Environmental groups and opponents of offshore wind energy want a federal investigation into the deaths of six whales that have washed ashore in New Jersey and New York in little over a month.
Cindy Zipf, executive director of the Clean Ocean Action environmental group, speaks at a press conference on the beach in Atlantic City, N.J., on Monday, Jan. 9, 2023, where a large dead whale was buried over the weekend. Several groups called for a federal investigation into the deaths of six whales that have washed ashore in New Jersey and New York over the past 33 days and whether the deaths were related to site preparation work for the offshore wind industry.
“Is it an omen?” she asked. “Is it an alarm? Never before have we had six whales wash up in 33 days.” A prominent marine mammal stranding expert said that while the cause of the deaths is unknown, it could be a simple function of a larger-than-normal number of whales in the area this winter, with the number of deaths rising proportionately.
Orsted, the Danish wind power developer that will build two of those three approved projects, said its current work off the New Jersey coast does not involve using sounds or other actions that could disturb whales. An infant sperm whale, 12 feet long, was found dead on the beach in Keansburg, New Jersey on December 5th; a 31-foot-long humpback was found dead on Indian Wells Beach in Amagansett, New York on Dec. 6th; and a 30-foot long sperm whale was found on New York’s Rockaway Beach on Dec. 12.
NOAA said it has been studying what it calls “unusual mortality events” involving 174 humpback whales along the entire U.S. East Coast since Jan. 2016. Agency spokesperson Lauren Gaches said that period pre-dates offshore wind preparation activities in the region.
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