The mystery of a thousand dead whales and dolphins

By Jo Nova

For some reason more than a thousand whales, dolphins and porpoises died around the UK’s coastline every year for the last eight years. This is roughly twice as many as in the 25 years before that. What could it be?

Whatever it is, it isn’t windfarms. Greenpeace says so:

“There is no evidence whatsoever linking offshore wind to whale deaths. The manufactured hysteria is the result of fake news promoted by politicians, big oil, and their cronies to save the oil and gas industry”

Greenpeace Australia says  wind-plants save whales.:

…”building offshore wind is way, way better for ocean wildlife than fossil fuels”.

And yet there are a thousand dead cetaceans.

Andrew Montford of NetZeroWatch graphed beached dolphins, whales and porpoises against the rise of a new industrial marine machine:

Cetacean Strandings in the UK graphed against offshore wind capacity.

Cetacean Strandings in the UK graphed against offshore wind capacity. @Dissentient

There’s no evidence, say Greenpeace, sounding just like Philip Morris.

We don’t know for sure what is causing so many whales and dolphins to die, but Greenpeace doesn’t even want to find out. The only thing we do know is that Greenpeace is craven, counterfeit, eco-imposter front for the Globalist Blob. As Matt Ridley said what happened to the Precautionary Principle?

Jason Endfield is tracking the carnage:

Latest UK data reveals 5000 DEAD Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises in just 5 years

The UK’s 2023 annual report to Ascobansreveals an appalling level of cetacean deaths in British seas, and comes in the wake of record-breaking increases in whale, dolphin and porpoise mortality in recent years. This shocking statistic should be a wake-up call to those planning to further industrialise our seas …

Researchers have known since at least 2013 that pile drivers were permanently deafening porpoises, leaving them, presumably to die miserable deaths wandering blindly through dark or murky seas. Where were all the professors of marine science, paid by the public to know these things, and where was the BBC?

They were all silent for ten years until someone invented and tested “bubble curtains” to protect porpoises, and then they could say “well isn’t that clever”?

Spread the word: fifty years ago environmentalists would have raised hell about a thousand dead whales and dolphins. Today they are a part of the cover up. They’re not even blaming climate change and 0.001 degree of warming. They don’t want to draw attention to the blubber on the beach in case people start asking hard questions.

Greenpeace, WWF, UNEP, they’re all fake environmentalists.

h/t Willie Soon.

10 out of 10 based on 108 ratings

73 comments to The mystery of a thousand dead whales and dolphins

  • #

    It is odd how constructing off shore windfarms often results in dead whales.

    But after they are constructed, what is going on? It is some sound effect from the spinning turbines that hurts marine mammals? Typically what hurts whales and dolphins are abandoned fishing gear/nets and boat strikes.

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    • #
      David Maddison

      It’s known that windmill blades produce infrasound.

      It’s known that cetaceans can both produce and hear infrasound.

      Any adverse effect needs to be investigated by honest scientists who aren’t funded by or ideologues of Big Green, Big Government or Big Left.

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      • #
        Ian

        “Any adverse effect needs to be investigated by honest scientists who aren’t funded by or ideologues of Big Green, Big Government or Big Left.”

        Hopefully investigators will ialso include some honest scientists who aren’t funded by the Right Wing brigade

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    • #
      Dianeh

      What if the damage done to the animals during construction is permanent? As Jo suggests, perhaps permanent hearing loss, therefore no echo location ever again.

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  • #

    Ever since whaling had been banned, whale populations have massively increased. Maybe the offshore Windmill Farms are killing them now. Who would have thought.

    140

    • #
      Peter C

      According to the graphs, whale and dolphin deaths have been increasing since 1990!
      Massively increased numbers could be part of it (at least for the whales). Maybe they are bumping into the wind tower pylons.

      101

  • #
    Lawrie

    Hypocrites. Lenin says that lying in a good cause is acceptable or words to that effect. Lying and withholding unhelpful data is the way government science works these days. The CSIRO and the BoM both distort information in order to support government policy. Once upon a time government agencies were trustworthy but no longer so we are left to trust independent scientists who are in danger of being silenced by the proposed MisDis Information bill. Who are these politicians working for because it isn’t us?

    440

    • #
      Geoff Sherrington

      Lawrie,
      The Australian Academy of Science was long held to add prestige and the recognition of the merits of our top scientists who were invited to join. About year 2000 a ginger groups stacked committees and created new policies, turning the Academy into a loudspeaker for Climate Change horrors. They issued articles like “The risks to Australia of a 3°C warmer world” in March 2023. Link
      The risks to Australia of a 3°C warmer world | Australian Academy of Science

      This article is not science, so much as unsupported advocacy.
      The list of 2024 awardees contains familiar names like Andrew King and Ailie Gallant, long known as prominent climate change activists rather than as scientists. Link
      2024 awardees | Australian Academy of Science

      Geoff S

      190

    • #
      Mike

      In the past, we only ever heard about what was going on from the controlled media who had a very cosy relationship to government along the lines of “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours”. Or to be blunt: “if you lie for us, we’ll lie for you”. Then, along came the internet, with a new breed of media who weren’t part of that old anti-public cartel of lies.

      Bizarrely, the fact that we now hear so much more about government and press lies, is not because lying is new, but because they can no longer get away with the lies they used to get away with.

      And, when you start to appreciate that, you begin to realise just how much they have been manipulating and lying to us throughout our lives.

      40

    • #
      jelly34

      Why is it that ANY legislation that is passed or even debated is only there to protect a government from it’s people?That is what THIS legislation is for.We ALL must fight it because if the government can pass this type of legislation in Australia,you can bet that other “Left Wing”governments will try passing this type of legislation to control THEIR PEOPLES.

      11

  • #

    We now have strong evidence for the western Atlantic:
    https://www.cfact.org/2024/07/22/offshore-wind-serial-whale-deaths-indicated-by-statistical-analysis/
    But just for sonar surveys at this point.

    NOAA had a big meeting with this researcher over a month ago, going over his findings. Their website still says no evidence so they are now deliberately ignoring clear evidence. Nor are they looking for more from the newly operational wind driven noise makers.

    351

  • #
    Neville

    Michael Shellenberger and other groups are also claiming that offshore wind disasters are killing whales, dolphins etc in the US.
    But toxic offshore wind swindles have very short operating time spans and the floating variety even less.
    They cause a mess in the oceans and parts of the blades have also washed up on the beaches after storms.
    Destroying our Aussie land and sea environments are also encouraged by Labor , Greens, Teals and so called scientists plus the greedy banks as long as it feeds their bottom line.
    But will the voters wake up before it’s too late? We can only hope.

    300

    • #
      jelly34

      Has anyone seen the”Devastation”up in Nth Qld caused by the”Environmentalists”installing these”Bird Mincers”?Where are ALL the greenies hiding?For than matter,WHERE are OUR government do gooders hiding?Missing in action AGAIN?STILL waiting for the ARRESTS of those palestinian sympathizers who have been infesting this country since 7/10/23.What has happened about THEIR LAWLESSNESS?

      20

  • #
    Greg in NZ

    Just Stop Ruinables

    Save The Whales

    Burn More Coal

    (Groanpus™️ promo we’ll never see)

    Is 500 kilo tonnes of coal a large amount? NZ Electricity announced it is stockpiling that ‘metric’ for next year’s winter, to use in Huntly Power Station, as a back-up due to the unreliability of our already 85% renewable, read: primitive, power generation (water, wind, sun, unicorn flatulence, hand-wringing, etc).

    Due to unseasonable cold weather this past winter (1984-speak?) and the inability of our clean green solutions to maintain electricity across a so-called developed country, future-proofers®️ are returning to their roots by utilising Earth’s free gift to mankind (and to those/they/them who are unsure).

    Coal For Freedom: mined in Indonesia.

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    • #
      Ross

      What!! NZ doesn’t get their coal from Australia? So much for the ANZAC tradition.

      190

      • #
        Greg in NZ

        No-thanks to that dame thing you mention at #11.1 – also known as our ex-ex-PM (Pirate Madam).

        Does Indonesia pay CCCcredit$ for extracting the coal? Do the shipping lines then pay more? Then once Huntly burns it – to keep the country from grinding to a standstill – do we have to pay (a 3rd time) to heal Gaia from colonialist white man… or to enrich unelected banksters and climate shysters?

        BTW has it started snowing in Tasmania yet: our Southern Alps are in for four days and nights of snow – poor Gaia must have the flu or a cold as it’s snotting down bigly ❄️ Dame Climate Change Again!

        150

        • #
          Greg in NZ

          Boiling Update midday-ish Oz Time:

          Mt Mawson has a lovely little top-up of fresh snow, as far down as the rope-tow shelter hut, scorching on just above freezing (2*C). Big fat snowflakes have commenced falling on Mt Baw Baw in Victoria too (melting as soon they hit the burning planet of course).

          Wild heavy pre-frontal rain on NZ’s hills, soon to turn into heavy snow at altitude (cloud is obscuring webcams). This is our 3-day long Labour Weekend coming up and it always snows this time of year: guess what Greenies – your cult has failed you again. I’m up north in boardshorts getting sunburned 😎

          40

        • #
          Ross

          I’m in Victoria, not snowing but back to cold again. Top today of 14˚C and blowing out of the cold south west.

          20

        • #
          Ross

          Funny story -when I was writing the comment about Jacinda I double checked her name via Google. Except I used the search “horseface NZ”. Top of list was her Wiki page. Try it!

          62

      • #
        Dennis

        Signed between New Zealand and Australia 1980s ..

        Closer
        Economic
        Relations

        CER

        20

        • #
          Greg in NZ

          She of the Mormon Horse Tribe was born in 1980 – to build back beggar. Now she’s bestest buddies with the king-to-be: Monarchy and Comrades, a marriage made in…

          21

  • #
    David Maddison

    There is no sacrifice for the Left to their green god Gaia which is too great, human or animal.

    150

  • #
    Tel

    As Matt Ridley said what happened to the Precautionary Principle?

    Like most principles of the Left … applied in an extremely selective manner.

    290

  • #
    Neville

    Rita Panahi and Prof Ian Plimer check out the Chogum meeting today in Samoa.
    Of course the loony fools are already telling Aussies to stop exporting and using our fossil fuels, because of rising seas and dangerous CC. Total BS and the 40 year Kench and other SL studies supports Ian Plimer.
    Rita and Ian also discuss the clueless Matt Kean and his attack on the Coalition parties and Ian reports on a new study that clearly favours cheaper and reliable base-load energy like Coal, Gas and Nuclear for our safer and more prosperous future.

    https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/hypocrisy-ian-plimer-questions-climate-change-meeting-in-samoa/ar-AA1sLVYf

    200

  • #
    Ross

    “The manufactured hysteria is the result of fake news promoted by politicians, big oil, and their cronies to save the oil and gas industry”.

    Amazing to think throwing paint over art pieces and blockading traffic by Just Stop Oil will have any effect on global hydrocarbon fuel consumption. Especially when the world’s population and energy consumption keeps going in an unending curve upwards. Now Greenpeace think that people trying to protect actual “protected species” are somehow some shadey figures trying to save the gas and oil industry.

    190

  • #
    Philip

    I’ve spent a lot of time around green minded folk, done a lot of business with them. They are completely hypocritical, as soon as something they want doesn’t scratch up to environmental thinking, they drop the environmentalism. One of their main characteristics. It’s across the leftist board, any socialist I know loves money and they are not at all generous with it, without exception.

    300

    • #
      Ross

      They don’t mind getting a “gong” anytime as well. Good little socialist and World order fanatic, Jacinda Ardern, just loved receiving her Damehood the other day.

      120

    • #
      GlenM

      Some years ago I encountered a Greenpeace stall in a shopping mall. In a short engagement I told the three young people behind their desk that I was a Greenpeace member up until 1990 but left. Why? asked one with a Che Guevara cap. I told them that their original charter was protection and preservation of the natural environment but the organisation had become transformed into a political body that I disagreed with. Amicable enough exercise I thought, but left thinking what does go through their heads. Youthful naive types looking for a cause?

      220

      • #
        David Maddison

        a Che Guevara cap.

        Nothing spells out to the world what an imbecile Leftist someone is than by wearing Che Guevara paraphanalia. He was a sadistic psychopathic murderer, although revered by the Left.

        240

    • #
      Geoff Sherrington

      Philip,
      Likewise, done a lot of business with ’em.
      The dominant collective characteristic that was impressed on me is that overall, greens are dumb, as we used to say “Thick as two short planks”. Some are cunning, but not bright.
      It astounds me to see some of the young greens of yesteryear who needed their fingers to count have had so much free time and help that they have risen through a compliant academia, to now be professors, would you believe.
      Gawd help those taught by these one-track minds.
      Geoff S

      121

  • #
    John in Oz

    Just wondering: Is the hump centred at 2004 due to seismic surveys and sea floor drilling to determine where to place the ruinables?

    If not, there could be an argument that the ruinables are not causing a problem until the deaths over that period have a known cause

    I would still put the deaths down to ruinables but correlation is not causation, as we anti-CAGW types often quote re CO2 vs temperature

    70

  • #
    el+gordo

    It should be an election issue.

    ‘Australia has 80 offshore wind farm projects of which none currently operating, none where construction has progressed enough to connect the turbines and generate electricity, none are in the build phase, and none are either consented or have applied for consent.’ (TGS)

    111

  • #
    Neville

    Why do we ignore the best data that proves we haven’t observed any dangerous climate change since 1914?
    Hydrographic surveyor Daniel Fitzhenry tells Andrew Bolt that there has been no change in BOM Fort Denison SL data over that long period of time.
    It sometimes goes up and down by about 15 cm or 6 inches, but overall it hasn’t changed.
    So why will we waste trillions of $ on this CC fantasy forever for a guaranteed zero return?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mjOmsqIibk&t=1s

    180

    • #
      Ross

      The most compelling evidence regarding the Fort Denison SL rise situation (lack of) is not the actual tide data. It’s the historical photos that go back over a 100 years, showing absolutely no difference in the sea level heights.

      210

      • #
        John PAK

        Just to be contrarian, I’d say there has been a period when the tide gauge rose slightly. It’s hard to measure the true level of the ground but looking around Australia the story is much the same.
        Photos of my father on a beach just north of Brisbane in 1923 look like little has changed since then except the odd building. It’s ascientific but no-one who lives near the beach is seriously worried about rising sea-level. It’s all part of the Climate™ construct.

        120

      • #
        P25

        Photos taken with no reference to the tide ?.
        Tidal variation in Sydney harbour is up to 2m !.

        20

        • #
          John PAK

          Hence I say “ascientific” however, if sea-level rises there will be more erosion during spring tide storms and there is little evidence for that on the century time-frame.

          30

        • #
          Tel

          When you take a look at photos of Fort Denison, both new and old, the high tide line is easily visible. It happens with any lump of sandstone sitting in the seawater … the blocks stay damp even after the tide is back down again and you can see some discolouration from algae growth.

          The structure was designed from the start to accommodate a certain high tide and if the 3mm per year of sea level rise was real, it would be about 50cm under by now, since the thing is nearly 200 years old.

          40

    • #
    • #
      Honk R Smith

      “Why do we ignore the best data that proves we haven’t observed any dangerous climate change since 1914?”

      Because politics and science are industries.
      The product is existential issue/fear.
      Soap manufactures constantly remind us how dirty and smelly we are.
      Political hustlers constantly remind us how racists we are.

      ‘Climate Change’ is the ultimate political fear/issue product brand name.
      Undefinable, unsolvable, and eternal.
      Unrestricted by space and time.

      Think about the psyche emotional similarities between Climate rhetoric and Orange Man Bad rhetoric.
      Are we safer if glaciers are retreating or advancing?
      The oceans are boiling and the Orange Man is just like the bad 1940s German Bad Man.

      We need ‘Change’ so we can stop ‘Change’.
      Get your 7th booster to make the thing that didn’t work six times before, work.
      You don’t ‘Believe’ in ‘Science’?

      Basic fact … Donald J. Trump made the Democratic titans of the political industry in DC rich beyond their wildest dreams.
      It’s as if he hadn’t arrived they would have had to create him.
      Oh, … wait.

      30

  • #
    another ian

    FWIW

    “‘Mind boggling’ array of 19,000 undersea volcanoes discovered with high-resolution radar satellites”

    https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/rivers-oceans/mind-boggling-array-of-19000-undersea-volcanoes-discovered-with-high-resolution-radar-satellites

    90

  • #
    Neville

    Here’s Gerard Holland from the Page Research Centre explaining why reliable Nuclear energy is critical for Australia’s future.
    He is a very articulate young bloke from the bush and we can only hope that Peter Dutton uses him and his sane approach in the coming months leading up to the next election.

    https://www.page.org.au/2024/06/nuclear-a-long-term-and-reliable-solution-to-australias-energy-needs/

    50

  • #

    Great concern that a rocket might stray,
    And injure a lone whale some day,
    While green groups not keen,
    On this year’s thousand marine,
    Mammals, dead around the U.K..

    130

  • #
    John PAK

    Submarine navigation is a tricky exercise if you want to remain submerged and untraceable long term. My guess is that the USA/UK/Au mob have some form of echo map based upon very low frequency pings in the surface layer of the oceans. By comparing the heard ping really accurately and then comparing it with the data map in the ships navigation computer you’d get an idea of location to layer-in with the dead reckoning track.
    Maybe the whales get confused by our navigation aid noise.

    60

  • #

    I have yet to see anyone claiming no evidence say what evidence they want. It is not like we can video a whale being harassed into heavy ship traffic and killed. That acoustic harassment occurs is well established. NOAA gave Dominion explicit permission to harass almost 60,000 mammals, mostly dolphins, building the CVOW. They simply refuse to assess the likely consequences of all this harassment. These huge numbers are themselves evidence.

    91

  • #
    John Connor II

    Two species of dolphins and pilot whales are regularly found stranded on the beaches of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. These events often occur with several animals stranded together and sometimes with much larger numbers. It is not clear what causes these animals to beach. We analyzed 18 years of stranding reports and found that more mass stranding events occur during the time of year when there are stronger winds and ocean currents. This could mean that the winds and ocean currents contribute to causing these stranding events. We conjecture that winds and ocean currents create a favorable environment for the animals these dolphins feed on, and that these offshore dolphins and whales strand while chasing this prey into shallower inshore waters.

    https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2021GL093697

    Or variations in Earth’s magnetic field, solar storms, geological disturbances, or just miscalculating depths when chasing squid or fish.
    There’s probably some way to blame Trump too.

    Europeans who lived in the Middle Ages responded to mass stranding events (MSEs) in their own religious ways but their treatment of the beached mammals was very different. In the year 674, St. Philibert founded the monastery of Noirmoutier on an Atlantic island off the coast of France that still bears its name. At some point in the following decade (he died in 684), a group of 237 porpoises was involved in a mass stranding event nearby.

    https://origins.osu.edu/connecting-history/washed-ashore-marine-mammals-medieval-times-today

    No windfarms or technologies back then.

    10

  • #
    winston

    “big oil, and their cronies”

    This is the real myth. High retail oil and gas prices are utterly necessary to the health and wealth of oil companies. Before the inconvenient truth, high prices, through government control, were Al Gore’s original goal. Climate alarmism creates artificial shortages. Net zero is political policy designed to reward energy investors (most of them also invested in “big oil”) with increased prices and reward politicians with a little off the top of overcharges for public services and a transfer of political power.

    Today’s Greenpeace, et al, are part and parcel of the intimidation and misinformation brownshirts: dupes and vandals in the pay of the petroleum industry. Greenpeace of today, in just this event, has wiped out several decades of the work of the original organization, by signing off on the deaths of marine mammals as good for their cause.

    The big oil fatcat is the nonsensical robber baron myth that just won’t die.

    Ask one of them to identify “big oil” by name.

    90

  • #
    Lee

    Greenpeace Australia says wind-plants save whales.:

    …”building offshore wind is way, way better for ocean wildlife than fossil fuels”.

    Bollocks.

    If that were the case, then why have they only been dying in such vast numbers since the introduction of offshore wind turbines?

    Meanwhile, Elon Musk has to prove that his rockets don’t kill sharks if they land in the ocean. Nonsensical bureaucratic red tape from Democrat supporters, purely because he supports Trump.

    80

    • #
      Gary S

      Does every boat/ship owner need to prove that their vessel doesn’t run into whales, fish, jellyfish, plankton? Don’t recall that on my licence application.

      30

  • #
    Uber

    Except Philip Morris Ltd were possibly right. Smoking / lung cancer – was it the first well-orchestrated major public scare campaign? Can’t say I ever saw any actual statistics, then or now. Not saying smoking isn’t bad for you in numerous other ways, but cancer?

    31

  • #
    P25

    If Donald says so, it must be true.

    20

  • #
    Bruce

    Related:

    How NOT to dispose of a dead whale on a beach.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBgThvB_IDQ

    20

  • #
    UK-Weather Lass

    We have generations too scared of upsetting the woke for Britain to be and act as an intelligent collective.

    We have gas to frack and oil to collect both of which are known to be efficient energy providers but we insist upon despoiling our wonderful islands with turbines and panels that kill stuff indiscriminately.

    It would be funny if it wasn’t so tragic and counter to our national security.

    70

  • #
    Mike

    I read a similar “argument” from a Scottish eco-nutter organisation saying that domestic cats had absolutely no impact on the Scottish red squirrel population because, the argument went: “red squirrels only live where there are no domestic cats”. The fact that red squirrel populations have been rapidly declining as the number of domestic cats grew, must be (in their minds) because the cats only managed to survive in the absence of red squirrels … so isn’t it a good thing that the horrible cat killing red squirrels are nearly extinct!

    20

  • #
    another ian

    FWIW

    “BOMBSHELL: Iranian Hackers Broke Into State’s Voter Roll Database – Used Names, SS and Driver’s License #’s to Fill Out UOCAVA Registrations – Shared Video of Their Actions Online!”

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/10/bombshell-iranian-hackers-broke-states-voter-roll-database/

    Reckon the dems would be peed off if they had them voting Trump?

    30

  • #
    another ian

    FWIW – what you might call a nice little earner

    “World Bank bureaucrats lost track of at least $24B in funds fighting climate change: ‘Could be twice or 10 times more’”

    https://nypost.com/2024/10/23/business/world-bank-bureaucrats-lost-track-of-at-least-24b-in-funds-fighting-climate-change-report/

    40

  • #
    Peter

    Terrestrial magnetic excursion (reduction in the planet’s field strength) and its effect on wildlife navigation especially during solar maximum.

    20

  • #
    Kalm Keith

    The pulsing of windmill on land makes people I’ll and very uncomfortable.

    I can’t see that whales are going to be able to avoid that compression pulsing. They’ll get sick and disoriented.

    Twenty five years ago this research was well established in Russia and a number of other non western countries where workers compensation didn’t exist.

    Money rules the research.

    10

  • #
    mwhite

    “Whales use the Earth’s magnetic fields to accomplish feats of astonishingly accurate underwater navigation as they travel the oceans of the world.”
    https://asknature.org/strategy/navigation-underwater/
    The north magnetic pole is now closer to Siberia than Canada.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a44riMPmhBI&t=103s

    30

  • #
    Rick W Kargaard

    “There’s no evidence, say Greenpeace,” and Greenpeace has never been known to push a narrative without credible evidence. LOL

    00

  • #

    […] Energy:*** Supposed Guardians of Rhode Island’s Waters Sell Out to Big Wind*** UK evidence that offshore wind kills whales, dolphins, etc.*** The Declining Life Expectancy of Wind […]

    10

  • #

    […] investigative science journalist Jo Nova has a different take on the matter: “Researchers have known since at least 2013 that pile drivers were permanently […]

    10

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