By George Moffatt • Offshore Wind Committee Member
Respected scientific authorities have closely studied whale mortalities off the East Coast over the years and have ruled out any connection between these deaths and wind turbine development activity. This is what they have to say:
Since 2016, NOAA has reported 194 humpback whale deaths along the entire US East Coast. About 40% had evidence of vessel strikes or fishing gear entanglement. NOAA had an independent team of scientists review the data and determine next steps for investigation.
NOAA’s position on sound surveys used for preliminary wind farm development is as follows: “There is no evidence that noise resulting from wind development-related site characterization surveys could potentially cause mortality of whales, and there are no specific links between recent large whale mortalities and currently ongoing surveys. These are geological and geophysical surveys conducted by wind energy developers. We will continue to gather data to help us determine the cause of death for these mortality events.”
This February, the Marine Mammal Commission, an independent government agency, also exonerated offshore windfarms. The commission, which has made marine mammal deaths a priority for investigation, rejected a link between mortality events and offshore wind energy development. “Although these [deaths] have generated media interest and public scrutiny, humpback whale strandings are not new,” the commission said. On the subject of right whales and their alarming decline (fewer than 350 remain), the commission said, “sub-lethal effects of ship strikes and entanglement can impair the growth and reproduction of right whales and further impair their recovery.”
And Rutgers University’s Offshore Wind Energy Collaborative has stated, “There is no evidence linking whale mortalities to any one specific factor, including offshore wind development…. Wind acoustic surveys are of high frequency or lower intensity low frequency which are harder for baleen whales—including humpback whales—to hear.”
The collaborative also stated, “Decisions, particularly those as paramount as calls to shut down the development of a climate-mitigating renewable energy, need to be based on scientific data and solid evidence and consider the entirety of factors contributing to observed or perceived impacts.”
This leads us to an overlooked reality: the menhaden—a moveable feast to whales—are swimming farther north and closer to the coastline, following the climate-driven rising ocean temperatures. “A primary food source of humpback whales, Atlantic menhaden have been increasing in biomass in the region since the 1980s, and anecdotal observations suggest that their distributions have been shifting closer to shore and staying later into winter. We do not know why. Coincidentally, these nearshore areas are where juvenile humpbacks have been observed feeding at the surface, potentially increasing susceptibility to vessel strikes or entanglement,” the Rutgers collaborative stated.
But these evidence-based conclusions have not been accepted by opponents of offshore windfarms. And remarkably, they also are ignoring the recent dire warning from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The international research agency is warning that, with Earth’s surface temperatures already 1.09°C warmer since the late 1800s, the climate crisis “has already arrived” and the critical, threshold 1.5°C warming mark will be reached or exceeded in the early 2030s, bringing on extreme heatwaves, ocean level rise of 10 to 30 inches, desertification of an additional 7% of the Earth’s land area, and devastation to the world’s coral reefs.
These findings should have everyone clamoring for the clean energy of ocean windfarms and ignoring disinformation promulgated by oil and gas interests and other naysayers. The New York Times and The Intercept, another respected investigative media source, have identified the fossil fuel industry–funded Caeser Rodney Institute as a “right-leaning nonprofit” that is leading the opposition to ocean windfarms, along with its spinoff, the American Coalition for Ocean Protection, with chapters in NY and NJ.
Resources
Humpback mortalities: bit.ly/42JUTbg
Sound surveys: bit.ly/3OdsiqB
Marine Mammal Commission: bit.ly/42HVgDb
Rutgers: bit.ly/3M5ci7m
The Intercept: bit.ly/3o7APk7