From STOP THESE THINGS

The wind industry’s licence to kill whales and other marine mammals is the perfect example of institutional corruption. As the cetacean carnage continues, one might think that the US government might pause (just for a moment) and consider revoking their ‘take permits’ – rather than simply continuing to green light the wind industry’s wholesale whale slaughter. But, not a bit of it, as Vijay Jayaraj explains in the first piece below.

As we have outlined on numerous occasions, the principal cause of whale (and other marine mammal) deaths is the noise generated during the construction of these things offshore, which is the subject of the second piece by Rob Rand, one of America’s leading acoustic experts.

NOAA Permits Wind Energy Operators to Harass and Kill Whales
California Globe
Vijay Jayaraj
29 April 2024

Wind energy is clean and green. It is the magic switch to turn off global heating. And unicorns are real. You may name your most cherished illusion among those three if you please. But it will not change the fact that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and wind energy companies are complicit in a state-sanctioned, modern-day butchery of marine mammals along the U.S. East Coast.

NOAA-issued permits allow each operator of wind turbines to kill or harass 100s of whales annually, a fact that climate doomsayers and green energy enthusiasts ignore or deny in a manner reminiscent of flat-earthers dismissing photographs of our blue sphere suspended in the void of outer space.

NOAA: From Whale Hero to Whale Villain
On its website, NOAA claims that it works “to protect marine species populations from decline and extinction, conduct research to understand their health and environment, and evaluate and monitor human activities that might affect them to ensure future generations may enjoy them.”

NOAA says that the Marine Mammal Protection Act requires it to protect all whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals, and sea lions from “take” by U.S. citizens in the nation’s waters. “Take” is NOAA lingo for harassing, hunting, capturing, killing or attempting to do any of those.

However “exemptions” to this protection are granted to allow lethal and non-lethal interference with cetaceans — whales, dolphins and porpoises — by wind energy developers along the Eastern Seaboard.

Known as “Incidental Take/Harassment Authorizations” (IHAs), these exemptions give wind operators latitude within the regulation to kill and harass marine mammals while carrying out sonar surveys for site characterization and other activities related to construction and operations.

The species authorized to be harassed in these IHAs include the endangered North Atlantic right whale, fin whale, sperm whale, sei whale, minke whale, humpback whale, long-finned pilot whale, Atlantic white-sided dolphin, common bottlenose dolphin, short-beaked common dolphin, Atlantic spotted dolphin, Risso’s dolphin, harbor porpoise, harbor seal and gray seal.

For example, Bluepoint Wind, LLC, is allowed to kill or harass 270 whales, including 11 right whales and 149 minke whales between March 2024 and February 2025 in the coastal waters of New York and New Jersey, a region known as the New York Bight. The “harassment” quota includes other marine mammals as well.

Other active IHAs for wind operators include the following: Dominion Energy Virginia, 599 whales in the next five years, including 17 Endangered right whales); Empire Offshore Winds, 509 whales; Ocean Wind, 248 whales; TerraSond, 381 whales; Community Offshore Wind, 7,809 dolphins; Orsted Wind Power North America, 6,000 short-beaked common dolphin. There are many others.

NOAA divides these IHAs into two categories: Level A harassment results has the potential to injure or kill, while harassment at the Level B may cause changes in behavioral patterns. Most of the authorizations listed above are Level B, but many of the companies have been authorized for Level A for various species, including the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

Please note that the most common cause of death for whales on the eastern seaboard of the United States is from entanglements or vessel strikes. Level B harassment may indirectly lead to increased whale deaths by forcing them into busy shipping channels.

It is critical to note that the NOAA does not give scientific reasons to prove that Level B harassments are non-lethal or that they would not cause permanent injury.

The bipolar NOAA itself admits that humpback whale deaths along the Atlantic Coast have been unusually high since 2016, with the highest count of 37 in the year 2023 being when IHAs were more common. Similarly, NOAA has documented the unusual mortality rate of the North Atlantic right whales since 2017.

The question is why would NOAA authorize wind companies to harass and kill whales at a time of increasing deaths? And who gives NOAA permission to do so?

NOAA’s treatment of these marine mammals contrasts starkly with its institutional ethos of shielding these gentle ocean giants from peril and even demise. Instead, NOAA has seemingly embraced offshore wind farms with the unwavering resolve of climate alarmists.

Frankly, I’ve grown weary of ceaseless calls for more evidence connecting animal mortality with wind energy activities and, all the while NOAA authorizes more killing.
California Globe

Pile Driving Noise
Technical Report
Rand Acoustics, LLC
28 March 2024

Abstract
This technical report presents the methodology, analysis, and results of an independent investigation of underwater noise levels from wind turbine pile driving operations, conducted southwest of Nantucket on November 2, 2023.

Conclusions
This paper presents the methodology, analysis, and results of an independent investigation of underwater noise levels from pile driving by the crane ship Orion utilized as a pile driving vessel
in the Vineyard Wind BOEM Lease Area OCS‐A 0501 southwest of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. The pile driving operations included double bubble curtains and hydro damper net for noise controls. Nonetheless, the survey results find pile driving impulsive sound levels are similar to seismic airgun arrays and raise concerns about heightened adverse noise impacts on
marine mammals.

1. Peak levels measured up to 180 dB re 1uPa at 1.06 km. The calculated source level SL,pk is 241 dB with noise reduction mitigations employed. Despite double bubble curtains and hydrodamper, pile driving peak levels are comparable to seismic airgun arrays. Propagation loss was 20.1log(r), consistent with spherical spreading.
2. NMFS relies on the RMS sound level for setting protective radii around impulsive pile driving. There are several different RMS computation methods. RMS was analyzed by applying two methods per Madsen 2005, with a 200ms window consistent with the limits of the mammalian hearing window, and a 90pct window using the 5- to 95-percent effective signal duration. The 90-percent RMS consistently underestimated by 2 to 6 dB the 200ms RMS for mammalian hearing response recommended in Madsen 2005. This disparity is consistent with the observations in Madsen 2005 and of the waveforms acquired in this survey that show lengthening with distance, increased numbers of reflections and pre-peak impulse arrivals of impulse energy through the sediment. It is concluded that at distances of 1 to 8 kilometers in waters of these depths the 90-percent RMS currently used by NMFS should not be considered a conservative metric for establishing protective radii for mammalian hearing and behavioral response.
3. The calculated sound exposure level weighted for LF Cetacean species is 198.8 dB re 1 μPa2 s. Pile driving sound exposures of 13 minutes at 500 meters, 45 minutes at 1000 meters, or 2 hours at 1800 meters, yields a cSEL exceeding the PTS threshold (onset of permanent hearing loss). A sound exposure of 2 minutes at 1200 meters, 5 minutes at 2200 meters, and 10 minutes at 3200 meters yields a cSEL exceeding the TTS threshold (temporary threshold shift, hearing impaired). It appears PTS exposure is possible for Cetaceans at significant distances.
4. The calculated sound exposure level weighted for PW Phocid species (seals) is 178.3 dB re 1 μPa2 s. Pile driving sound exposures of 1-3/4 hours at 100 meters yields a cSEL exceeding the Level A PTS threshold (onset of permanent hearing loss). A pile driving sound exposure of 40 minutes at 500 meters, or 2 hours at 1 kilometer, yields a cSEL exceeding the TTS threshold (temporary threshold shift, hearing impaired).
5. Propagation loss for Weighted SEL measured 16.5log(r) and 15.5log(r) for LF and PW weightings respectively. These propagation loss constants are consistent with practical spreading. Regulators assuming spherical spreading would underestimate sound exposure levels and resulting impacts including Level B and possibly Level A Harassment. Technical Report: Pile Driving Noise Survey, November 2, 2023
6. Level A Harassment appears feasible depending on time periods occupied at various distances to the pile driving. Further assessment using unweighted SELs (from cautions in Southall 2019) finds much larger setbacks are needed. It is unclear that the mitigation methods set in place are adequate to protect the NARW and other ESA-listed mammals and marine species.
7. The distance to the unweighted 160 dB,rms isopleth distance for Level B Harassment is 3355 meters, using the RMS,200ms time weighting for mammalian hearing (Madsen 2005). Whereas the IHA Authorization listed a distance of 2739 meters with 12 dB reduction.
8. The IHA Application and Authorization omit noise impact assessment for exposure at each step between SPLs of 120-140, 140-160, and 160-180 dB listed in the BOEM Offshore Wind Energy Project Biological Assessment Method 2 (Wood 2012). Whereas weighted (LF) RMS
   sound levels compared to the BOEM step table show ninety percent of mysticetes responding (avoidance response) within 1 kilometer, and fifty percent respomding out to 14.5 km.
9. The IHA Application and Authorization did not evaluate continuous vessel propulsion, DP thruster or combined noise levels by vessel operations in the lease area. The IHA documents including the Authorization treat the Orion and support vessels as silent. Ambient sound levels without pile driving were dominated by Orion and support vessel propulsion and thruster noise including cavitation, despite double bubble curtains surrounding the Orion. Orion and support vessel sound levels with pile driving off measured 127 dB RMS re 1uPa at 0.57 NM (1.06 km) and 123 dB RMS at 3.17 NM (5.87 km) from the Orion.
10. NMFS appears to have abandoned evaluation of its Level B behavioral harassment threshold at 120 dB,rms which leaves insufficient protections in place for marine species behavioral harassment. To meet the NMFS 120 dB,rms behavioral harassment threshold for the operation’s continuous noise only, the distance required is estimated at over 6 km.
11. The data acquired during the survey and subsequent review of project and regulator documents raise concerns of sufficient NOAA review methods and mitigation distances to protect the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale (NARW) and other marine species from behavioral harassment and hearing loss impacts from pile driving.