What’s behind an uptick in whale deaths on NJ, NY shores? Experts, advocates are divided.

This year alone, seven whales and 22 dolphins have died along the New Jersey coast, and New York has had its fair share with a death toll of three large whales and seven dolphins. If fatalities continue at the current rate, 2023 will be a record-breaking year.

The search for a cause in the spike has created tension between local advocacy groups and investigators, including the Marine Mammal Stranding Center and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Some advocates worry the rise in marine mammal deaths is connected to the development of offshore wind farms – in particular, the underwater acoustic surveys used to map the ocean floor. This idea was initially tied to opponents of clean energy but has also taken root among environmental groups.

Yet marine biology experts from NOAA, offshore wind industry and university labs agree that there is no credible link between the acoustic surveying and recent marine mammal deaths. Data shows that most ocean animals can’t even hear the noises made by offshore wind surveying equipment.

Likewise, construction has not begun on the giant turbines, meaning these metal towers and the big boats carrying them out to sea cannot yet be implicated in the ship strikes responsible for some of the whale deaths, as the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection outlined last week. Nearly 7.5 million containers of goods come in and out of the harbor between the two states annually. About 40% of whale deaths on the East Coast are directly related to human interactions.

But the whales dying off the busy coasts of New York and New Jersey are part of an unusual mortality event that’s been happening along the Atlantic Coast for nearly a decade. Since 2016, 62 whales have died just along the Jersey shore alone, prompting private citizens and some environmental groups to raise the alarm. NOAA said that Sea Isle City, New Jersey reported 8 dolphin strandings just this Tuesday.

On World Whale Day in February, around 1,000 people gathered on the beach in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, according to the rally’s co-organizer Leslie Mangold. She said only 30 people had been expected, but public concern had swelled over the number of whales and dolphins washing onto their shores.

The standoff between some advocate groups and marine investigators has become heated. Outside of facing protests, the Marine Mammal Stranding Center reported that a man entered their facility uninvited with a “threatening demeanor” and that it has received angry calls every day from the public. Many of its employees have stopped wearing their ID badges, and the doors to the facility are now locked.

Necropsy results, collected by Marine Mammal Stranding Center, point to blunt trauma consistent with ship strikes and net entanglements, one dolphin died of pneumonia and some were inconclusive due to the level of decomposition. New Jersey officials also point to warming waters as a cause of marine mammal distress.

Even with these publicized results and trends, some activists believe that scientists are ignoring their calls for more information, going as far as alleging a larger coverup. One New Jersey congressmember is even calling for a moratorium on offshore wind development.

“We think there's a plausible connection [between recent marine mammal fatalities and offshore wind activities],” said Cynthia Zipf, executive director of Clean Ocean Action, an environmental coalition that’s been operating since the mid-1980s. “Investigate and show us the facts of why it isn't plausible.”

But their calls for transparency are complicated by special interest groups joining the conversation as well as misinformation spreading about the investigation.

Over the first two months of this year, more than 80% of Facebook posts that mentioned wind energy contained misinformation about offshore wind farms and whale populations, according to a report released Thursday by the nonprofit Media Matters for America. The study looked at a list of 1,773 Facebook pages that frequently post about U.S. politics. The unvalidated statements represented more than 70% of interactions on wind energy. Nearly half of the top 50 posts about offshore wind included unsubstantiated claims that held the industry responsible for recent whale fatalities along the Atlantic seaboard.

Some have posted accusations on the Marine Mammal Stranding Center’s Facebook page, claiming the facility is funded by the offshore wind industry, which it is not. Other information being shared among activists includes a roughly one-hour crash course video by Bonnie Brady, executive director of Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, who has been campaigning against offshore wind.

Some posts point to critical statements by John Ketchum, CEO of NextEra Energy, which operates nationally including in New Jersey. Ketchum recently called the offshore wind industry “a bad bet.” While NextEra operates clean energy projects, about 50% of its recent energy mix relies on natural gas and coal. One of the company’s principal subsidiaries — Florida Light & Power — uses fossil fuels for nearly 80% of its energy.

“We have wind exploration going on and we have dead whales showing up on the beach and they're [activists] making the link between the two of them,” said Andrew Read, chair of marine science and conservation at Duke University. “ I don't think there is a single scientist out there who thinks that these deaths are being caused by wind energy activities. I think the people who are making those claims have other reasons to make those claims.”

How underwater surveys work in NJ’s wind lease areas

Many of the allegations against offshore development center on concerns that underwater acoustic surveys damage marine mammal hearing or disorient animals that use sound to navigate, mate or find food. Some allege the sound of the surveying confuses whales and dolphins, causing them to swim into boats.

Confirming one way or another is a tricky proposition for investigators. Even with a whale autopsy, the NOAA’s National Stranding and Emergency Response Coordinator Sarah Wilkin said it can’t be determined if the deceased animal suffered hearing damage because the inner ear decomposes quickly, well before a stranded whale reaches shore.

Several tools are currently employed for these underwater surveys, according to Tony LaPierre, technical director of seismic operations and site investigations at RPS, an offshore wind contractor working in the wind lease areas off the New York and New Jersey coast.

These devices include a multibeam echo sounder that maps the seafloor topography by sending out multiple sound waves. They use a side scan sonar system, which looks for objects that may be raised above the seabed such as a boulder or a shipwreck. A magnetometer is employed to search for unexploded bombs or their remnants. And a sub-bottom profiler checks the seafloor to determine the foundation or for cable routing. These offshore surveying machines are classified as high-resolution geophysical instruments used for mapping the seabed and the very shallow depth just below the ocean floor in great detail.

Past studies have shown that these surveying instruments do not adversely affect marine mammals. A 2022 peer-reviewed study on the effects of acoustic surveying on marine mammals, published in the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, accounted for the frequency, pressure, directionality and audibility of the emitted sound as well as the power levels of transmission and degree of exposure of different types of surveying equipment.

The study classified LaPierre’s “basket of instruments” used for offshore wind as Tier 4, the lowest-impact surveying activities. This grouping of equipment is classified as “unlikely to result in incidental take of marine mammals.” They operate at frequencies higher than 180 kilohertz, which cannot be heard by most marine mammals such as humpback whales. The study also indicated that using a combination of Tier 4 sources simultaneously did not threaten ocean animals. The authors further state that these devices shouldn’t require a formal review under existing environmental regulations.

But the Marine Mammal Protection Act does classify offshore wind surveying activities as level B harassment, meaning it can potentially interfere with mating, feeding and navigation of sea animals but not harm them. That’s because watching or simply being in proximity to ocean mammals constitutes interference. When Read, who is also director of the marine lab at Duke University, dives to just observe for scientific research, his work is considered level B harassment.

“I have a scientific research permit that allows me to conduct level B harassment,” Read said. “My presence is going to affect their behavior.”

In contrast, naval sonar and offshore fossil fuel work are classified as level A, which means it has the potential to harm a marine mammal. The oil industry uses air guns to penetrate much deeper to map further down. The sounds are more powerful and cover a larger area than the activities of offshore wind surveying. They're so loud it can damage animal hearing, displace fish populations and kill large amounts of zooplankton, an important food source.

Even as a low-impact activity, offshore wind surveying comes with added protections. The surveying boats are slowed to a speed of 4 knots, approximately 4.6 miles per hour, to avoid whale strike. Compare that against the Staten Island Ferry — an average speed of 16 knots — or a large shipping freighter traveling at 20 knots, and without any of the additional protections required on offshore wind surveying boats.

Survey ships have up to seven protected species observers onboard. Their sole job is to stand watch while the vessel is moving. They stand in pairs actively moving around between the bridge and the wings of the boat watching in four-hour shifts with two-hour breaks.

If an animal enters the area, these trained observers, most of whom have science degrees, will alert the crew to stop work. Surveying resumes only when the observers send the message that the area is clear. On some ships, trained personnel also listen for animal vocalizations under the water with monitoring equipment that can detect species such as the North Atlantic right whale from up just over 6 miles away. They too can stop work when an animal has breached the work zone.

“These [offshore wind surveying] are small quiet sources,” said Stephanie Milne, senior environmental manager for U.S. offshore renewables at RPS, who has been a protected species observer for over 20 years. “The difference between offshore wind surveying and oil and gas exploration is the difference between a single human voice talking and a DJ nightclub party situation.”

After publication, NOAA shared additional data on dolphin deaths in New Jersey and New York. So far this year, 22 dolphins have died along New Jersey's coast along with another seven in New York.