LBIViews
A look at Long Beach Island, NJ
Last Updated on July 16, 2023 by Christopher G Mendla
You may have seen posters all around LBI saying “Move them 35 miles out”. Mapping and construction has started on a massive offshore wind project just 9 miles from the shore. The windmills will be visible. Whales and dolphins are washing up dead all along the New Jersey Coast.
Thousands of huge windmills will be constructed just nine miles off the coast. The height of the towers means that they will be visible day and night.
There are many concerns regarding this project. The efficiency and cost is one concern.
The project uses sonar to map the ocean floor. In the past 60 years of my life, I have only heard of a handful of whales washing up on shore. Since the wind project began, there have been dozens of whales and dolphins washing up dead. Keep in mind that the dead marine mammals we are seeing are the ones that floated west. If any floated north, south or east or simply sank, we would not see them.
In order to build large structures such as windmills, the engineers need an accurate mapping of the bedrock under the sea floor. They do this by sending a sound impulse that penetrates the water and silt. It hits the bedrock and bounces back through the silt and water. A array receives the returned sound and computers process it. Below is an example of mapping
https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs039-02/fs039-02.html has more details on the proces
Many of the agencies are claiming that the sonar is NOT affecting the whales. Rather, they claim, the marine mammals suddenly got stupid and started getting themselves hit by ships.
The US Navy was involved in a major lawsuit where they had to change their sonar operations due to the impact of Sonar on whales. Some relevant articles are:
For the entire history of the New Jersey coast, one could look east from the beach and see water, birds, dolphins, clouds and boats. This project will end that. You will see thousands of windmills on the horizon. At night, you will see the lights on the towers.
Windmills have justifiably earned the knickname “Condor cuisinarts” Thousands of protected birds are killed each year from collisions with windmills
Some have voiced national security concerns with respect to wind farms. Radar tracking can be made much more difficult when there is clutter.
There is a weapons system called Club-K. This is four cruise missiles in a standard shipping container. In other words, it does not look any different from the hundreds of trailers you see on the road every day. ONE container could be placed on the deck of a non descript freighter. The container contains four cruise missiles. If an attacker launched from 100 miles off the New Jersey coast, they could hit New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington in about 15 minutes. The payloads can be in the multi megaton range. The radar clutter from the wind farms will reduce the response time
https://vandrew.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=499 “During my field hearing in South Jersey last month, my colleagues and I highlighted the adverse effects offshore wind development would have on various sectors and industries, from our environment to our national security,” said Congressman Van Drew.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-04-17/pentagon-calls-biden-wind-farm-plans-problematic-for-us-military“The Defense Department has raised concerns about East Coast areas earmarked for new wind farms in a setback for the fledgling industry. “
https://ocnjdaily.com/pentagon-warns-offshore-wind-projects-van-drew-urges-moratorium/
“When my hearing revealed that these massive turbines could interfere with radar systems and highlighted the warnings from our own military, this administration continued full steam ahead,” he said.”