| Title | Study: Birds are Avoiding Offshore Wind Farms | |
| Date | Friday December 19 2014, @09:30PM | |
| Author | Blackmoore | |
| Topic | ||
| from the lets-go-visit-Big-Bird dept. | ||
The Center for American Progress reports
A new report [carried out on behalf of Scottish government by the British Trust for Ornithology and the University of the Highlands and Islands' Environmental Research Institute] found that over 99 percent of seabirds were likely to alter their flight paths in order to avoid collision with offshore wind farms. While the analysis offers new estimates of which seabirds and what percentage change course to avoid wind turbines, it still leaves many questions about the overall impacts of wind turbines--on and offshore--on bird populations.
[...]thousands of birds could still be killed each year and that this "could even significantly reduce the total populations of some species."
"It is therefore vital that individual developments avoid the most important places for seabirds," [said Aedan Smith of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds]. "Impacts on seabirds must be reduced significantly if offshore wind is to realize its full potential of delivering much needed sustainable renewable energy."
Different birds have markedly different reactions to the wind farms, according to the report. Gannets, which are large, white birds, avoid entering wind farms altogether, while gulls are "less cautious" and may even be drawn to the sites for their foraging benefits. Even so, the report says that inside the farms, gulls "seem to show a strong avoidance of the turbine blades."
Related:
Wind Turbines Kill Birds and Bats
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