Homes for Whales

Application to install turbines in WDC adoption orcas' home withdrawn

Your help made a difference - thank you!

Blackney Pass off Vancouver Island, Canada is a hub of whale activity and last week WDC learnt of an application to put tidal sea turbines in this very area.

This would have put any whale or dolphin that were to swim into one of these devices as risk of death or severe injury – including those orcas from the WDC adoption programme.

WDC is not against initiatives to combat climate change but placing turbines like these in an area so heavily populated by orcas would be insane.

And it isn’t just orcas at risk. Blackney Pass is a very rich area for marine life. Orcas feed here regularly, as do humpback whales, Steller sea lions, Dall’s porpoise and other species.

Whale research project and long-standing WDC partner organization, OrcaLab looks out over Blackney Pass and their footage shows just why this area is so unsuitable for such a turbine development.

The construction and operation of these turbines would also have placed the orcas at risk from high levels of underwater noise.

Now, SRM Projects Ltd, the renewable energy company that had put forward the proposal, has announced that it is withdrawing the application. In a joint press release with Orcalab, it recognised the importance of this key habitat and unsuitability for such a development. Read the full release.

Thank you to everyone who supported our campaign, as well as Orcalab and Jackie Hildering whose excellent blog first alerted us to the issue.

Of course, this is just one small step in ensuring a future for these magnificent animals. You can help us to protect the orcas and their home by adopting a whale.