Offshore Wind and Wildlife Protection
by Ellen Cardone Banks
Sierra Club members and supporters know that our shared mission is to Explore, Protect and Enjoy our Planet, which means that while we boldly confront the climate crisis, we insist on protection of wildlife, land, and oceans. I attended a recent conference sponsored by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), State of the Science on Wildlife and Offshore Wind Energy, which demonstrated that these goals are compatible. Climate change is the greatest threat to the survival of thousands of species, as well as to the world-wide human environment, and the combustion of fossil fuels is the primary driver of global heating so it needs to be phased out and ended. At the National, Chapter, and Group Sierra Club levels we support the transition to clean renewable energy; it is one of the most important actions we can take for humankind and the species we share the land, sky and water with. This transition is mandated by New York State law, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) enacted in 2019.
Opening the conference, NYSERDA President and CEO Doreen Harris announced the latest call for proposals to construct an additional 2 Gigawatts (GW; one GW=1000 Megawatts) of offshore wind (OSW), to be added to the 4.3 GW under development in the New York Bight (a bight is an area of ocean along a curved coast, less indented than a bay; the New York Bight extends from Montauk Point on Long Island to Cape May in New Jersey.) The latest solicitation will move New York closer to the CLCPA goal of 9 GW of OSW by 2035.
More than 200 marine wildlife biologists from universities, federal and state agencies, environmental nonprofits, and OSW developers attended, discussing the latest research on seabirds, fishes, and marine mammals. The only offshore wind farms presently operating in US waters are two relatively small demonstration projects, off Block Island near Rhode Island and near Virginia Beach, so studies of OSW effects on wildlife come from European wind farms that have been operating for up to 20 years. As wind power expands on our side of the Atlantic, it is essential to have pre-development baseline studies so that any changes due to OSW can be accurately assessed: Where are the whales, dolphins, seals, seabirds, bats and fishes, and their food supplies? What are their population sizes and which species are at risk? What hazards do they face now? What can be done to protect them during construction and operation of wind turbines?
Several types of radar, often combined with thermal imaging, are in use in European wind farms, and a multi-national study led by the British-based Carbon Trust is set to quantify the effects of bird-wind turbine collisions, separating them statistically from other causes of bird deaths, which a previous world-wide study ranked as (1) invasive species (2) by-catch from fishing and (3) climate change. As OSW is constructed off US shores, developers are required to pay a fee per MW they generate to support monitoring and protecting animals.
One of the challenges of measuring bird and bat collisions from offshore vs. land-based wind is that the remains of animals lost at sea, unlike those struck on land, cannot be collected, so other means of estimating losses are necessary. An international bird tracking system, MOTUS, developed in Canada, attaches tiny radio tags to birds and will track them with a large network of receiving stations throughout Northeastern North America and out at sea. A separate study off the coast of Germany of red-throated loons found no population decline around wind turbines, and noted that these birds changed their flight paths to avoid wind turbine areas. Learned avoidance has also been observed in other European seabird species.
For fishes, sea turtles, and marine mammals--whales, dolphins, and seals-- the main concern is noise during wind turbine construction, including increased traffic of construction supply ships. Once wind turbines are operational, their effect on nearby animals is minimal. The five-turbine Block Island wind farm has noted an increase in the size and diversity of fishes and increased lobster catch. Among marine mammals, the most endangered is the North Atlantic Right Whale, with only about 350 survivors, at great risk from cargo ships. Several other endangered whale species also need protection. Just after the conference, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced a strengthening of requirements for reduced speed of ships in shipping lanes to New York and New England; regulations have been in place but have been 80-90% ignored, according to conference speakers. A successful protection first developed for bridge construction is equipment that produces double curtains of bubbles which attenuate noise from pile driving. Construction can also be halted when whales are spotted nearby. Perhaps the most astonishing report at the conference was from Space Whale, which uses satellite imagery and artificial intelligence to identify whale locations and can distinguish among species.
This is only a sample of the impressive collaboration of scientists from wind development companies, government agencies, consulting firms and environmental nonprofits working to make offshore wind compatible with protection of wildlife. As OSW becomes a reality for New York State, these studies will continue to add to knowledge about birds and sea creatures. Wind development has increased the funding for the labor-intensive work of wildlife surveys, creating knowledge that can be implemented to protect these animals from the risks of climate change, shipping, and other hazards, so the benefits of this research extend beyond the implementation of offshore wind.
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Notes:
References on scientific studies available on request.
For images of whales from space: <www.spacewhales.de>