Why are so many whales dying this year?
At least 29 whales have washed up on the Atlantic coast since December, including over a dozen in New Jersey. A number of whales beach on the east coast every year, but the uptick in deaths has alarmed scientists.
The string of whale demises has coincided with prep work for the installation of several large clean energy offshore wind farms in the waters around the northeast, sparking concerns that the wind farms are causing the deaths.
Critics of the wind farms have argued that ocean floor preparation work including the sonar used by energy companies to map the ocean floor and the noise made by seabed rock sampling may have caused the whale deaths.
At least 13 whales have washed up in New Jersey and New York alone as of April 4, according to the Marine Mammal Stranding Center.
It’s not just whales, either. At least 25 dolphins and a couple of porpoises have washed up on New Jersey’s shores as well.
On Tuesday, New Jersey Republicans introduced a resolution calling for an immediate moratorium on offshore wind energy projects due to the “unexplained” marine life deaths. Dozens of New Jersey mayors have called to halt the projects as well.
“After months of whales and dolphins washing up on our beaches, enough is enough,” said state Sen. Declan O’Scanlon, who represents a beach district and introduced the proposal.
“We cannot ignore the surge in marine life deaths that has occurred while offshore wind project preparation activities have been conducted along the coast,” O’Scanlon said. “While the Governor has stated that ‘there’s no evidence these activities are causing these whale and dolphin deaths’, he omits that he, and we, simply have no idea what’s causing these tragic deaths.”
New Jersey is working on three offshore wind projects with the ambitious goal of 100% clean energy for New Jersey by 2050. The GOP proposal to stop work on New Jersey’s wind projects is likely to get shut down by Democrats. Even if it survives the legislature, Governor Phil Murphy is unlikely to sign it.
Last month, Murphy, a Democrat, cited “disinformation” around the whale deaths and said he will push forward with the wind energy projects despite the concerns.
The federal government has also downplayed the possibility of any connection to the wind farms.
Two government agencies, the Marine Mammal Commission and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) both said initially that there is “no evidence” that wind farms are the culprit.
Some of the whales, mostly humpbacks, showed evidence that they were hit by ships, the MMC said.
Last week though, the NOAA admitted that a planned wind energy project 15 miles off the shore of Atlantic City is “likely to adversely affect, but is not likely to jeopardize, the continued existence of” whales and other sea life in the area.
The NOAA has been tracking higher numbers of beached humpback whales as an “unusual mortality event” since 2016, but deaths of several species of whales and other marine life have increased in the last few months.
New Jersey’s Environmental Protection Department was also quiet about the whale deaths at first. Eventually, the department said it is “aware of no credible evidence” that offshore wind farms are killing whales, but it will “continue to monitor” the situation.
The beached whales have caused a rift among environmentalists.
Clean Ocean Action, one of the few environmental groups to criticize offshore wind energy, became an odd couple team with Republican lawmakers who oppose the projects.
On the other side are the New Jersey chapters of the Sierra Club and League of Conservation Voters, who say climate change is the bigger threat. Essentially, their argument is that a few dead whales now is worth the clean energy that will help save the planet.
“I find it unreasonable to call for the pause or moratorium on offshore wind — which is going to save us all,” New Jersey Sierra Club Director Anjuli Ramos-Busot said.
States in the northeast have been racing to become hubs for wind energy.
New York has also seen at least two whale deaths this year as it aggressively pursues plans for offshore wind projects.
Governor Kathy Hochul has called for New York to produce enough wind energy to power 6.7 million homes by 2035, more than twice the households in New York City. In December, a group of environmentalists pushed Hochul to commit to even more.
President Biden has set a national goal of enough offshore wind energy to power 10 million homes by 2030.
For now though, Republican legislators and many New Jersey residents are not going quietly, and they are optimistic they can make a change.
“I’m witnessing firsthand,” a commercial fisherman of over 25 years told the Press of Atlantic City at a protest last week. “The governor has the statistics with the actual work they’re doing and what the impact is, and they’re not addressing it. … Look at what you’re doing and what the documents say and pay attention to it. Stop issuing permits to kill endangered species.”
“The support is definitely getting stronger,” a woman at the protest told the outlet.