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Necropsies on two whales found dead along the Atlantic coast this week revealed that both marine mammals showed evidence of vessel strikes.
Both whales, a critically endangered North Atlantic right whale and a humpback, were already beginning to decompose, but preliminary results show internal injuries consistent with the blunt force trauma of a vessel strike, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Tuesday.
The deaths are among a flurry of 21 whale deaths along the length of the Atlantic coast since Dec. 3.
While several politicians who previously expressed opposition to — or concerns about — offshore wind energy projects have called for a moratorium on wind activities and an investigation into the whale deaths, preliminary exams show at least five of the 21 whales were likely killed in vessel collisions. Several were too decomposed to be examined.
DYING WHALES:Whale deaths exploited in ‘cynical disinformation’ campaign against offshore wind power, advocates say
What killed the whales found this week?
The right whale — one of only an estimated 340 North Atlantic right whales remaining in the world — was found dead in Virginia Beach on Sunday. The 43-foot-long, 20-year-old whale suffered multiple vertebral fractures and separations from a likely ship strike that would have resulted in death shortly after the injury.
How many whales die each year along Atlantic Coast?
Both humpbacks and right whales have been the subject of in-depth scientific investigations along the Atlantic coast since 2016 and 2017. Here’s what NOAA data shows for all large whale deaths:
- 78 dead whales were reported in 2017, including humpbacks and right whales, and 59 in 2018, 2019, and 2020.
- An average of 52 whales have died each year along the coast since 2007.
- In 2022, 43 whale deaths were reported.
- So far this year, 13 whale deaths have been reported between New York and Florida.
What about the offshore wind protests?
Two local groups in New Jersey and New York raised questions in January about a potential link to the recent whale deaths and offshore wind activities. A group of 12 New Jersey mayors, who had not previously advocated for whales, made national news with a letter seeking a moratorium.
But federal officials and other whale experts say they have no evidence offshore wind activities could cause whale deaths.
Gib Brogan, a campaign director for Oceana, an ocean advocacy group, said opponents to wind power were using the whale deaths as an opportunity.
“It would be great if these elected officials and groups would join the fight to protect large whales in the mid-Atlantic, particularly calling for stronger vessel rules and protection against entanglements,” said Brogan. “But it would appear their interest in whales begins and ends with offshore wind.”
Rough winter for right whales
This is the second right whale found dead this year. A calf washed up in Morehead City, North Carolina, on Jan. 7.
The right whale population, which has plunged 30% since 2011, can’t sustain itself if even one whale a year dies as the result of human causes, according to the federal Marine Mammal Commission.
At least four right whales have also been seen wounded and entangled in commercial fishing gear this winter. Marine mammal stranding crews were able to remove some of the rope and gear from two of the whales in dangerous at-sea operations off the southeast coast in January.
Argo, a 42-year-old adult male right whale, was seen off North Carolina with gear wrapped tightly around his tail and flukes and dragging “something heavy,” NOAA stated. The removed gear included 157 feet of line and two wire mesh lobster traps.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada confirmed the gear was from a fishing area off Nova Scotia, reported missing by the lobsterman as required by Canadian rules.
In other entanglements:
- A 15-year-old right whale known as Nimbus was severely injured and entangled in commercial fishing gear off the coast of Jekyll Island, Georgia. Trained emergency responders removed about 375 feet of rope.
- A juvenile whale born in 2021, was seen on Jan. 18 in Cape Cod Bay.
- On Jan. 8, a four-year-old female whale was seen entangled 20 miles east of Rodanthe, North Carolina . NOAA said the whale was likely to die.
From 2003 to 2018, researchers found that of the cases where a cause could be determined, right whale deaths could all be attributed to human activities such as entanglements and vessel strikes, NOAA stated Tuesday.
New vessel speed limits considered
Right whales migrate along busy shipping corridors to coastal Florida and Georgia to give birth in the winter.
Seasonal speed zones to protect the whales are in effect off major ports in the mid-Atlantic, including Chesapeake Bay through April 30. Vessels longer than 65 feet are required to travel at 10 knots or less. NOAA has proposed a rule to include vessels 35 feet long and to expand the zones and timing of seasonal speed restrictions.
Oceana filed a petition in December asking NOAA for an emergency rule mirroring its proposal but the petition was denied.
A few days later, an aggregation of seven right whales was seen just outside the zone in Chesapeake Bay, Brogan said. “To have a whale turn up dead just three weeks after we pointed out that aggregation is disappointing but not surprising.”
Dinah Voyles Pulver covers climate and environment issues for USA TODAY. She can be reached at [email protected] or at @dinahvp on Twitter.
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