3/14/2023 0 Comments Beached whaleThe last humpback whale she could recall was in August near Jalama Beach. There have been only a handful of cases of beached whales in the past few years in Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo counties, she said. “But we don’t want to rush to conclusions and assign blame to the offshore wind industry when, again, there is no evidence or data to date that supports that.Diane Alps, the Large Whale Stranding Coordinator for the research unit, arrived early the next day with her team to take measurements and tissue samples in order to determine potential factors leading to the whale’s death. And, we fully support investigation into that,” said Allison McLeod, policy director for the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters. “I’m concerned about what might be causing these strandings. Other environmental advocates who support offshore wind have vehemently spoken out against the claims. Several groups called for a federal investigation into the deaths of six whales that have washed ashore in New Jersey and New York over the past 33 days and whether the deaths were related to site preparation work for the offshore wind industry. 9, 2023, where a large dead whale was buried over the weekend. Cindy Zipf, executive director of the Clean Ocean Action environmental group, speaks at a press conference on the beach in Atlantic City, N.J., on Monday, Jan. Save LBI and Clean Ocean Action have also asked the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the National Marine Fisheries Service to do an investigation and have written a letter to President Biden. Still, some groups worried about the impacts of offshore wind development on the endangered Atlantic right whales have called for a complete halt to current survey activity off the New Jersey coast for fear that the activity is driving the whales toward the shore. “There are no historical stranding events that have been associated with use of systems like these.” “We can say that these active acoustic systems that are used during these surveys are commonly used around the world,” said Ben Laws, deputy chief for NOAA’s Permits and Conservation Division, and NOAA Fisheries Office of Protected Resources, during a press conference earlier this month. However, the spike in unusual mortalities for whales began before these surveys were started, according to NOAA and other marine biologists. Those kinds of surveys often involve putting intense sound into the water to determine ocean floor topography and its geological make up. NOAA and other marine agencies have denounced theories suggesting that surveys that use sonar to examine locations for wind farms are harming the whales. “Every ship-struck whale screams to me how we are urbanizing our oceans with far too limited awareness of the animals we - in this case - leave slaughtered as road kill,” said Ted Cheeseman, a marine conservationist who engages with the public to track whales in order to better understand and protect them. Increased restrictions on vessel speed or paths might be needed if it’s determined the recent increase in whale deaths is caused by ships and boats, whale experts say. However, sometimes larger ships can’t stop or turn quickly enough to avoid whales, and the mammals don’t always hear ships coming because the engines are in the back. “We should be able to try to curb our influence on killing these whales.”Ĭurrently, vessels are required to slow down if there are whales in the area, and move out of the way when whales are within 200 feet. Still, she says human interactions that lead to deaths should be curtailed. “Maybe because there are more humpback whales, because we protected them so much, their population is higher, so there’s just more dead animals naturally, because there’s more live animals too, and a certain proportion of the population will die.” “Maybe it’s a good sign,” said Reidenberg. That means whales are hanging around port areas with high boat traffic for longer periods, putting them at greater risk of getting hit by a ship. Reidenberg said it’s possible that because water quality has improved, the fish whales eat are more abundant. Sometimes the bodies are too decomposed to determine a cause of death, experts say. Almost half of the necropsied whales were hit by vessels, while the remaining results are inconclusive. According to NOAA, there have been 178 unusual mortalities since 2016. Whale death spikes are not a new phenomenon. Preliminary reports found at least two of the whales that washed ashore recently in New Jersey had blunt force trauma. She and other researchers want to know the cause of what NOAA calls an “unusual mortality event,” which experts say is likely caused by vessel strikes. WHYY thanks our sponsors - become a WHYY sponsor
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |