Is wind power killing whales?

Reality Team
February 26, 2024

Have more whales been dying off the East Coast?

Yes, whale deaths have increased since 2017. These deaths have made headlines because they are tracked under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and because they have been classified as unusual mortality events (UMEs) due to the number of deaths involved.

However, according to the Marine Mammal Commission, which oversees whale conservation, these unfortunate deaths are not unusual, and following many of the autopsies of whales beached in New York and New Jersey, these deaths involved signs of being hit by ships.

Are offshore wind projects killing whales?

No. The main thing being blamed by groups opposed to offshore wind development is the sound used to survey the seafloor. However, this sound does not pose a risk to the dead whales washing ashore because the whales in question – humpback whales – do not use echolocation, and so the sound would not confuse them.

Additionally, the Marine Mammal Commission – mentioned above – said in response to the headlines and outcry that “there is no evidence to link these strandings to offshore wind energy development.”

What is killing whales?

There are three big reasons why whales are dying: a changing ocean, being hit by ships, and starvation.

A changing ocean

As a consequence of climate change, the ocean is rapidly warming and recently reached its highest recorded temperature since we started recording ocean temperatures. Because the ocean has gotten warmer, the food that whales feed on – like krill and fish – has shifted, causing the whales to follow, and causing whales to be off of the East Coast during times of the year they normally haven’t been.

Being hit by ships

At the same time whales have changed their feeding and migratory habits, shipping and ships flowing into East Coast ports has drastically increased, increasing the likelihood that whales will be struck. These ships have also grown drastically in size and the ports and channels have been deepened to accommodate them, also increasing the likelihood that any whales lurking near the surface will be hit.

There are several pieces of evidence to suggest that whales – particularly young whales foraging for food – were hit by ships while trying to feed.

The ports of New York and New Jersey have become the busiest ports in the United States, pointing to increased shipping traffic along the East Coast.

As mentioned above, the autopsies performed on beached whales in New Jersey and New York indicated that they were struck by ships, either before or after they died.

A 2021 study found that almost all of the whales hunting for food off of the New York coast between 2018 and 2020 were young whales conducting “surface feeding” (meaning they were near the surface of the water), and that most of the struck beached whales were young whales.

The two main causes of whale deaths historically have been from being hit by ships and from being entangled in ship gear and fishing nets.

Starvation

While unrelated to the issue we are debunking – which concerns whales, like humpback whales, on the East Coast, gray whales on the West Coast have been dying from starvation. The eastern North Pacific gray whale typically feeds in the Bering Sea and migrates to the coast along California and Mexico to mate. Scientists have observed that among migrating gray whales, adult whales look emaciated and that there are few offspring.

This may be linked to the changing and warming ocean mentioned above. Disrupted habitats could be a cause of less prey for the gray whales, which a study published in Science examining a 50-year time frame seems to indicate.