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
Investigators look over the carcass of beached humpback whale discovered in Atlantic City on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — — As the stench of a dead whale hung in the air, environmentalists and opponents of offshore wind stood on a beach where the marine mammal lay buried Monday and called for a federal probe into a spate of whale deaths in New Jersey and New York.
“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 Dec. 5; a 31-foot-long humpback was found dead on Indian Wells Beach in Amagansett, New York on Dec. 6; and a 30-foot 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 January 2016. Agency spokesperson Lauren Gaches said that period pre-dates offshore wind preparation activities in the region.
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