ASSATEAGUE — A rash of dead whales washing up on beaches around the mid-Atlantic region over the last few weeks, including a 33-foot humpback on the Maryland side of Assateague early Monday, had sides pointing fingers at each other this week but there will likely be no answers until necropsies on the deceased marine mammals are completed.
A total of six whales washed up along beaches in New Jersey and New York over a roughly one-month period beginning in early December. In each case but one, no outward sign of traumatic injury was noted. Early Monday morning, Maryland joined the growing list when a 33-foot humpback was discovered on the beach at Assateague on the Maryland side of the oversand vehicle area around mile marker 21.8.
As the whale deaths continued around the region over the last few weeks, including the humpback on Assateague on Monday generated a lot of interest in various local and national news outlets and on social media posts, and subsequently, a lot of finger-pointing. The spike in marine mammal mortality has been linked by more than a few to increased surveying and pre-construction activity off the mid-Atlantic coast by the offshore wind industry.
A total of four offshore wind energy farms are planned off the coast of Maryland and Delaware in lease areas held by two companies. Those projects are in various stages of the approval process and geotechnical ocean bottom surveying including the use of sonar has been utilized at different times.
There has also been speculation the rash of deceased whales has been linked to vessel strikes, but again, just one of the now seven in the last month has shown pre-death outward physical trauma. Of course, a third school of thought is the spike in whale mortality could be just a part of a natural phenomenon made more alarming because if the volume of deceased whales in a concentrated area. In any case, no immediate correlation can be made and won’t likely to be made until the science offers some clarity.
CYA