Backlash over mounting whale deaths leaves US offshore wind in deep waters
Allegations of conflicts of interest and lack of transparency fuelling calls for moratorium on sector activities amid accusations of cover-up
A further two new whale strandings this week on US Atlantic beaches are ratcheting up pressure to halt wind construction activities gearing in the region, with concern among some industry observers of the potential set-back to project time-lines - and political support - this could cause.
North Atlantic right whales are critically endangered with less than 350 individuals known to survive.
Nine whales have died on New Jersey and New York beaches, among more than a dozen for the entire Eastern Seaboard since 5 December, exciting widespread concern that offshore wind-related sonar-based geophysical surveys are behind the deaths.
“We need more scientific fact-based data before anything can be confidently determined about the causes of the whale deaths,” said Vince Sera, mayor of New Jersey coastal community Brigantine, at a packed town hall meeting Sunday called to discuss the issue.
“The only thing different that we’ve seen around here is the surveying work that they are doing with the ocean wind projects, and we want to know if there’s any connection.”
The whale deaths are spurring a backlash against the offshore wind industry on social media that some fear could bleed into the polls, and with the entire New Jersey legislature up for election this coming fall, many politicians have joined in calling for an industry pause.
“Any sort of political risk that you run into these days has the potential of delaying projects significantly,” said Matt Krayton, lead with New Jersey political consultancy Publitics. “The biggest risk, though with all of these things is, does wind power become polarised in a way that it hasn’t before?”
“That’s maybe where this is heading,” he added. Already, Sera said that municipalities in and outside of New Jersey are reaching out and asking for Brigantine’s advice on opposing the industry, and “this number grows every single day”.
We want to “build a critical mass that the president and governors of all these states can’t ignore the citizens that elect them”, Sera said.
Mitigation measures
Brian Hooker, biology team lead for BOEM’s office of renewable energy programmes, said: “There is no information that would support any suggestion that any of the equipment that’s being used in support of wind development for the site characterisation surveys could directly lead to the death of a whale.”
Offshore wind geophysical surveys are conducted under strict authorisation rules from NOAA-Fisheries.
Survey vessels are required to have protected species observers (PSO) on duty, adhere to strict speed limits of 10-knots when marine mammals are spotted, and observe 500-metre shutdown zones for North Atlantic right whales and 100-metre shutdown zones for all other marine mammals while using acoustic sources.
NOAA-Fisheries has 11 active and five pending incidental take authorisations (ITAs) in the region, which permit the unintended harassment of marine mammals and other wildlife while conducting survey operations but does not allow accidental deaths.
The strandings are occurring amid seven years of unusual mortality events (UMEs) seen in several whale species along the US Atlantic coast. NOAA-Fisheries data indicates that 174 humpback whales and 36 North Atlantic right whales have perished in that time.
Eleven North Atlantic right whales were killed through vessel collisions, nine through entanglement with fishing gear, while 14 are either unknown, not examined, or pending.
Whale stranding causes
While NOAA-Fisheries is confident that the offshore wind sector is not to blame, the cause of the whale strandings remains elusive.
NOAA-Fisheries has documented an increase in whale sightings throughout winter months in New York and New Jersey over the past decades.
“Whales, especially young humpbacks, have been observed feeding on prey close to shore,” said Gaches. “While feeding close to shore, whales are overlapping with high-use areas with high vessel traffic and are at risk of interacting with vessels.”
When whales die in coastal waters, the likelihood of the carcass landing on the beach or being observed by on-water users increases potential reporting.
Vessel traffic in the northeast as surged in recent years as the Port of New York and New Jersey saw cargo levels rise 27% between 2019 and 2022.
This is unlikely to mollify industry opponents particularly if whales continue to wash up on area beaches.
The lack of scientific certainty creates “a messaging vacuum that people can jump into very easily, and then define,” said Publitics’ Krayton.
Krayton however remains optimistic that the jobs and economic opportunities presented by the industry will ultimately outweigh the public relations impact of the whale beachings.
“I don’t think that this particular issue presents an existential risk to the broader climate change, climate mitigation efforts that are that are taking place here in New Jersey and nationally,” he said.
(Copyright)<b>'Getting to the bottom of it': Cause of </b>whale beachings remains in question - and has led to claims of a coverup
When Paul Kanitra, mayor of the tiny borough of Point Pleasant Beach, in the US state of New Jersey, witnessed the most recent stranding of a humpback whale, he vowed on Facebook that if it washed ashore on the town’s beaches, “we will personally test it and get to the bottom of this”.
Nine whales have washed ashore on New Jersey and New York beaches, generating widespread speculation that ongoing geophysical surveys in nearby offshore wind projects, including the Shell-EDF joint venture (JV) Atlantic Shores and Orsted's Ocean Wind 1, could be involved.
Kanitra declined to elaborate to Recharge, but his comments reveal the suspicion cast upon marine mammal experts charged with detailed examinations of the corpses.
For generations accustomed to television police dramas in which autopsies are highly revelatory, the necropsies on recently beached whales have been disappointingly inconclusive.
Necropsies are typically performed by one of two marine mammal stranding centres, either the New York-based Atlantic Marine Conservation Society (AMSEAS) or the Marine Mammal Centre (MMC) of New Jersey.
AMSEAS led the necropsy examinations for three of the nine recent humpback strandings and found all “presented with findings of blunt force trauma, consistent with vessel interactions”, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries department (NOAA-Fisheries) spokesperson Lauren Gaches said, with the remainder inconclusive.
These findings have not satisfied offshore wind opponents. They concede that vessel collisions might be responsible but contend that damage to the hearing of these animals caused by geophysical surveys is the root cause.
“Are these whales disoriented because they’ve become deaf or temporarily deaf because of geotechnical testing out in the water?” Amy Disibio, representative for the Massachusetts-based Nantucket Residents Against Turbines (ACKRATS) that is currently engaged in a lawsuit targeting the US’ first offshore wind farm, Vineyard Wind 1.
“If we’re not going to be there, investigating and doing the proper necropsies right away, looking in their ears and in their eardrum, then we’re not really doing a very good job.”
NOAA-Fisheries noted the challenges associated with performing necropsies on multi-tonne animals in difficult conditions, adding that “certain microscopic parts of the ear bones critical to diagnosing trauma decompose very quickly (within hours)”.
This explanation is not accepted by sector opponents, who question the rescue centres’ scientific objectivity.
The experts at the aquariums and some of these environmental organisations “are not independent, they’re compromised”, asserted Disibio.
Six of the 15 AMSEAS board members are tied to the offshore wind industry, including Norwegian state energy company Equinor, which is developing 3.3GW of capacity in the Empire Wind 1 & 2 and Beacon Wind projects for New York with partner oil supermajor BP.
“Our support for these organisations and their broad mission is independent from the scientific work they carry out,” Equinor spokesperson Lauren Shane told Recharge.
Necropsy reports created by the rescue centres are not available for public perusal due to the ongoing UME investigation, fuelling conspiracies that the truth is being withheld and sparking threats against the facilities and their personnel.
Josh Kaplowitz, head of offshore wind for renewable energy advocacy group American Clean Power Association said: “Groups opposed to clean energy projects spread baseless misinformation about the role of offshore wind development that has been debunked by scientists and career experts.”
National Wildlife Federation adds: “Many of the anti-offshore wind groups, including groups that claim to support the protection of whales, are being bankrolled or co-opted by the oil and gas industry.”
Texas Public Policy Foundation, a right-wing think tank funded in part by oil & gas companies is supporting another lawsuit against Vineyard Wind 1, while the avowedly anti-offshore wind organisation the American Coalition for Ocean Protection (ACOP) has been linked to several groups opposing the industry, including Protect our Coast -- NJ and ACKRATS.
ACOP was formed by conservative Caesar Rodney Foundation through David Stevenson, director of its energy and environment centre.
Disibio disputes that contention, stating that any ties to ACOP were brief and based on ACKRATS’ inexperience in grassroots organising.
The whale ultimately washed ashore at Manasquan, where AMSEAS handled the necropsy before it was buried in a local landfill.