January 3, 2024 — The death toll continues to rise amongst whales along Southern New England coastlines.
On Wednesday, a juvenile humpback whale was stranded along Richmond Pond Beach in Westport.
“This is the 13th whale that has washed up dead in the past three weeks from Massachusetts to Kitty Hawk North Carolina,” said Constance Gee of Green Oceans.
It’s a troubling trend in Atlantic waters.
October 31, 2024 — Two humpback whales were found dead and another seriously injured this year in huge nets used to collect krill for fishmeal and omega-3 pills near Antarctica, The Associated Press has learned.
The whale deaths, which have not been previously reported, were discussed during recent negotiations between the U.S., China, Russia and two dozen other countries in which officials failed to make progress on long-debated conservation goals and lifted some fishing limits in the Southern Ocean that have been in place since 2009.
Taken together, the whale deaths and rollback of the catch limits represent a setback for the remote krill fishery, which has boomed in recent years and is set to expand even further following the acquisition of its biggest harvester, Norway’s Aker BioMarine, by a deep-pocketed American private equity firm.
AP journalists last year spent more than two weeks in the frigid waters around Antarctica aboard a conservation vessel operated by Sea Shepherd Global to take a rare, up-close look at the world’s southernmost fishery. As part of that investigation, the AP followed the tiny crustacean on its journey from the fragile ecosystem, where it is the main nourishment for whales, to salmon farms in Europe, Canada and Australia, pet food manufacturers in China and a former ice cream factory in Houston that produces 80% of the world’s nutrient-rich krill oil.
June 8, 2024 — More than 500 whales were stranded on the East Coast between 1995 and 2022. Many of those were discovered in our region.
WSHU’s Sabrina Garone spoke with Dr. Lesley Thorne of Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. Thorne led a study that looked into the possible explanations.
WSHU: Of those hundreds of strandings, most of those happened between 2016 and 2022. Your study took a look at some of the reasons for this. Could you take me through the major findings?
LT: We looked at patterns of large whale strandings relative to that of different threats to large whales. And we focused on humpback whales, which are the species that strand most frequently on the East Coast. Vessel strikes, where whales are struck and hurt by vessels, and entanglement in fishing gear are major threats that face whales globally. So, we looked at patterns of vessel traffic and fishing efforts.
And we also looked at activities occurring along the U.S. East Coast associated with offshore wind development. And what we found was that mortalities and serious injuries due to vessel strikes increased threefold during this time period post-2016. We did not find any evidence that offshore wind development, or site assessment surveys for offshore wind development, played a role in the increase in whale strandings. In short, our analysis suggested that vessel strikes were an important driver, and that vessel strikes were exacerbated by increases in traffic in key regions. As well as key changes in humpback whale habitat use and distribution.
May 1, 2024 — Whales found stranded along the North Carolina coast in recent years have died from parasites, infectious disease and – too many times, marine experts say – as a result of human interactions.
At least five whales have been stranded on or near the shore this year, dead or unable to be saved. They include a humpback whale, a minke whale and three dwarf sperm whales.
Dr. Craig Harms, director of the marine health program at N.C. State University’s Center for Marine Sciences and Technology in Morehead City, said the degraded condition of whale carcasses by the time they reach shore means researchers can determine a cause of death in fewer than half the recorded cases.
October 17, 2023 — The humpback whale will remain on the Massachusetts endangered species list.
The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries withdrew their proposal to remove the whale from the list.
The group originally proposed removing humpbacks from the list back in February when the agency’s director said that the humpback whale population in Massachusetts waters was not in danger of extinction.
September 29, 2023 — The National Marine Fisheries Service announced it is forming a team to protect endangered Pacific humpback whales from deadly sablefish fishing gear entanglements in the Pacific ocean.
The service intends to form a take reduction team by Oct. 31, 2025, under a settlement with the Center for Biological Diversity, which sued the service in January 2022.
The take reduction team will develop plans to address the incidental mortality and serious injury of Pacific humpback whales from sablefish pot fisheries. Most pot fisheries use static, vertical lines that connect buoys on the water’s surface to heavy traps on the ocean floor. These lines, typically made of heavy rope, can wrap around whales’ mouths, fins, and tails, cutting the animals. When a whale cannot break free, it can eventually drown from exhaustion or die of starvation.
“Fishing gear entanglements regularly injure and kill Pacific humpbacks. This team offers a glimmer of hope for change,” said Kristen Monsell, oceans legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Humpbacks cycle nutrients that feed fish, delight whale-watchers and intrinsically improve the oceans. A dedicated team could keep these endangered whales from starving, suffering and dying in fishing gear. It can’t start soon enough.”
July 19, 2023 — A legal agreement finalized Tuesday over the protection of humpback whales is expected to help the threatened animals thrive while maintaining the ocean’s health.
The deal stricken between the National Marine Fisheries Service and Center for Biological Diversity will create a team to reduce the number of whales that get tangled in a West Coast federal fishery. The service will form the team by Oct. 31, 2025, a press release stated.
“There is no reason these animals should have to suffer or die in this way,” said Kristen Monsell, oceans legal director at the center. “This agreement is incredibly important.”
A federal court in March sided with the center after it filed suit last year against the fisheries service. The center argued the service failed to protect Pacific humpback whales from getting entangled in sablefish pot gear off the California, Oregon and Washington coasts.
According to Monsell, the fishery operates in an area with two humpback whale populations: a Central American population and a Mexican one. The Central American population is considered endangered and only hundreds of the whales remain. The Mexican population is threatened and some 3,000 remain.
April 25, 2023 — Climate change, spurred by the burning of fossil fuels, is the biggest danger to marine life including whales, a panel of Democratic officials and environmental groups said Monday.
The gathering, held in an oceanfront conference room as a half-dozen dolphins frolicked in the ocean behind them, also strongly criticized a bill in the House of Representatives containing numerous incentives for oil and gas companies, and which eliminates several environmental protections currently in effect.
It also was a retort to opponents of offshore wind development, who claim that preparation for wind farms off New Jersey and New York are killing whales along the U.S. East Coast. Numerous federal and state agencies say there is no evidence that the deaths are related to offshore wind survey work.
The event came a week after U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. and other New Jersey Congressional Democrats wrote to the White House Council on Environmental Quality “demanding real solutions in response to the death of marine mammals off New Jersey’s coast.”
April 23, 2023 — Environmentalists claimed victory following an agreement by the National Marine Fisheries Service to complete a new biological assessment on the state of humpback whales living in the waters off the West Coast.
The announcement follows a joint stipulation approved Thursday by U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer after the Center for Biological Diversity sued Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and the National Marine Fisheries Service in 2022. The suit claimed the drift gillnet fishery caused “excessive harm to endangered humpback whales,” in violation of the Endangered Species Act.
“Humpback whales just won a key victory against destructive gillnets,” said Catherine Kilduff, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, in a statement. “These amazing animals face so many threats off California, and absurdly huge nets are a hazard they really shouldn’t have to dodge. This agreement will help ensure whales are protected while the drift gillnet fishery winds down operations over the next five years.”
Kilduff said humpbacks have been endangered since the creation of the Endangered Species Act in 1973.
March 19, 2023 — Republican congressmen called Thursday for a halt to all offshore wind power projects amid a spate of whale deaths on the U.S. East Coast in what was likely the beginning of an expected investigation by the GOP-controlled House into the Biden administration’s clean energy plans.
Reps. Jeff Van Drew and Christopher Smith, of New Jersey; Andy Harris, of Maryland; and Scott Perry, of Pennsylvania, held a hearing on the boardwalk in Wildwood near where New Jersey has authorized three offshore wind farms, with more to come.
The hearing came as 29 whales have died on the East Coast since Dec. 1.
Opponents of offshore wind, elected officials — most of them Republicans — and several community groups say they believe that preparatory work on the ocean floor has been responsible for the whale deaths, even though three federal and one state agency say there is no evidence that the two are related.