Six endangered, dead whales washed up on Atlantic City and other NJ beaches in the last 33 days. Could this be related to offshore wind turbine, pre-construction activity? Boat strike? Net entanglements? Coincidence? Disease?
#Offshorewind developers surveying off the coast of South Jersey. Sonar blasts used to measure topography can deafen whales. This limits whale’s ability to navigate and feed. This could cause death.
Second dead whale in a month washes ashore in Atlantic City & the third locally.
— ∼Marietta (@iMariettaDavis) January 7, 2023
A beached 30 foot humpback whale was found on Georgia Avenue beach near Boardwalk Hall around 8 a.m. this morning. 🐋😥🙏🏻#Humpback #Whales pic.twitter.com/iCRwjSCJf8
According to CleanOceanAction.org: Most recently, a 30-foot humpback whale washed ashore in Atlantic City. The second in two weeks. That’s 3 in the last month.
Another young humpback whale washed up on Atlantic City’s Chelsea Ave. beach on December 23, 2022.
More dead whales washing up in Atlantic City as #offshorewind developers survey off coast. 2nd since Christmas and 4th in a month. Sonar blasts deafen whales, limiting ability to navigate and feed = death. #climatescam WHERE IS @peta @whales_org pic.twitter.com/DJCbTGmZGl
— Mike Dean (@mikerdean22) January 7, 2023
A third 30-foot humpback was found on Strathmere beach in early December.
Further north, an infant sperm whale, 12-feet long, was found dead on the beach in Keansburg, NJ, on December 5.
A full necropsy will be performed Sunday on the Neville whale that washed up in Atlantic City. pic.twitter.com/clrAFdloym
— Amy S. Rosenberg (@amysrosenberg) January 7, 2023
An adult humpback female measuring 31-feet long was found in Amagansett, NY, on December 6.
A 30-foot long sperm whale was found on New York’s Rockaway Beach on December 12.
https://cleanoceanaction.org/be-the-solution-to-ocean-pollution
It’s a no brainer whales have poor sight and are color blind they are running into the foundation base of wind tubines
Wow! That could be true! Do other people say that though? What about oil rigs? Do they run into those too?
Is there a marine biologist / scientist looking into the beached whale incidents? Or,…are we making this a political issue? That would be a-shame! Whales may not see well but I’m willing to believe there are high pitched sounds that whales may hear (and humans can’t) that the wind turbines just might be attracting them? I’m not a scientist, just a common sense hypothesis.
If these wind farms affect porpoises and other marine life during construction, it’s not much more of a leap to these whales. Here is a story from Seattle a few years ago how Orcas we’re affected by Navy sonar pings. Were is the outrage! Isn’t this incident covered by the Marine mammal protection act?
SEATTLE— The Trump administration published a final rule today allowing the U.S. Navy to harm and harass endangered whales and other marine mammals 1.7 million times during military training exercises in the Pacific Northwest over the next seven years.
The National Marine Fisheries Service analysis finds that sonar, explosions and speeding vessels would harm more than 200 humpback whales, 300 minke whales and 10 blue whales each year.
But the rule fails to properly analyze harm to the most critically endangered whale populations in the region: Southern Resident killer whales, which are down to just 74 individuals; and North Pacific right whales, which are down to just a couple dozen animals and facing imminent extinction if left unprotected.
“This plan allows Navy war games to harm and harass marine mammals from the Pacific Northwest to Alaska. Critically endangered orcas and right whales would be assaulted by sonar and explosions,” said Miyoko Sakashita, oceans program director with the Center for Biological Diversity.
“We understand the need for military training, but the Navy can do much more to balance that with its legal obligation to minimize harm to vulnerable marine life.”
Today’s rule and regulations are triggered by the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which requires the Navy to minimize harm to vulnerable marine life during its training exercises. Sonar and explosions used during training can deafen marine mammals and interfere with their feeding, breeding and migration patterns.
Undersea noise pollution also harms zooplankton, the basic building block of ocean life, causing mortality rates of up to 50%.
The analysis discounts harm to vulnerable marine species in which the Navy will disrupt essential behaviors for their survival. Southern Resident orcas would be harassed about 250 times during the seven years; they have recently experienced an alarming decline, and any additional threats could spell their extinction.
The regulations purport to improve mitigation measures for Southern Residents, but the Fisheries Service refused to completely stop harmful activities in their proposed critical habitat. The Service failed to even analyze harm to North Pacific right whales because they’re so rare.
Cuvier’s beaked whales would suffer 2,539 instances of harm in a year to a population of just 3,274 whales. These whales are among the most vulnerable to sonar.
Has anyone stopped to think with all of the conflicts taking place in the world today that maybe the Atlantic coast is being bombarded with sonar by navy ships and submarines both friend and foe. It is a known issue, whales beaching themselves to escape the sonar waves, it is a known issue, foreign submarines in the Atlantic cruising up and down the coast.