Last February, hundreds of protesters filled the boardwalk in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey, carrying signs that read "Save the Whales." While the activists appeared to be well-intentioned — North Atlantic Right Whales on the East Coast are currently facing extinction — the protest was actually calling for a moratorium on wind farm construction. The protestors cited misinformation that wind turbines are killing whales, a narrative that has been a prominent talking point on right-leaning news channels like Fox News, as Salon previously reported. New Jersey is in the midst of building its first offshore wind project, which will consist of 98 turbines about 15 miles off the coast of Atlantic City and Ocean City.
Yet a new study adds to a growing body of evidence that wind turbines aren't causing whales to die at all — suggesting that the aforementioned activists are, in fact, tilting at windmills.
