Spate of Dead Whales Sparking Concerns About Placement of Off-Shore Wind Farms
“Everybody is concerned and there is what NOAA fisheries is calling an ‘unusual mortality event’ of humpback whales.”
It’s hard to think of an animal on the land, in the sea, or soaring in the air that has probably deserved more protection from mankind than the whale.
There appears to be growing concern that off-shore wind farms heralded as critical new energy sources by eco-activists may be responsible for a spate of whale deaths off New Jersey and New York shores.
As of this post, seven humpback whale carcasses have washed ashore recently.
The death was the seventh in a little over a month. The spate of fatalities prompted an environmental group and some citizens groups opposed to offshore wind to ask President Biden earlier this week for a federal investigation into the deaths.
The latest death Thursday was that of a 20- to 25-foot-long (6- to 7.6-meter-long) humpback whale. Its remains washed ashore in Brigantine, just north of Atlantic City, which itself has seen two dead whales on its beaches in recent weeks.
There was no immediate indication of what caused the latest death. The Marine Mammal Stranding Center, based in Brigantine, said it and several other groups were formulating plans Friday for a post-mortem examination of the whale’s remains before the animal’s carcass is disposed of, most likely through burial on the beach.
Even one event is unusual. The whale bodies are being evaluated to determine the cause of death.
“I’ve lived here for many years and I can’t remember the last time I saw or heard a whale washing up on shore,” said Robin Shaffer from Ocean City.
The city brought in scientists from the Atlantic Conservation Society from New York to perform the necropsy.
“You thoroughly go through the animal, open it up, find out what happened with each organ, if you can, if everything is still in tact,” explained Sheila Dean, the director of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center. “Everybody is concerned and there is what NOAA fisheries is calling an ‘unusual mortality event’ of humpback whales,” she said, noting Atlantic City isn’t the only place where humpback whales are washing ashore.
Additionally, two sperm whales also washed ashore. Some environmental groups are clamoring to halt offshore wind farm development.
“The wave of dead whales is the ocean sounding the alarm and we must heed the warning,” Cindy Zipf, the executive director of Clean Ocean Action, said in a statement on Jan. 9. “These tragic multiple deaths of mostly young, endangered whales are of no apparent cause, however, the only new activity in the ocean is the unprecedented concurrent industrial activity by over 11 companies in the region’s ocean, which allows the harassment and harm of tens of thousands of marine mammals.”
“Moreover, federal and state agencies have been recklessly fast-tracking offshore wind development projects,” Zipf added. “These three coinciding factors raise suspicions, and a responsible and reasonable response is the action plan for which we are calling.”
However, other conservationist groups blame climate change (of course) and plastic pollution.
Activists from groups including the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club, Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions, and GreenFaith held a press conference on the Atlantic City boardwalk Tuesday morning to blame climate change, plastic pollution, and fishery practices for the spike in whale casualties.
“Warming waters are, in part, responsible for increasing the human-whale conflict and a threat to numerous other species across the globe,” said Paul Eidman, a conservationist, fisherman, and offshore wind advocate.
“Those who are using the tragic deaths of these whales to speak out against any offshore power are engaging in nonscientific speculation, and some are using this as an opportunity to further an anti-environmental agenda. On the climate crisis and on the whale strandings, one thing is very clear: We must follow the science.”
So, the appears to be a battle between eco-activists looming. However, if we apply the same “rules” to the offshore wind farms that we do petroleum pipelines, they should be ended immediately.
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Whale COVID
Actually that was a thing with dolphins a few years ago (they had some sort of respiratory infection that was killing them).
Minke Pox.
For the environmental whacko the notion of anthropogenic impacts = disaster has become a religion with it’s own dogmas complete with schism, apostates and heretics. The clerisy of environmentalism are no more than fake TV preachers, hustling for their share of the grift. They use the indoctrinated masses to protest and agitate for more grift and graft from the marks; taxpayers. To the clerisy it’s always about power. These totalitarians don’t want people able to make their own choices. They do not live the tenants of their religion but they will continue to demand that we do.
ATTENTION!
I live in Charleston, and the greenies here are blaming the whale deaths on cargo ships. Nothing is said about the impact of wind farm development.
Displacement in its purest form. Why would one expect anything different?
The Greenies blame it on cargo ships? How many of them are ready to give up their German cars, Swiss chocolate, exotic cosmetics and soaps from France, and pasta from Italy?
Ship traffic and abandoned navigational and fishing gear (nets, ropes, buoys, etc.), are the biggest threats to these whales. Many these dead beached whales show signs of being tangled or struck by ships.
Cargo ships go way too fast in coastal waters. I have seen them just miss small personal and commerical fishing boats because ship is on autopilot and no one is apparently manning the bridge at night (scary if you are almost run down).
I am surprised they didn’t go straight to the old carnard of “climate change” to be the cause. We can be thankful for that.
This is not your typical beaching of pilot whales that happens rarely, but get a lot of media coverage because it is sad.
Because, of course, whales have never beached themselves before in all of human history….
Looks like the Greens are going to war with the BANANAS (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere…)
They sound closer to BANAL to me.
What do the other N-A stand for?
Near Anything
Maybe there is a shortage of sharks in the region. The whales die at their normal pace, but those who are tasked with cleaning things up are in short supply. When things are in balance, no whale corpses make it to the beach. Now there are either more whales, in general, or fewer sharks.
I hope they check the blow hole for golf balls..
I thought sharks were making a comeback.
Two in the Or Wa in the past few months. Cargo ship blamed for one.
oh and Oregon needs to bring this guy back to dispose of the carcass.
https://youtu.be/V6CLumsir34
Run, it’s ODOT, and they gots explosives.
Maybe they’re just all trying to reach SpaceX launch facilities before the ship comes back. Has anyone looked around San Fran for a dude with pointy ears in a fluffy bathrobe?
Best weird, unintentionally hilarious sci fi movie ever.
so long and thanks for all the fish.
Be Green ‘n’ Save the Whales, eh?
Bwa ha ha ha ha ha!
For Greenies, this is gonna be an awshit moment to rival the one in the OG viral news video where the town decided to dispose of a beached whale with dynamite, and ended up unleashing a destructive blubber-storm on the bystanders, crushing parked cars, and damaging roofs on the shorefront buildings.
Then they had another awshit moment the next day, one that lasted for about two weeks.
Sonar can injure or drive whales to beach themselves … any navy exercises in the area, or, unrestricted warfare by the russian or chinese fleets to cause turmoil?
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/does-military-sonar-kill/
Miss the story about Russian Subs off the East and West coast last week? Might be a link but we better not question Brandon’s bestest woke military and administration on anything.
Yup … missed it … busy getting a house ready to sell … my reading has been hit and miss lately …
Noting that I am both glad that I am not involved with the untidy processes of whale necropsies, and that I expect that whatever results are announced will be determined by power politics . . .
First, people and animals are ranked by the Left by their usefulness in the seizure and holding of power.
Second, noting that humans, especially white or Asian, cis-normal males and any infants are in the bottom of the Leftist ranking system.
Third, Concerns about endangered animals are largely a sentimental appeal to grant the Left power. Whether animals live or die does not matter so long as power goes to the Left.
Fourth, This priority is shown by land based wind farms which routinely kill large numbers of endangered and protected birds with no penalty. Because the wind farms serve the goal of cementing the Left in power by making the electrical generation and distribution system less and less reliable, supposedly mandating more and more control of the generation and power distribution system by the all powerful State.
If it should be proven that the EPA and the offshore wind farms are hunting the whales and selling the meat for dog food, nothing is going to be done because the only alternative is reliable, proven means of generating power.
Subotai Bahadur
Yes, how many eagles, our national
Bird has died?
Remember DDT? Once egg shells got thin the left went crazy, but power is addictive, and profitable, and now the eagle is thrown to the heap along with “Save The Whales”
yeah, that DDT thing was vastly overblown by the radical environmentalists and when it was banned caused millions of lives in Africa
Exactly so.
— Wind farms: add “killing whales” to raptor-ginsuing, low-freq sound pollution, early-failure non-disposable blades generators n towers, and the negative lifetime resource balance.
— Solar: disposal, manufacturing, energy balance. Big plants got dispensation to destroy whole ecosystems and more endanger endangered species
— E-Vs: don’t get me started. *Maybe* worth it in cities with health-impacting particulate problems, by displacing the impacts of their payoff onto distant, rural, and poorer people.
My Tinfoiling Hat got quite agitated over this.. Now it’s settled down, to just singing the Slytherin House anthem.
I am not a big fan of wind farms because they do kill birds and bats and are not worth the power they generate (the only reason we have them is because they are subsidized–they do not really pencil otherwise).
I doubt off shore wind farms hurt whales. If anything, those towers in off shore waters create underwater structure that fish and wild life like. Whales are not hurt by that, unless it is creating some sonic stress to them (which seems doubtful).
Wind turbines do cause a pressure differential that is very harmful to bats (and probably to off shore birds), but I do not see that hitting the water and in a manner that could hurt whales. The Navy sonar tests are a whole different magnitude of big that I doubt a wind turbine could even come close to duplicate.
Not so fast. It’s well known that cargo ship propellers introduce so much noise into the ocean that whales such as blue whales can not communicate over distances like they used to. We have no idea what the constant vibrations of a windmill turning versus the passing noise of a boat does to whales. Maybe nothing, maybe a lot.
Blue whales were very rare 40 years ago. Now you can see them at various locations around the world. Still less than their historic numbers, but they are starting to rebound off San Diego, the Azores, etc.
It would seem to me that extremely large mechanical structures would be likely to introduce extremely low frequency sound vibrations that might have negative effects on animals that use the 15-20Hz band for all their navigation and communication. I seem to remember that whale issues were a problem for submarines attempting to use novel VLF and ELF communication strategies.
So, 7 in one month is plastic and climate change? Makes perfect sense. How about underwater vibrations caused by windmills that mess with the whales and disorient them?
They should also blow the whale up with some dynamite. Last time Oregon did it it was a big hit!
Windfalls are basically useless. The only qay to replace fossil fuels is to develop GenIV nuclear or wait longer for fusion. There are and there never will be any other options.
*Windfarms
Unreliable energy sucks anyhow, this is just further proof.
If you ever hear an organization unironically use the maxim, “Follow the science,” you can safely ignore them. They’re just grifting for The Current Thing™.
If you ever hear an organization unironically say, “Follow the science,” you can safely ignore them. They’re just grifting for The Current Thing™.