The seal .is one of nine other reported seal strandings on Martha’s Vineyard already this month, three times what was documented this time last year. “We’re seeing a lot of them this month,” NOAA marine mammal stranding coordinator Ainsley Smith told The Times, adding that the cause of the uptick has not been identified.
When listening to the gentle lapping of waves, the ocean may seem like a calm and quiet place. Below the surface, however, marine animals can be subjected to a cacophony of sounds. Marine life and natural phenomena produce some of this noise, but a growing amount comes from human activities like shipping, recreational boating, fossil fuel extraction and infrastructure projects. One of the most clamorous sources in some parts of the world is pile driving, a construction method that involves pounding piles—long cylinders—into the seabed to support a structure, such as a bridge or wind farm.
This important paper examines the distances at which wildlife life is displaced by operating wind energy facilities. The investigation involved review of post-construction data at projects located in the US, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Norway. The highlights of the report and abstract oft he study are provided below. The full report can be downloaded from the document links on this page.
And now there is fierce global debate about whether another factor could be at play in such incidents: offshore wind farms – a controversy that has set the passionately pursued ‘green’ agendas of renewable energy activists and conservationists against one another. The finger-pointing began in February with a spate of strandings and deaths of baleen whales (the name for humpbacks, fin whales and blue whales) on America’s east coast, which some blamed on huge turbines off the US seaboard.