Do offshore wind farms kill whales? The facts, fiction and unknowns of marine renewable energy
The current Australian government wants to harness the power of offshore wind to help drive the renewable energy transition. (AP: Julia Nikhinson)
In short:
Offshore wind faces both community and political opposition, despite promising an ample supply of renewable energy.
Some myths, such as turbines killing whales, can be ruled out but experts say other concerns are valid.
What's next:
There are calls for more research to fully understand the potential impact of the infrastructure in Australian waters.
A new battleground is emerging in Australia's oceans over renewable energy projects the government says are necessary to dealing with climate change and reducing our country's carbon emissions.
Just one spin of an offshore wind turbine can power the average Australian home for 48 hours, according to wind energy companies.
The Albanese government has set aside six offshore wind farm zones around Australia — two off Victoria's coast, two off NSW and one each for Tasmania and Western Australia.
If elected in the upcoming federal poll, the Dutton-led Coalition has promised to scrap three of these — Victoria's Southern Ocean wind zone and two in NSW, off Port Stephens and the Illawarra.
Just like their onshore counterparts, the push to build offshore wind farms has met resistance.
Offshore wind energy has been used in countries like the United Kingdom since the 1990s. (Reuters: Phil Noble)
Opposition has come from all over the political landscape, from environmentalists concerned about the impact on marine life, fishermen suspicious of affects on their livelihoods, locals worried about the visual impact, and conservatives fundamentally opposed to green energy.
But do the various claims of those opponents hold water?
While there's a lot we don't know about offshore wind farms, there's a lot we do — they have been in place around the world for more than 30 years.
We've spoken to the experts to try to separate fact from fiction when it comes to offshore wind farms.
Claim: Offshore wind farms kill whales
Whales appear to be the main species that the public and coastal communities are concerned will be impacted by offshore wind farms, with protesters even using cartoonish imagery of dead whales impaled on turbines to make their point.
The southern right whale is classified as endangered in Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania and some of the proposed wind farm zones border whale nurseries, including in south-west Victoria.
No scientific study has linked offshore wind farm to whale deaths. (ABC News: Lucy Seddon-Brown)
Environmental consultant Nelli Stevenson, a former head of investigations at Greenpeace Australia, said there had been plenty of studies into the effects of offshore wind farms on whales and marine mammals, and not a single peer-reviewed study had found offshore wind farms kill whales.
"There has been increasing disinformation about offshore wind projects by bad-faith political actors in Australia, despite not having much scientific backing,"she said.
While there are no adverse effects once a wind farms is established, there is a possibility construction phase could cause some disturbance to marine life, including whales.
The federal government's National Recovery Plan for the Southern Right Whale notes that "offshore development … could lead to disturbance of southern right whale, and may act as barriers to migration to coastal breeding areas".
Underwater noise during the construction phase, including pile driving and vessel noise, could be problematic.
The recovery plan states the potential for impacts from underwater noise is a concern within or close to habitats critical to survival, such as a whale nursery, as underwater noise could deter whales from using these areas.
Underwater noise from support vessels on offshore wind farms could impact whales. (Supplied: Southerly Ten)
Most of the research into underwater noise focuses on the construction of offshore wind farms rather than their operation.
The plan noted it was unclear how electric and magnetic fields from subsea power cables impacted whales.
Norway's Institute of Marine Research says more research is needed into the effect of cabling, but what has been done to date shows minimal effects.
Experts around the world agree more research is needed to fully understand the impacts of offshore wind on whales, but they also agree it is a myth that wind turbines kill whales.
Claim: Offshore turbines will impact recreational and commercial fishers
A 2023 report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on the United States fishing industry said offshore wind farm construction and operation would have varying impacts on the marine environment but further research was needed.
While there's evidence wind turbines can benefit fishing stocks by creating artificial habitats that attract fish, overseas studies have also shown UK commercial fishers have been displaced by wind farms and had to travel further to new fishing grounds.
Offshore wind could have an impact on fishers in Australia. (Supplied: WA Fishing Council)
Some types of fishing, such as bottom trawling, risk snagging on underwater cables so this might not be compatible with offshore turbines.
There is also often an exclusion or "buffer" zone to keep recreational fishers away, although energy company Star of the South, which is behind a project slated for the south coast of Gippsland, says commercial fishing will be allowed as long as it's "safe and practical".
Claim: Turbines will kill seabirds and other migratory birds
According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, turbines do kill birds "but only a fraction as many as are killed by house cats, buildings, or even the fossil fuel operations that wind farms replace".
MIT said the numbers of birds killed was "not insignificant", but "scientists and conservationists are actively working to minimise bird interactions at wind facilities".
Short-tailed shearwaters are among the migratory bird species opponents of offshore wind are concerned about being killed by turbines. (Supplied: QUT)
The Australian government's Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment, and Water (DCCEEW) 2022 report into the impacts of offshore wind farms outlined ways to reduce these risks, including fewer and larger turbines and to temporarily shut down turbines or cease construction during known migration times.
The UK government has begun a trial to paint wind turbine blades black to reduce collisions, following a study in Norway that showed painting one blade of a turbine black resulted in a 70 per cent decline in related bird deaths.
Claim: Wind farms are bad for marine life
The experts are unequivocal — climate change and its knock-on effects, such as warming ocean temperatures and ocean acidification, present the biggest threat to marine life.
Marine ecologist Dr Matt Edmunds said that without increased renewable energy, marine life as we know it could be destroyed.
Dr Edmunds said offshore wind farms were not without risks, but were preferable to sticking with the status quo.
The Great Barrier Reef experienced another mass bleaching event in early 2024, following a record marine heatwave in Western Australia. (Supplied: Ove Hoegh-Guldberg)
"If we just continue to burn fossil fuels and not move to renewable energy, then those whales will be far more impacted because their food sources, such as krill, won't be there and the whales will be far worse off," Dr Edmunds said.
"If we do nothing, climate change will have a far greater impact than what a bunch of coastal renewable wind farms will have."
"Right now, the absolute greatest threat to our oceans is climate change caused by the mining and burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas," Ms Stevenson said.
Claim: Seismic testing will be required, harming marine life
Seismic testing is not needed to build wind farms.
The DCCEEW said information about the seabed of proposed wind zones was gathered using methods that have much lower sound levels than those in the oil and gas industry.
Sonar mapping is among these options.
Renewable energy company Alinta Energy, which has a feasibility license for a farm in the Southern Ocean windzone, has ruled out the use of seismic testing.
Seismic testing, using air guns pulled by a seismic survey vessel, is not necessary for construction offshore wind. (Supplied: Australian Institute of Marine Science)
Environmental consultant Nelli Stevenson said there was "a world of difference" between seismic testing for oil and gas, and methods like sonar mapping of the seabed.
"Oil and gas surveys are much, much louder because they need to penetrate several kilometres into the earth to find oil and gas," Ms Stevenson said.
"It's the difference between having a classical radio station on in the background or being front row at a heavy metal concert."
Claim: You can hear and see the turbines from shore
How well you can see turbines from the shore depends on factors including how far away they are, how big they are and the weather, notes the DCCEEW.
The noise from offshore wind farms was unlikely to affect people onshore, as the turbines would be 10 kilometres distant, the department said.
The federal government released a visualisation of what BlueFloat Energy's farm would look like from Bulli Lookout in New South Wales. (Supplied: Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water)
The department said offshore wind was unlikely to impact tourism, pointing to a US study that found a third of people would avoid the beach if turbines were four kilometres off the coast, but that figure dropped to just 5 per cent if the turbines were about 30 kilometres off the coast.
This study also found an increase in "curiosity trips" by people visiting a location to see the wind farms.
Claim: We don't know enough about the effects of wind farms
All the experts the ABC spoke to said there needed to be more research into the impact of offshore turbines on marine life, particularly whales.
But at the same time, Dr Edmunds said this lack of information should not prevent action that abates the impacts of climate change.
"There'll always be unknowns," Dr Edmunds said.
"We can never find out everything we need to know until you actually start doing it."
He said installing wind turbines would allow for adaptive management of potential impacts of a zone.
"We monitor it, learn from it and then change it to make it better,"he said.
Environmental consultant Nelli Stevenson agreed local research was needed.
"These peer-reviewed studies have all been undertaken overseas, as Australia doesn't have any offshore wind farms yet, so we encourage new research to be undertaken here in Australia as our offshore wind industry is developed," Ms Stevenson said.
Victorian National Parks Association's Shannon Hurley said there were "huge knowledge gaps" as most studies on the effects of offshore wind farms were done in the northern hemisphere.
"The same science cannot necessarily be applied to the southern hemisphere," she said.
"We need dedicated research down here and because there aren't yet wind farms in place, it's hard to know what the impacts will be."
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