Organizations call for a stop on all offshore wind project activities
‘The premature death of so many whales and other marine mammals is an untenable situation that we believe is most likely caused by the increase in vessel traffic and the ‘sounding’ or mapping of the ocean floor by several offshore wind project developers.’
–Suzanne Hornick, Protect Our Coast NJ
ATLANTIC CITY – Ocean advocacy groups are calling for a stop on permitting work for offshore wind farm projects, citing the death of a half-dozen whales – including one in Strathmere – in little more than a month.
Clean Ocean Action, Project Our Coast NJ, Save Long Beach Island, Defend Brigantine Island and the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association sent a letter to President Joe Biden, demanding he take action.
According to Clean Ocean Action, which is leading the charge, the groups want “a hard stop” on all existing offshore wind industry geotechnical and development activities and a halt to any new, planned or pending offshore wind development permitting activities, including new solicitations.
The groups also are demanding the federal government conduct a transparent investigation into the whale deaths by federal agencies required by law to protect marine mammals.
“The wave of dead whales is the ocean sounding the alarm,” said Cindy Zipf, executive director of Clean Ocean Action, “and we must heed the warning.”
“These tragic multiple deaths of mostly young, endangered whales are of no apparent cause, however, the only new activity in the ocean is the unprecedented concurrent industrial activity by over 11 companies in the region’s ocean, which allows the harassment and harm of tens of thousands of marine mammals. Moreover, federal and state agencies have been recklessly fast-tracking offshore wind development projects. These three coinciding factors raise suspicions, and a responsible and reasonable response is the action plan for which we are calling,” Zipf added.
Clean Ocean Action reviewed the federally-issued and pending requests by companies which the group said is allowed to harass and harm marine mammals just for offshore wind energy development activities off the New York and New Jersey coast. To date in that area, companies have requested permission to harm tens of thousands of marine mammals, including threatened, endangered, and otherwise protected species through requests for Incidental Take Authorizations (ITAs) and Incidental Take Regulations (ITR) by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). According to Clean Ocean Action, there are 11 active, 5 current, and 18 previously issued and expired ITA and ITR authorizations in the ocean off the NY/NJ coast, according to Clean Ocean Action.
“By our calculations, there are over 157,328 marine mammals that offshore wind companies have been given the green light to harm, harass, injure and kill for current and pending offshore wind projects. These animals are not individually hit once, they may be the same animals subjected to impacts again and again with all the activity going on offshore,” said Kari Martin, advocacy campaign manager for Clean Ocean Action. “That is an extraordinary number of animals to impact, especially for endangered, threatened, and protected species like the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale. How many more vulnerable marine mammals have to die without further action?”
The groups said until the federal investigation into the whale deaths is complete, they want a halt to all ongoing offshore wind survey boat and pre-construction and construction activities within the ocean realm between Cape May, N.J., and Montauk, N.Y., and a full review of all offshore wind projects’ survey boat data by state and federal agencies and legislators in addition to review by an independent third-party panel of experts.
The groups are making the demands after a 30-foot humpback whale washed ashore on Atlantic City’s Georgia Avenue beach early Saturday morning, the second in two weeks in Atlantic City and the third in the last month in the same area. Another young humpback whale washed up on Atlantic City’s Chelsea Avenue beach Dec. 23, and a third 30-foot humpback was found on Strathmere beach in early December.
Further north in the New York, New Jersey area, an infant sperm whale, 12 feet long, was found dead on the beach in Keansburg, N.J., on Dec. 5; an adult humpback female measuring 31 feet long was found on Indian Wells Beach in Amagansett, N.Y., on Dec. 6; and a 30-foot-long sperm whale was found on New York’s Rockaway Beach on Dec. 12. In addition, a dead dolphin, possibly short-beaked, washed ashore on Jan. 2, at Gateway National Recreation Area, Sandy Hook, New Jersey’s Plum Island beach.
According to Clean Ocean Action, offshore wind developers have been actively employing multiple geotechnical survey vessels off the coast of the New Jersey and New York coast while awaiting permit approvals for large-scale offshore wind power plants.
There are multiple wind farm projects under review and planned along the New Jersey coast and south of Long Island, N.Y. One of them is the Ocean Wind 1 project planned 15 miles off the coast of Atlantic and Cape May counties. It proposes up to 98 wind turbines to generate 1,100 megawatts of power. An Ocean Wind 2 project also has been proposed. There is an Atlantic Shores wind farm planned off the coast north of Atlantic City and others in the works.
The Ocean Wind 1 project has generated concerns in Ocean City because transmission cables from the wind farm are set to run through the island and along Roosevelt Boulevard on their way to the former B.L. England generating station site in Beesleys Point, where they would connect to the power grid.
According to Clean Ocean Action, the geotechnical survey boats use sea-floor characterization through high-level focused pulses of sound through vast areas of the ocean floor. Many whales hear and communicate in those frequencies, including humpbacks. Use of sonar at higher levels has been known to have harmful impacts on whales including deafening which can lead to starvation and death.
“The premature death of so many whales and other marine mammals is an untenable situation that we believe is most likely caused by the increase in vessel traffic and the ‘sounding’ or mapping of the ocean floor by several offshore wind project developers,” said Suzanne Hornick of Ocean City, representing Protect Our Coast NJ. “Until we know for sure what is causing the extraordinary number of deaths, all activity associated with offshore wind industry projects in the area must be stopped immediately. We must have scientific investigation and complete transparency of all government agencies involved with the industrialization of our ocean.”
The groups’ call to action includes immediate public disclosure of wind farm survey boat logs, data, equipment and real-time sound data and activities for the Ocean Wind 1 and Atlantic Shores wind farms, including information on whale sightings, vessel strikes, near misses and avoidance details. Real-time and past-history survey boat tracking data must also be made public for all Ocean Wind 1 and Atlantic Shores windfarm and transmission cable survey vessels.
“The UMEs (Unusual Mortality Events) for Humpback, Minke and NARWs that began in 2017 coincided with the introduction of wind farm survey boats,” said Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association. “More investigation and transparency is necessary to make sure our marine life isn’t a casualty of offshore wind development, and samples must be collected and preserved by NOAA scientists,” she added.
Offshore wind energy developers are required to provide regular reports to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) and the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) detailing whale protection methods and interactions, and public reports are required in NJDEP and NJBPU orders. To date, it is unclear whether any of this information or data has be made public or otherwise available, according to Clean Ocean Action.
“Save Long Beach Island fully supports Clean Ocean Action’s initiative for an immediate investigation and cessation of lease activities,” said Bob Stern, president of the group. “We cautioned the National Marine Fisheries Service a year ago that they were significantly underestimating the noise impacts from vessel surveys on marine mammals. We hope that is not the cause of these deaths, but that can only be confirmed through a thorough, transparent and impartial investigation.”
Lisa Daidone, president of Defend Brigantine Beach, said, “The wind farm development and approval process are critically lacking in adequate communication, sufficient time allowed for public understanding and input, and rigorous research which will result in the suffering of our economy, ecology, environment, marine mammals including endangered species, and the health and wellbeing of our residents.”
Clean Ocean Action invites organizations to sign-onto the letter to President Biden and will send the president a rolling list of supporters. The group plans to continue to take additional actions at the local, state, and federal levels to continue to call for a comprehensive, scientific, independent, peer-reviewed pilot study to assess the true costs and benefits and environmental consequences of offshore wind before massive industrialization occurs.