Tag: tape

Rare Right Whale Recorded

  • Only two Right Whales have been spotted in the last 50 years off the southern tip of Greenland (Photo courtesy of NOAA)

Scientist think they’ve found
a rare whale in a place where
they thought they were wiped
out. Sadie Babits reports,
they haven’t seen the whale
but they’ve heard it:

Transcript

Scientist think they’ve found
a rare whale in a place where
they thought they were wiped
out. Sadie Babits reports,
they haven’t seen the whale
but they’ve heard it:

Scientists thought the North Atlantic Right Whale
was gone. Only two of them have been spotted in
the last 50 years off the southern tip of Greenland.

But some underwater microphones picked up right
whale calls.

“They sound like mmmmmmick… kind of like that.”

That’s David Mellinger. He teaches at Oregon State
University.

He says they recorded more than two
thousand right whale calls in a year. That doesn’t
mean there are a lot of the whales, but Mellinger
says hearing any in the North Atlantic is significant.

“Because the population is so endangered. There
are only 300-350 maybe right whales in the world.
So finding any new whales is important.”

But there is a concern. As the Arctic Ice Cap
melts because of global warming, more ships are
expected to pass through the area. That could
mean ships could strike and kill the few right
whales that are left.

For The Environment Report, I’m Sadie Babits.

Related Links

The Push for Offshore Wind Farms

  • The government is trying to reel in the red tape that is keeping offshore wind farms, like this one, from being built in the US. (Photo by Les Salty, Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

The biggest obstacle to putting wind turbines offshore – out of sight of the shoreline – is not technology. It’s not money. It’s government red tape.

Now, the federal government says it wants to streamline the permitting process. Mark Brush reports the goal is to get offshore wind turbines off the drawing boards and into the oceans:

Transcript

The biggest obstacle to putting wind turbines offshore – out of sight of the shoreline – is not technology. It’s not money. It’s government red tape.

Now, the federal government says it wants to streamline the permitting process. Mark Brush reports the goal is to get offshore wind turbines off the drawing boards and into the oceans:

There are several states that are hoping to build the country’s first big offshore wind farm.

The government says sighting wind farms in the ocean is a great idea. It’s windy. And the giant wind turbines could provide power in places where it’s needed most – to the big cities off the nation’s coasts.

But there’s some fighting going on between government agencies. And that’s been tripping up permits for these wind farms.

Ken Salazar is the Secretary of the Interior. He recently spoke to a Senate committee about the infighting:

“There has been a jurisdictional feud that has gone on for quite awhile – unresolved – between FERC and the Department of Interior relative to the sighting of renewable energy facilities in the Outer Continental Shelf.”

Salazar says the agencies have now reached an agreement. So there shouldn’t be any more delays at the federal level.

But offshore wind farms face a lot of hoops at the state level as well. So it still could be awhile before the country’s first big offshore wind farm goes up.

For the Environment Report, I’m Mark Brush.

Related Links