WILDLIFE MORE IMPORTANT THAN WINDFARMS
I enjoyed Michael Wigan’s article in your March issue on the wind turbine development planned for the Outer Moray Firth. The impact that these developments have on wildlife seems little more than an afterthought to the Scottish Government who, despite staunch opposition to the plans, continue to recklessly champion these schemes with little regard to their environmental impact. Preserving wildlife seems not to be a priority for this government.
As well as the risk to salmon and trout that Wigan discussed, whales, dolphins, porpoises and sea birds are also at risk from disturbances caused by installation, the effects of electro-magnetic fields and tremors caused by the turbines.
It is shocking how much legislation the Government will bypass for their own ends. Plans to protect harbour porpoises in Scotland lag behind the rest of the UK, with Scotland now faced with fines for breaking European environmental rules. Four protection areas were proposed for Scotland in recent years, one of which was in the Moray Firth, but ultimately only a single area, in the Inner Hebrides and Minches, was approved late last year. The reason for this? A protection area in the Moray Firth would have hindered the building of the wind farm.
Evidence of the devastation wind farms are having on wildlife is already washing up on our shores. This time last year, 29 whales were stranded on beaches across England, Germany and the Netherlands over a two-week period. Can it be a coincidence that these areas of the North Sea are also home to the world’s biggest concentration of offshore windfarms? The RSPB is currently challenging plans for similar windfarm developments in the Firth of Tay and Firth of Forth. I’m hoping that through this process developers will finally be forced to address environmental concerns with more than a mere promise of monitoring wildlife, possibly posthumously, once the turbines are up and running. If not, I fear mass strandings like those in New Zealand in February will be something Scotland may face in the not too distant future.
Lyndsey McLaughlin, Nairn