NEW JERSEY – As dead whales continue to wash ashore on the East Coast, and particularly on the New Jersey shore, officials and academics are planning a wide range of monitoring and research aimed at preventing or minimizing harm caused to whales and other marine species during the construction and operation of offshore wind farms.
A dead whale washed up in the Garden State on Thursday, a day after another was found off the coast of New York amid a continuing wave of whale deaths along the East Coast. Twenty-five of the animals have died since Dec. 1, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
A research and monitoring initiative announced last year by New Jersey environmental and utility regulators is launching numerous projects to establish a baseline of current ocean conditions, with plans for monitoring during construction and operation of wind farms.
This discovery is the tenth loss of large aquatic mammals in the past two months.
The $26 million program is funded, but not executed, by offshore wind companies Orsted there Atlantic coastswho are required by the state to pay for research as part of their projects.
States from Maine to South Carolina are conducting similar wind surveys, officials said.
The investigation was announced long before a series of whale deaths became politicized, with opponents of offshore wind blaming the deaths on site preparation work for wind farms in New Jersey and New York. Several elected officials are pushing for a pause or complete halt to offshore wind projects, citing the death of whales.
But three federal science agencies – the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Office of Ocean Energy Management and the Marine Mammal Commission – say there is no evidence linking offshore wind activities to whale mortality.
The federal government has been studying whale mortality since declaring an “unusual mortality event” involving humpback whales in 2016. Since then, 186 of the animals have died between Maine and Florida, with a peak of 34 in 2017.
New Jersey’s work includes placing listening devices on the ocean floor to record the presence of whales and other marine mammals in a specific area, and deploying an equipped underwater glider sensors capable of listening to the cries of whales. It also includes tracking the movement of various species of fish and using environmental DNA to find out which animals have been in specific areas of the ocean.
Some of the efforts are already underway, including a sound recorder operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on a buoy off Atlantic City, while others will begin next month.
“We can see the ground,” said Kira Lawrence of the State Public Utilities Board, which provided an update on the projects this week. “It is important that we have an idea of what is out there and how it is changing at the moment. We can get an idea of when and where the whales are around the project areas.”
Other work involved in the initiative includes developing a special clam dredge that can maneuver more easily in tight spaces around wind farms, supporting a regional wildlife survey in several states, and using possible use of wind turbine platforms as refueling stations for wildlife monitoring. and environmental conditions.
The update to the investigative document came amid a continuing wave of whale deaths along the East Coast.
Necropsies have been performed on 13 of the 25 whales that have beached since Dec. 1, revealing ship strikes were the likely cause of at least eight of the deaths, NOAA spokeswoman Andrea Gomez said. . The agency is awaiting results of microscopic tissue samples from the remaining animals, he added.
The distribution of deaths by species is as follows: 18 humpback whales between New York and North Carolina; 3 sperm whales between New York and Florida; two North Atlantic right whales in North Carolina and Virginia; a sei whale off North Carolina and a minke whale off New York, according to NOAA.
New York has several similar research projects underway, including the use of miniature beacons for birds and bats near offshore wind farms, a study of how seabirds might interact with wind turbines and the creation of a database to integrate the knowledge of sea fishermen on wind energy. the decisions
New Jersey projects not yet approved for funding, but planned, include tagging sea turtles to monitor their movements and expanding bird and bat studies.
In an online presentation of the initiative Monday by state officials, opponents of offshore wind renewed complaints about the visibility of wind turbines from shore and expressed fears that wind projects would harm or kill wildlife. .
“I just want to make sure we don’t permanently remove these beautiful animals from our shoreline,” said Randall Snyder, a radiologist at Harvey Cedars on Long Beach Island, one of many hotbeds of local offshore wind resistance.
A gray whale has given birth and shown her calf to the tour boat in Dana Point, California.