Skip to content
All articles
  • All articles
  • About whales & dolphins
  • Create healthy seas
  • End captivity
  • Fundraising
  • Green Whale
  • Prevent bycatch
  • Prevent deaths in nets
  • Stop whaling
MicrosoftTeams-image (9)

Double Your Impact for Marine Animal Rescue & Response

On a chilly day this past December, the WDC North America team celebrated the first...
20230126_091707

WDC’s Education Wishlist = Cleared!

To the WDC Community, I want to thank you so much for your support of...
Hysazu Photography

Looking forward for Southern Resident orcas in 2023

Hysazu Photography 2022 was a big year for Southern Resident orcas - 2022 brought the...
Credit: Seacoast Science Center

The Unlikely Adventure of Shoebert, a Young Grey Seal Who Visited an Industrial Park Pond

Credit: Seacoast Science Center In mid-September, our stranding partners in northern Massachusetts were inundated with...
Leaping harbour porpoise

The power of harbour porpoise poo

We know we need to save the whale to save the world. Now we are...
Right whale - Regina WDC

Whale and Dolphin Conservation: Change Through Policy.

WDC focuses on education, research, conservation projects, and policy work to create a sustainable future...
Clear the list graphic

Clear WDC’s Amazon Wishlist for Giving Tuesday

UPDATE: We are thrilled to report that everything was donated off of our Amazon Wishlist...
Fin whales are targeted by Icelandic whalers

Speaking truth to power – my week giving whales a voice

The International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting is where governments come together to make decisions about whaling...

Good news for Welsh Whales and Dolphins

Here at WDC we welcome the recent news that a large wind farm that was proposed in the Irish Sea, has been withdrawn.

The Rhiannon offshore wind farm was to be situated 12 miles off the coast of Anglesey, consisting of over 400 turbines and covering an unprecedented 497 km2  – an area where there have been very few surveys to assess whale and dolphin populations, so it is hard to know how important an area it is for them.

It would have certainly impacted on bottlenose dolphins, especially the animals from the Cardigan Bay Special Area of Conservation (SAC) that winter off Anglesey. Risso’s dolphins could also have been impacted, including those WDC has been researching since 1999 at Bardsey Island as they potentially move between Bardsey and Isle of Man.

Harbour porpoises would have been most affected by Rhiannon, the length of the construction phase with 16 years of pile driving, would mean the development would continue over several harbour porpoise life spans. If they are disturbed they may not return after development has completed, which has happened in other areas where offshore wind farms have been developed.

We also had concerns over the lack of mitigation measures and lack of any monitoring proposals. The size of the population management units meant the assessment does not take into account local populations, migrating animals and potential barrier effects.

We continue to support the development of marine renewable energy and recommend that it is located away from critical and important areas for whales, dolphins and porpoises; and foundations that do not require pile driving are developed, to avoid negatively impacting them.