Two more humpback whales were sighted dead off the coast of New York and New Jersey recently, bringing the number of cases since December on the country’s east coast to 23.
One of the whales was seen off Raritan Bay in New Jersey, and the other off Wainscott (Long Island, NY), according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the nonprofit Marine Mammal Stranding Center (MMSC). .
“Biologists from various organizations are currently evaluating their resources to respond,” according to the MMSC.
It’s unclear when the whales died, but a witness took a photo of the one sighted in New Jersey around 10 a.m. Wednesday, it reported. nj.com.
The New York Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) were working together to relocate the whale bodies, according to the organization.
According to NOAA, the high number of cases is an ongoing “unusual mortality event” among cetaceans.
Patrick Moore, co-founder of Greenpeace, told the New York Post early last month that he believes sonar systems used by ships surveying the ocean floor to place wind turbines impair marine mammals’ sense of hearing, leading to more dead whales washing up on beaches
Whales, along with other species affected by the sound pulses, could be driven to their deaths by stranding in shallow water, collisions with ships and entrapment in fishing gear, Moore said.
A NOAA spokesman rejected a link between the dead whales and sonar from survey boats. Currently, “there is no evidence to support speculation that noise resulting from site characterization studies related to wind development could cause whale mortality, and there are no specific links between recent great whale mortality and studies currently in progress.
Scientists from the Office of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) have also found no evidence that wind power projects and cetacean deaths are linked.
It’s not just whales that have had unusual mortality. In March, eight dolphins died after a pod washed ashore in a mass stranding in New Jersey, it reported. The New York Times.
Even groups from the two states (NY and NJ) wrote in February to President Joe Biden requesting an investigation in the areas that are being prepared for large-scale offshore wind farms and that work be stopped until the causes of those deaths are determined. . Regionally, the same request has been made to New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy.
The large number of whale deaths in a period of just over two months had not been seen in the region for some 50 years, according to experts.
In what has been called a “miracle” of aquatic ecology, in the past decade scientists have noted a resurgence in marine mammal activity and presence around NYC and New Jersey, with reports of humpback whales, dolphins and even seals.