Individuals of all species die from all sorts of causes. If a mortality rate
predicted is around 1 bird per annum, it has little to do with sustainability.
Apart from that it is impressive that someone could reach such a calculation
but surely it would be so hard to come up with a figure like that and justify
its accuracy to a very useful level. If the species gets rarer, by pure
statistical chance, the mortality rate from windfarms in areas where they
hardly if ever occur, would reduce to insignificance. Even if wind farms cause
the extinction of the OBP, which is unlikely, that does not make wind farms
unsustainable. Habitat loss and migration itself is sure to be responsible for
more deaths or stresses resulting in insufficient new recruitment to the
population. Breeding occurs during the intervening years. As a migrant, surely
the species needs access to sufficient habitat on both sides of Bass Straight
to survive. As bird conservation lobbyists and conservationists we are in a
difficult situation in the wind farm issue.
Philip
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