Since 2016, more than 200 humpback whales have died and been stranded on beaches along the East Coast, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric (NOAA). In fact, NOAA is so concerned about the sheer number of dead humpback whales in this region that it has labeled the situation an “unusual mortality event.”
Likewise, NOAA has declared an “unusual mortality event” regarding the mysterious mass deaths of the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale along the East Coast. As NOAA notes, more than 125 North Atlantic right whales have been found “dead, seriously injured, or sublethally injured” from 2017 to 2024.
Interestingly, the drastic spike in whale deaths along the U.S. East Coast began exactly when offshore wind farm companies began using geotechnical and site characterization surveys in this region of the Atlantic Ocean.
Geotechnical and site characterization surveys are prerequisites for the construction of massive offshore wind farms that rely on the use of sonar waves to map the ocean floor. However, these activities, which require an Incidental Harassment Authorization from NOAA, have also been shown to wreak havoc on whales.
According to Cindy Zipf, executive director of Clean Ocean Action, “It is plausible to question whether offshore wind pre-construction activities, which are happening concurrently in this region, are a contributing factor in these deaths.”
She added that this many whale deaths in this short of a timespan is “unprecedented” and notes that preconstruction activities have already led to substantially “more ships and vessels in the area, which increase potential ship strikes, and sonar can deafen or disorient whales, leading them into the path of oncoming vessels.”
But go ahead and start to build a dam and find an endangered frog or lizard or tiny fish and the whole project grinds to a halt.