Offshore wind turbine farms are being planned and installed around the US Outer Continental Shelf. These will be introducing a panoply of noises into the environment, from siting, through installation, to operations, and eventually decommissioning. Noise concerns from these activities are typically framed within frequency bands of concern defined by governmental regulatory agencies. A less considered noise is the very low frequency thump generated by the motion of the turbine blades as they intersect the “stagnate wind area” on the windward side of the mast. This “infrasonic” thump contains a lot of energy and is in the perceptual range of migratory birds and baleen whales. Given that whales and birds use “infrasonic” sound and barometric pressure signals for navigation and migration cues, the installation of thousands of turbines off the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf, and hundreds off the Pacific OCS, may impose significant impacts on migratory passerine birds along the “Atlantic Flyway,” Procellariiformes on both the Atlantic and Pacific OCS, and all baleen whales within the infrasonic energy propagation reach of the turbines.

Increasingly, technology is opening up hostile and challenging marine environments for industrial exploitation. This is occurring in the energy sector with fossil fuel exploration and extraction operations and developing wind and hydrodynamic energy projects. It is also occurring with the deep-water expansion of other extraction industries such as minerals mining and fishing. All of these operations and enterprises are introducing loud and complex noise sources into marine bioacoustic habitats. This paper is an overview examination of existing and developing noise sources that are a consequence of the industrialization of the outer continental shelf and high seas.