I figured it was a simple matter of navigation and not crashing into these monstrous obstacles. I could even imagine it becoming a slalom sport of some kind if the danger was not too high risk. Something along those lines. Should be interesting to see the optimum grid layout for these things and how that scale of spacing compares relative to the average length of a fishing trawler.

The point is that they fear that fish will be scared away from the area by the presence of the turbines.

Is there any evidence to suggest that's the case though? A quick google suggests the opposite to be true. [1]

This reminds me of the middle-america folks who were claiming the wind turbines near their houses caused all kinds of disease, including somebody who claimed the wind turbines were causing people to contract aids. Not sure if it's just an unfounded fear of new things, or if it's a concerted effort by the fossil fuel lobby, but people really like to hate wind power.

[1] http://www.aqua.dtu.dk/english/News/2012/04/120410_Fish-thri...

If you're not keen on a big noisy ugly thing near your house, then the unspecified-risks-to-health card looks like handy one to play..

As I understand it, it's predominantly the noise that annoys people (At 110db up close, a turbine is equivalent to a propeller aircraft on taxi, and while most people hear the local town airport when the wind is in the right/wrong direction and/or there's a temperature inversion making the sound carry, those aircraft take off and are gone, while a turbine just keeps droning all day). ~60db has occasionally been measured near housing, and that's loud enough you'd have to raise your voice to talk -- not what people move to the countryside for, and as it's hard to get rid of a turbine after it's built they'll fight tooth and claw to stop it being built anywhere near them.

I think we're talking about offshore turbines. Who can hear 110 db from 30 km away? :)

The Navy could take a census of whale populations by having sonar operators listen for whale farts. Sound travels really far over water but even farther in water. The ocean is obviously a very noisy place but the long term environmental affects of what's essentially a white noise machine are yet to be known.

lol, that's quite the sampling technique. Whatever works right? Must be a pretty characteristic sound, but what a job right. "What do you do for work?" "I analyze waveforms for whale flatulence"

The one I was replying to was talking about objectors in the mid-west. Not much ocean in Iowa :)