I was interested to see in the Daily Telegraph that offshore wind farms can kill whales. I can't give a link to the article since the Telegraph have pulled it, because it's not true. However, Google search on ‘Wind farms + Whales’ show many sites taking the Telegraphs article as gospel. Wind farms, we are told, can kill whales; work published by the University of St. Andrews has shown that they interfere with the whale’s sonar and cause them to run ashore. Furthermore the Telegraph is quoted as saying ‘The findings suggest that more strandings can be expected as ministers are planning a major expansion in the number of offshore wind farms, especially off the coast of Scotland, which is an area where whales congregate to feed’.
Trouble is, that isn’t what the research actually shows. The work in question published as ‘Beaked Whales Respond to Simulated and Actual Navy Sonar’ by Tyack et al says nothing of the sort. You can read it here http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0017009#s3
The Telegraph has now withdrawn their article and published a correction which tells us:
‘Scientists studying why whales strand themselves said yesterday there is no known direct link between those strandings and off-shore wind farms, although the construction of turbines may affect the mammals' behaviour’ and ‘The professor said a quotation attributed to him in a press release issued by the university, which discussed strandings related to sonar emissions from naval vessels and which suggested renewable energy sources also contributed to the disturbance of whales, had been taken out of context.’
You can read the whole correction here http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/windpower/8388273/Correction-whales-and-wind-farms.html
Sadly, the scare story is getting lots of publicity, the correction rather less. I wonder if that was the idea?