CNN
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A string of nine whale deaths in New York and New Jersey over the past two months has prompted several New Jersey Democratic lawmakers to question whether the deaths are linked to the development of a major proposed offshore wind farm in the area. But scientists say there is no evidence to support a link between the two.
After a young whale washed ashore last week in Brigantine, New Jersey, several local, condition and federal Republican lawmakers have called for a halt to development of the planned offshore wind project pending an investigation.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson went further, blaming the wind project for the whale deaths and calling offshore wind “the DDT of our time.”
A preliminary necropsy on the blow whale was conducted last weekend by scientists at Marine Mammal Stranding Center found the whale “suffered blunt force trauma, consistent with that from a vessel strike”. And on Wednesday, officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Bureau of Ocean Management told reporters that so far no whale deaths have been attributed to offshore wind projects.
“There are no known links between these offshore wind activities and any whale strandings, regardless of species,” said Benjamin Laws, deputy chief for permits and conservation with NOAA's Office of Protected Fisheries.
Laws also said speculation that sonar equipment used by wind companies to map the ocean floor could fatally harm whales has also not been proven. Officials noted that the New Jersey wind project is prohibited from using sonar levels so strong that they could be fatal to whales or other marine life.
“There is no information to support any suggestion that any of the equipment used to support wind development for the site characterization surveys could directly lead to the death of a whale,” Laws said.
As the rhetoric against wind power heats up, scientists and US officials are trying to figure out what really killed those nine whales. The coasts of New York and New Jersey have been an area where more whales have been swimming in recent decades, officials said, as their food source has recovered.
In addition to being the site of a future wind farm, the area is also an important shipping corridor.
“Unfortunately, it's been a period of several years where we've had increased strikes of large whales, but we're still concerned about the pulse over the last six weeks or so,” said Sarah Wilkin, coordinator of Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response. Program in the NOAA Office of Protected Fisheries Resources. “We want to know the answers.”
John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe/Getty Images
A humpback whale comes close to a fishing boat off White Horse Beach in Massachusetts.
Since 2016, scientists have been watching increased numbers of whale deaths on the east coast. From Maine to Florida, 178 whales have died, and scientists have examined about half of the incidents. Of these, about 40% were because the whales were struck by ships or became entangled in ropes or nets in the water.
More recently, the spotlight has been on nine whales that have been stranded off the coasts of New York and New Jersey since early December. Of that number, seven were blow whales and two were sperm whales. Wilkin said NOAA scientists are concerned about the “increased number and all of this happening in a relatively narrow geographic area and time.”
There are several factors that may be contributing to the increase in whale strandings in the mid-Atlantic region, federal officials and local experts said. As the humpback whale population has increased, more of them are swimming in the New York and New Jersey area as they go after menhaden – a small fish that the whales eat.
But the menhaden swim in an area that intersects with a major shipping lane that brings goods to New York and New Jersey ports, which can increase the risk of whale strikes.
“The fish are likely to be in areas where there are (shipping) channels,” said Paul Sieswerda, executive director of the New York-based nonprofit Gotham Whale, which studies and advocates for the local whale population. “The whales come to an area where there is a lot of boat traffic.”
Climate change and ocean warming can affect where the whales travel as they follow their food or move to waters that have more favorable conditions, said Lauren Gaches, director of public affairs for NOAA Fisheries.
Numerous scientific studies have documented the increase in the whale population in the area. Sieswerda, whose team has contributed whale sightings to a study's data, said there has been an “explosion” in the whale population along the Mid-Atlantic coast. This is due to an increase in the menhaden population, as well as a cleaner Hudson River and better coastal habitats for whales.
“Ship strike and jamming are real threats and they happen all the time,” Sieswerda said. “People overlook the obvious just because there's some news about wind farms.”
Ocean Wind, the large offshore wind project planned for the New Jersey coast, has yet to begin construction.
The Danish company Ørsted conducted research surveys and soil sampling on the ocean floor to determine where the offshore wind turbines and cables to carry electricity back to shore could be installed.
In a statement to CNN, Ørsted's head of government affairs in New Jersey, Maddy Urbish, said the vessels contracted by the company to carry out the survey work had not “suffered marine mammal strikes during US offshore survey activity.” .
“Our current work off the coast of New Jersey consists of surveys and does not involve sounds or actions that will disturb whales or other ocean mammals,” Urbish added. The company's tests use a drill on top of the vessel that pushes a metal rod into the sea floor, testing the resistance of the ocean floor soil.
Ørsted had one ship at a time conducting surveys in the area, starting in 2021.
Bryan Bedder/Getty Images/FILE
Local authorities stand near a dead whale on Rockaway Beach in New York on December 13.
Other research tasks may be used sonar and sounds for mapping the ocean floor, US officials said. Officials pointed out that the acoustic instruments used on wind projects are typically less loud than the seismic airguns used by offshore oil and gas companies to penetrate deeper into the seafloor.
Sound sources used by wind energy businesses “are generally expected to have much lower impact than seismic airguns,” said Erica Staaterman, a bioacoustician at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's Center for Marine Acoustics.
In addition, federal regulations mandate that there are many observers on ships conducting research and construction work, watching for whales, dolphins and turtles, and calling for work breaks when the animals swim in the area.
Speculation about how offshore wind operations may have affected whales has divided some environmental and advocacy groups in the New Jersey area. Some, including Clean Ocean Action, have called for a halt to the Ørsted New Jersey operation as well as a halt to future planned wind farms.
Other groups, including state chapters of the Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters and Anglers for Offshore Wind, say wind farms will help people and whales in the long run by reducing fossil fuel use and its planet-warming emissions.
“We're on the side of the whales, all we're doing is caring about the whales,” said Paul Eidman, a New Jersey boat captain who runs the local chapter of Anglers for Offshore Wind. “We accept the fact that people have messed up and that climate change is because of us. This is one of the ways we can stop burning fossil fuels. we look at the big picture.”
