Save whales from misinformation

Members of the public, especially in the Ocean City area, can oppose or support wind farm development off the coast for a variety of reasons, but the one thing in this debate that needs to stop is the persistent accusation that wind turbines cause whale deaths.

It isn’t true. Worse, it’s a myth embraced by many people because of its emotional appeal — great whales driven to their deaths by the noise of windfarm development and operation.

That just isn’t so, and while purveyors of this misinformation suggest that findings to the contrary by federal agencies such as NOAA can’t be trusted, no evidence exists that offshore wind power is somehow connected to marine mammal mortality.

Prof. James Miller, who chairs the ocean engineering department at the University of Rhode Island, said in his school’s newsletter in March, “Periodically we read in the news that a whale or some other large animal ends up on the shore, and a lot of times the blame immediately goes to wind turbines. People feel the problem must come from turbine construction noise.”

The newsletter continued, “Most of those whales are either struck by ships or are entangled in fishing nets. The great whales – the fins, the blues, the humpbacks, the right whales – these are very tough animals. They’re built for the ocean’s rough environment. Except in rare cases, the sound created from man-made sources is not enough to bother them.”

This is not to say that other arguments against offshore wind turbines aren’t valid, just as advocates of wind power also have powerful points to make.

The fact is the issue here has nothing to do with wind turbines at all. It is the increasing use of false, but emotionally appealing, information to gain public support for a particular point of view.

Healthy skepticism seems to have joined the North Atlantic right whales on the endangered species list. Both should be protected by focusing on the evidence or, when appropriate, the lack of it.

Ocean City Today

11934 Ocean Gateway, Suite 6, Ocean City, Md. 21842 Phone: 410-723-6397 / Fax: 410-723-6511.

EDITOR ............................................ Stewart Dobson

MANAGING EDITOR ............................ Mallory Panuska

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR .......................... Lisa Capitelli

STAFF WRITERS ................Jack Chavez, Cindy Hoffman, ..........................................Hunter Hine, Remy Andersen

ACCOUNT MANAGERS .......... Mary Cooper, Vicki Shrier ..................................................................Renée Kelly

CLASSIFIEDS/LEGALS MANAGER .............. Laura Blair

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GRAPHIC ARTISTS ............ Kelly Brown, Jane Leibowitz

PUBLISHER........................................ Christine Brown

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