Save Long Beach Island (Save LBI) is suing the National Marine Fisheries Services, also known as National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries, to stop their vessel survey sites that collect mapping data for future offshore wind projects, which may be linked to recent whale deaths. [emphasis, links added]
Save LBI, a nonpartisan, grassroots ocean and marine conservation group, filed a lawsuit Wednesday calling for NOAA to reverse all Incidental Take Authorizations (ITAs) and for all vessel surveys to be stopped until an investigation into the potential links between offshore winds and recent whale strandings can be conducted.
Since December 2022, over 20 whales have washed up along the New York and New Jersey shores near survey sites for future offshore wind projects as part of an unusual mortality event, according to NOAA.
Save LBI claimed the agency violated the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) by not considering the impact of vessel noise on whales’ hearing when approving offshore wind survey sites that have led to whale strandings in New Jersey and New York.
“The one and only materially changed variable off the New Jersey and New York coasts during that time is the characterization of the seabed being conducted by multiple survey vessels using high-intensity noise devices in preparation for wind turbine construction,” Bob Stern, president of Save LBI and former director of the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Compliance said in the lawsuit.
The MMPA was enacted to prevent marine mammal populations from declining and no longer having a functioning role in their ecosystem, according to NOAA.
The law prohibits the taking, harassing, hunting, or killing of marine mammals but grants ITAs that allow activities that may lead to minor harm to the mammals, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The lawsuit argues that the 11 ITAs approved by the agency, with five still pending along the New York and New Jersey shores, underestimated the range of elevated noise levels from the vessels, violating the law.
“That undersea work is generating high levels of underwater noise for very long distances,” Stern said in the suit. “At the same time, this activity is occurring directly in or near endangered whale migration corridors and it all must stop until it can be done safely,” he added.
Save LBI issued a January report that revealed a potential link between the noise from wind turbines and whales’ hearing impairment, which may lead to their deaths.
They filed another lawsuit against the Department of the Interior (DOI) on behalf of citizens from New Jersey and New York last year against the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), alleging that the agency did not take enough time to consider the impact of the project sites on the environment, according to Reuters. That lawsuit was ultimately dismissed last month.
The Biden administration has pushed for offshore wind projects for its green energy goals, even as environmentalists sounded the alarm on the project’s potential danger to whales.
Read more at Daily Caller
Back in 2017 the American Bird Conservancy(ABC)sued the Dept of the Interior(Under Obama)to stop them from issuing 30 year Eagle Take Permit to the Wind Turbine owners
The extremists pushing green nonsense are hypocritically pushing thecsurvey jalt because it annoys the rich sponsors they depend on financially and politically who own property near by.
So do the rest of the Eco-wackos still support Wind Energy over its Hazard to Birds and Whales do they still place a rediculous Ideolgy over Common Sense?
When all of the costs are ignored.
I forget who posted it, but wind turbines harness the kinetic energy of air. If the wind speed drops from 20 mph to 10 mph, the energy available falls by 75%. So, if a wind farm was generating 20 megawatts at 20 mph, it only generates 5 megawatts at 10 mph.
The Warmists claim that we should spare no expense to harvest free energy. After spending billion$ building these monstrosities, when does the electricity become free?