900 Hundred Dead Dolphins Wash Ashore in Ukraine

By John Toth

Ukraine is building cases against Russia for genocide, aggression, crimes against humanity and also a new one called Ecocide. This new one is crime against Ukraine’s environment. 

Since the Russian/Ukraine war began, approximately 900 dolphins have washed up dead on Ukraine’s shore line. Russian warships menacing the southern coast of Ukraine in the Black Sea make constant use of acoustic sonar signals that scientists say interfere with dolphins’ sense of direction, since they use their own natural sonar for echolocation.

Explosions, rocket launches and low-flying Russian fighter jets only add to the cacophony traumatizing dolphins. However, scientists have cautioned that it is too early to directly link the dolphin die off to a single cause since fuel leaks, explosives or an assortment of flotsam associated with the war that have spoiled vast swaths of the Black Sea. Also, the Russians have destroyed the Kakhovka Dam sending trillions of gallons of polluted water down the Dnipro River to the Black Sea. However, before this dam was attacked, the dolphins were dying in record numbers.

There are a number of environmental issues with placing windmills on New Jersey’s shoreline and they include but are not limited to ripping up the ocean’s floor to bury cables 6 feet deep that will reach windmills that are 15 to 20 miles from shore. These cables will give off electro-magnetic waves that may disrupt fish migration patterns. They are being placed on/by productive scallop and squid fishing areas that threatens the livelihood of commercial fishermen and potential loss of a food source resulting in higher prices for fish. The windmills will definitely kill a huge number of bats and birds.

However, 900 dolphins washed up on Ukraine’s shoreline and their scientists suspect noise is confusing these animals and their sense of direction. Locally, we have witnessed a number of whales and dolphins washing up on our shoreline after boats doing mapping of the ocean floor with sonar for placement of windmill structures. This noise will only increase when windmills are being anchored to the ocean floor. When in operation, windmills over 850 feet high with their swishing blades that are hundreds of feet long will be a continual source of noise affecting all of our fisheries, especially whales and dolphins. These huge windmills will also emit vibrating noise as their blades turn that will add to this noise issue. 

Windmill advocates insist that windmills are needed to combat Climate Change. However, are we trading off the health of our ocean and its marine life to stop Climate Change? Are we trying to solve one problem by creating another one that may be more damaging than Climate Change?

How many whales and dolphins and other marine life will wash up on our shorelines once these hundreds of windmills are in full operation like what is happening on the shores of Ukraine?

Source of information – New York Times, August 18, 2023