Issues – Sources of Impact
Vessels used for pre-development surveys, construction, operations and decommissioning generate risk of collision with marine wildlife.
Concerns
- Southern Right Whale and Blue Whale are listed as endangered, whereas Humpback Whales which are more prolific along the Illawarra coastline, were de-listed as being endangered in 2022, and instead classified as vulnerable.
Resources
- Key Resources – Offshore Wind Farm Vessel Collision Concerns
- Monitoring of Marine Life During Offshore Wind Energy Development—Guidelines and Recommendations
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Getting Offshore Wind Right for New England’s Right Whale – A new agreement with Vineyard Wind paves the way for balancing clean energy development, ocean health.
- Eastern Rise Offshore Wind Project Initial Marine Field Investigations
- Vessel Strikes on Whales Are Increasing With Warming. Can the Shipping Industry Slow Down to Spare Them? – Shipping, cruise and fishing vessels fatally strike an estimated 20,000 whales around the world annually. In the United States, 80 endangered whales become “ocean roadkill” each year off the West Coast, and more than a third of all Atlantic right whale deaths along northeastern coastlines can be attributed to ship collisions. These numbers are likely an underestimate because many large shipping vessels may not even be aware that they’ve hit and killed a whale—and carcasses will often sink to the bottom of the ocean before being documented, according to David Sims, a senior research fellow at the Marine Biological Association in the United Kingdom… A growing body of research shows that climate-driven ocean warming and increasingly frequent marine heatwaves are throwing many whale migrations out of whack, which could push these marine giants into new ocean regions and closer to busy shipping lanes… To protect these giants as they eat, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) enacted a speed restriction rule in 2008 that requires vessels 65 feet or larger to slow to 10 knots, around 12 miles per hour, during certain times of the year in designated ocean zones… Last year, NOAA proposed changes to its 2008 ruling that would expand mandatory slowdown zones during certain times of the year along the East Coast to reflect the right whale’s changing ocean habitats, yet this amendment has been met with vehement opposition from members of the fishing community.
- Other Information on Shipping and Whale Collisions
- International Whaling Commission – Ship Strikes: collisions between whales and vessels
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COLLISIONS – When ships collide with whales, the animals rarely survive – “reroute shipping lanes, … reduce ship speeds, … integrated sperm whale localisation SAvE Whales system can inform captains in real time about the presence of sperm whales. It is intended to become employed in those key zones where bypassing is not possible.
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Reducing Vessel Strikes to North Atlantic Right Whales – North Atlantic right whale vessel speed restrictions reduce the likelihood of lethal collisions between vessels and these endangered whales.
- Frontiers – Active Whale Avoidance by Large Ships: Components and Constraints of a Complementary Approach to Reducing Ship Strike Risk
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Helping cruise ships and other mariners detect and avoid whales in Glacier Bay National Park – Actions that Reduce Ship-Whale Collisions
What are other perceived threats / concerns that people have for Whales – Marine Fauna?
- collisions with offshore wind turbines – note – need more evidence once large scale wind farms are located in whale migration superhighways
- sonar effects on navigation
- some whales are believed to have become deaf and this might lead navigation problems and beaching
- loss of whale foraging – due to harvesting of krill in Antarctica
- over fishing
- loss of whale foraging – due to hydrodynamic effects generated from wind turbines ie disturbing the Gulf Stream and/or ocean stratification
- hunting of whales still continues – Norway, Japan, Iceland, Canada, Russia – some of this is by Indigenous peoples using traditional methods
- entanglement or bycatch in ghost nets / fishing gear / drift nets
- chemical/toxic pollution of the oceans
- plastic pollution of the oceans
- ocean warming
- ocean acidification
- ozone depletion
- ocean noise
- unsustainable whale tourism
- attack of calves by killer whales or sharks
- habitat degradation
- reduced upwelling of nutrient rich currents
- oil spills
- 2021 – Australia warned humpback whales still in danger, as government moves to take them off threatened species list – The federal government is considering delisting the humpback whale, which is categorised as vulnerable under national environmental laws, due to the recovery of populations since the end of whaling… He said the greatest threat was from ocean heating and acidification due to climate change, which could threaten the survival of humpback whales because it reduces populations of krill that the species depends upon for food. Marine species increasingly can’t live at equator due to global heating. There is a mix of threats and we have already documented that humpback whales are not immune to these threats,” Meynecke said. “If they are taken off the threatened species list, we need a plan in place to keep them safe.” Removing the humpback whale was proposed in 2018 by the independent threatened species scientific committee, which is now conducting an assessment before making a recommendation to the environment minister…“While scientists are modelling continued recovery for humpbacks in the short term, populations are predicted to decline sharply under our current climate change trajectory,” said Nicola Beynon, the HSI’s Australian head of programs… Beynon added there was additional uncertainty over how the strong interest in krill fishing in Antarctica would be managed and how well it would take into account the needs of whales.
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2022 – Humpback whales no longer listed as endangered after major recovery – But conservationists warn that while their numbers have bounced back, the animals still face major threats, including pollution and climate change… Ms Ley said while the species had been delisted it was still given protection in Australian waters under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act, thanks to its listing as a migratory species and a cetacean… Climate change is a really big one because this influences where these animals might go, where prey distributions are and unfortunately, a reduction in sea ice means a reduction in Antarctic krill habitat which is one of the primary food sources of these humpback whale populations.
Protecting Whales
- DCCEEW
- 2023 – Tasmania – Humpback status
- Threatened Species Protection Act 1995: endangered
- Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999: Not listed
- NSW – Humpback whales are now protected throughout Australia, and in NSW are listed as a vulnerable species under the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016
Shipping
- Orsted – Ørsted develops USV for offshore metocean measurement campaigns – designed and developed the first uncrewed surface vessel (USV) in the industry for offshore metocean measurement campaigns. … In addition, Ørsted has started a serial production of a new class of USVs, which incorporates the learnings from the prototype and broadens the operational capabilities to include deepwater operations for future floating wind farms.
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Oceaneering announces new marine mammal mitigation software – Ocean Perception, a patented marine mammal mitigation software solution for the offshore wind and renewables industry. The field trial was conducted in August 2023 at the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary offshore the northeastern US to demonstrate Ocean Perception’s ability to visualize real-time mitigation operations, mammal detections, and locations. The Ocean Perception solution is said to provide accurate mammal location data to improve operational efficiencies for construction operations – thereby reducing downtime attributed to false positives experienced by traditional marine mammal monitoring methods.
- A decade earlier in 2013 – Co-Conspirators Indicted For Engaging In A Contracting Kickback Scheme
A Mavens Magnets 