Wind Turbines In East Hampton Will Certainly Impact Local Sea Life

On Friday, the national and local news stations relished the celebration in Wainscott of the grand beginning of the digging of the tunnel, some say to be four miles long, that will house the underground conducting cable carrying electricity from the 15 wind turbines to be erected in the Atlantic Ocean off Montauk.

Governor Kathy Hochul, shovel in hand, was there in person, flanked by about six to seven politicos on either side to start the ceremony. She shoveled dirt — not local dirt, mind you, but imported dirt of a very different kind from the on-site Wainscott soil.

A small group of Long Islanders, Bonnie Brady and others, were there to disagree with the governor, East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc and other town employees. This was a first for Long Island and one of the national administration’s favorite projects in the making and would be sure to be followed by many others off Long Island.

The local zone of the Atlantic Ocean receiving all this attention would, in all likelihood, begin to look like the English Channel, an area easily identified from the air, as well as from the ground, by all of the tall structures sticking up. It’s a sight that will take some getting used to and one not liked by the rank-and-file Long Islanders who live here, because they like the ocean and its views as it is now.

Meanwhile, the sun, which is much more reliable than winds, is neglected, even though solarizing is much cheaper, quicker and already well-established on Long Island. Ironically, perhaps, one wonders why the wind turbine enthusiasts are so quick to get one going while they pooh-pooh the alternative.

Meanwhile, those of us who don’t like the idea of the president, governor and local politicians telling us what to do with our dollars will be unhappy and, what is the term? “Grin and bear it”?

We have been falsely led on by the Old World that we need all of these turbines grinding away to keep us comfortably supplied with electricity. What they don’t tell us is how our electric rates will skyrocket the way the cost of other commodities — food, clothing and other stuffs — are skyrocketing in an inflationary spiral.

Installing these towering structures will change the ocean bottom forever. In some cases, the towers, to stabilize them against wind and wave damage, are “banged” into the ocean soil to 15 to 25 feet below grade. The giant rotating blades can break off in a storm, and, while operative, they can hit pelagic birds that now use the space to be sacrificed as a flyway. A bird hitting the tower of spinning blades will quickly disappear. Yes, the populations of gulls, waterfowl, gannets, etc., will surely be impacted!

But who will care? Surely not those of us who will be sitting in our living rooms warmed by the electric heaters provided by the electricity from these offshore installations.

Fish and other submerged organisms, which are just doing fine now because of their lateral lines, sounds from other members of the species, schooling behavior and secret communications, will be completely disrupted, as will the wily fishermen who catch them and feed them to us.

Let’s face it — wind turbines in the ocean are an entirely different landscape item than ocean dwellers know and respect. Mayhem will proceed.

Then there are the rare species, not fished, shot or otherwise harmed by humans, those protected by various acts passed by Congress and now part of the law of the land.

One of these that is sure to be impacted by these structures is the right whale, Eubalena glacialis. There are fewer than 300 of these left in the Atlantic Ocean. They go back and forth, up and down the coast to feed and reproduce.

All whales in waters of the United States are protected. You can’t fish for them, shoot them, harpoon them, or otherwise kill or injure them. The last right whale to be taken by whalers off eastern Long Island shores was one off Amagansett in 1907. In 1934, the bones of this whale were cleaned and welded together into a right whale skeleton that hangs from the ceiling in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

This whale is so rare that it is charted by special members of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. agency, part of the Department of Commerce, which concerns itself with marine species that are hanging on by a thread. Every day, it seems, I get an email from NOAA telling me, as if I were a boat captain, to go slow and watch for whales so that I don’t hit one.

As an aside, and just to let people know that there are cheaper, safer means of lowering one’s electricity rate, my nephew Robert Penny has a house in Hampton Bays that is solarized. His electric bill is a measly 20 bucks a month.