FOX News claims that 1) 6 whales have been killed by wind farm development in the last month, and 2) offshore wind farms pose a severe threat to aquatic life.

What do you guys make of this?

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    2 years ago

    It is plausible. Some (possibly most) whales use sound (low quality sonar) to figure out where the shore is. Most food is within a few miles of shore (unless ocean currents push or heat the food at the bottom in a certain way in some oceans where there is tones of food in the ocean for miles.

    Regarding this specific claim, if there were to be large masses that react to sonar (wind farms) that are in a grid, it could seem like a “shoreline” to a whale, and it could confuse the whale enough to beach while trying to find food, a mate, or a place in the ocean to rest and breathe. However, with the given information there is no conclusion other than “there might be a correlation” without more data.

    In contrast, certain costal military bases have submarines that accelerate so fast that the propellers cause cavitation (sudden phase change of water from liquid to gas from low pressure). These submarine’s cavitations & related cavitation collapses creates a kind of “turbulence” underwater but it sounds MUCH MUCH worse. Whales have been distressed in those areas for a while and after a generation or so, only the adolescents or “foreigner” whales get confused enough to beach anymore. Again, there is not enough information to have a conclusion other than “I think this is a correlation, we weren’t tracking that before, but it seems to explain what we are observing”.