The Daily Press credits Jennette’s Pier for these two photos it published.
Another whale has turned up dead on a beach, the fourth found on Virginia or North Carolina beaches within one week, several within sight of Dominion Energy Virginia’s offshore turbine project. This one was identified as a juvenile sperm whale and is the furthest from the project site.
In all the news coverage so far, no intrepid reporter has told their viewers or readers what (if anything) is going on out in the ocean on the construction site. Dominion’s federal license allowing “incidental take” of marine mammals began its five-year effective period in early February. It would be fair to ask the utility if contractors are actively surveying the sea floor with sonar at this time or doing any preliminary pile driving.
If you read the federal permit, both activities are recognized as potentially detrimental to whales and other mammals, but especially to the whales with their acoustic sensitivities. The other major risk posed comes from all the necessary boat traffic to, from, and around the massive construction area. More traffic equals more opportunities for collisions.
The print and broadcast media in Virginia are just as compromised by Dominion’s massive advertising spending as are our legislators by its massive campaign donations. In addition, some digital media are compromised by the donations, direct or indirect, from the wind and solar industrial complex. The federal agencies responsible are so enthusiastic for the Biden Administration’s wind plans they can be dismissed as cheerleaders, not regulators.
We are in a “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” trap.
If there is zero construction activity during this period that might have contributed to these whales ending up on beaches, tell us so. But if the reporters do not even ask…
— Steve Haner
Published in the Daily Press and credited to Jennette’s Pier, a North Carolina government facility.
