All in the name of going green…Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy says the state will not interfere with the projects.
There have been a series of unexplained whale deaths found offshore where the wind energy projects were set up. And despite the calls, the Democrats have no plan to investigate the bizarre incidents.
The calls came as most of New Jersey’s environmental groups warned against linking offshore wind work and whale deaths, calling such associations “unfounded and premature.”
Cindy Zipf, executive director of the group Clean Ocean Action, said: “This is bad news on top of bad news.”
“This is devastating and shows even more urgency to our call to action for [President Joe] Biden and Gov. Phil Murphy to call for a stop to all activity. Don’t add any more projects and get a comprehensive investigation underway with experts and full transparency with oversight,” she said
The death was the seventh in a little over a month. The spate of fatalities prompted an environmental group and some citizens groups opposed to offshore wind to ask President Biden earlier this week for a federal investigation into the deaths.
The latest death Thursday was that of a 20- to 25-foot-long (6- to 7.6-meter-long) humpback whale. Its remains washed ashore in Brigantine, just north of Atlantic City, which itself has seen two dead whales on its beaches in recent weeks.
The seventh dead whale in less than two months has washed up on the New York-New Jersey coastline. The humpback whale was found on a beach in Brigantine, mere miles away from where another dead whale washed up six days ago. https://t.co/pUfPf1Awfg pic.twitter.com/yX0KnTtftv
— njdotcom (@njdotcom) January 13, 2023
There was no immediate indication of what caused the latest death. The Marine Mammal Stranding Center, based in Brigantine, said it and several other groups were formulating plans Friday for a post-mortem examination of the whale’s remains before the animal’s carcass is disposed of, most likely through burial on the beach.
“We should suspend all work related to offshore wind development until we can determine the cause of death of these whales, some of which are endangered,” said New Jersey state Sen. Vince Polistina, a Republican who represents the area. “The work related to offshore wind projects is the primary difference in our waters, and it’s hard to believe that the death of (seven) whales on our beaches is just a coincidence.”
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection referred a request for comment to the governor’s office, which did not respond Friday.
Earlier in the week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that, to date, no humpback whale — the species accounting for most of the recent whale deaths in New Jersey and New York — has been found to have been killed due to offshore wind activities.
Orsted, the Danish wind power developer tabbed to build two of the three offshore wind projects approved thus far in the waters off New Jersey, said its current work off the New Jersey coast does not involve using sounds or other actions that could disturb whales.
It did not say precisely what type of work it is currently doing.
However, the Clean Ocean Action environmental group said such site work typically involves exploring the ocean floor using focused pulses of low-frequency sound in the same frequency that whales hear and communicate, which could potentially harm or disorient the animals.
Brigantine’s mayor, Vince Sera, joined in the call for a temporary halt to offshore wind site prep, as did U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a Republican congressman representing southern New Jersey.
Sources: WesternJournal, NJ.com, The Associated Press
Now just imagine if this was the oil companies do something here! The uproar would be deafening!