic research to support their claims, have done the research badly or discovered what we found and are covering it up.
Given the evidence presented in “Thrown To The Wind,” it is clear that the American people and our representatives cannot trust NOAA and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), two government agencies that, for years, have repeatedly betrayed the public’s trust in services for powerful industrial interests.
In the documentary, the reality of the danger to whales is clear to all who participate. “When people see the evidence, the American people, their policymakers, and the courts will put an end to this horrific destruction of wildlife,” Shellenberger wrote. Thrown to the Wind / Public productions
Because politics has undermined the normal scientific and regulatory process to protect North Atlantic right whales, we urge federal and state elected officials to conduct investigations, issue subpoenas and hold public hearings.
Saving North Atlantic right whales is an easily achievable goal and worth pursuing. Yes, the number has plummeted from over 400 to just 340 at last estimate.
But the species may rebound if sonar mapping and new boat activity in previously untraded areas is stopped.
The strong reaction to the documentary over the past two weeks, including from members of Congress, gives me hope that things will change soon.
Sad sights of buried whales, like this one on Lido Beach, have become all too frequent. Shellenberger urged state and federal lawmakers to act.AP
When people see the evidence, the American people, their policymakers, and the courts will put an end to this horrific destruction of wildlife.
Government officials, scientists and journalists who have been involved in promoting this project should quit their jobs and become whistleblowers before their work kills more whales.
Michael Shellenberger is the Founder of Environmental and Public Progress, a Substack publication. @shellenberger
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
