Could the Wind Turbines of Chile Harm Blue Whales?

[Snake Alchemist]

From a hill overlooking lush pastures on Chiloé Island in Chile, Gicella Saldivia and her family manage a small organic farm and restaurant. Bird-watchers arrive by the busload to marvel at the mix of native and migratory species on nearby Mar Brava Beach. You might assume that a scene this bucolic, and an energy source as clean as wind power, would be a good fit. But Saldivia and many of the 160,000 residents of this 8,000-sq km (3,000 sq-mile) Patagonian isle are at odds, and in court, with Chilean energy company Ecopower over plans to build a $235 million, 56-turbine wind park on Mar Brava. "Chile has a wealth of natural resources to protect that other countries don't," says Saldivia. "This is going to affect my tranquility."

Peace of mind was exactly what alternative energy like wind was supposed to give enviro-conscious citizens like Saldivia. But the Chiloé dispute is a reminder that wind power, like hydroelectric power, has its own potential negatives. That's not what the government of a near-developed but energy-starved nation like Chile wants to hear, especially when its boomingeconomy compels it to double its power output to 30,000 megawatts by 2025. What's more, it creates an awkward p.r. dilemma for the environmental movement, which has long been badgering developing countries to move away from fossilfuels. As Barbara Galletti, president of the Cetacean Conservation Center, one of several enviro-groups trying to halt Ecopower's Chiloé project, concedes: "Absolutely everybody opposed to the location of this wind park is in favor of and promote the use of renewable non-conventional energy." (PHOTOS: Industrial Fishing Threatens Chile's Fishermen)

But location, say environmentalists, is precisely the problematic factor when it comes to wind farms, as it is with some controversial hydroelectric dams being built in South America. Galletti, for example, is quick to point out that other wind-energy projects planned for Chiloé have generated none of the backlash that Mar Brava has. But in December, she delivered to Chilean President Sebastián Piñera a letter, supported by marine mammal specialists, calling for an executive decision to stop Ecopower's Chiloé park. The reason: Mar Brava, though an ideal site for capturing the Pacific Ocean's robust gusts, is also host to myriad vulnerable avian species, from native kelp gulls and Chilean flamingos to migratory whimbrels and sanderlings. At the same time, the area is one of the southern hemisphere's most important feeding grounds for great blue whales.

Wind turbines are increasingly recognized as a lethal hazard for birds, but some scientists now think they're also harmful to marine life. From half a mile (about 1 km) away, the whooshing turbines emit an acceptable noise level of around 50 decibels; but if some of the Ecopower turbines are placed as close as 10 meters (30 feet) from the Mar Brava shoreline, they say, levels for ocean life could approach if not exceed a more harmful 100 decibels (like standing next to a running lawnmower). That, the environmentalists argue, could disrupt the highly sensitive communication systems of animals like whales, which inturn could interfere with their critical migratory and feeding patterns. Tocomplicate matters, Mar Brava is also home to one of South America's oldest burial sites, about 6,000 years old. (PHOTOS: The Aftermath of a 2010 Earthquake in Chile)

http://news.yahoo.com/could-wind-turbines-chile-harm-blue-whales-055500953.html

Can't seem to get a break.