Saving Seafood

NEW JERSEY: A Battle Over Wind and Whales Is Brewing in New Jersey

January 20, 2023 — Several New Jersey environmental groups are defending offshore wind development after seven dead humpback and sperm whales washed up along New York and New Jersey coasts in the past month.

Last week, environmental group Clean Ocean Action called for a pause in ocean-floor preparation work for future wind projects. The group and other supporters called on President Joe Biden to investigate the recent whale deaths recorded in New Jersey and New York. “The federal government should have been here with busloads of people really doing an examination if they were taking this seriously,” Cindy Zipf, the executive director of Clean Ocean Action, told NJ.com.

Read the full article at Gizmodo

NEW JERSEY: Here’s what federal scientists say is likely killing whales off the NJ coast

January 19, 2023 — Seven whale deaths along the coasts of New Jersey and New York in as many weeks have marine scientists seeking answers and federal authorities making assurances that offshore wind development is not to blame.

On Wednesday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, held a phone conference with journalists across the country to address what the agency called an ongoing “unusual mortality event” among humpback whales.

Since early December, four dead humpback whales and one sperm whale have washed ashore New Jersey beaches. Another two whales washed up dead on Long Island beaches.

Read the full article at the Asbury Park Press.

NEW JERSEY: Orsted to take full ownership of first NJ offshore wind farm

January 19, 2023 — Orsted, the Danish wind energy developer, will become the sole owner of the first offshore wind farm planned for New Jersey.

The company said Wednesday that it has signed an agreement to buy the remaining 25% ownership stake in Ocean Wind 1 from New Jersey-based Public Service Enterprise Group.

No dollar amount was given for the transaction and Orsted did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

Whale incidents raise pressure on offshore wind advocates

January 17, 2023 — Another dead humpback whale washed ashore on a New Jersey beach – apparently struck by a vessel – brought renewed demands from local critics of offshore wind projects to halt survey work.

Meanwhile an entangled right whale spotted off North Carolina – and the discovery of a dead right whale calf near shore – added pressure for the federal government to do more to protect that highly endangered species.

The ongoing protests from wind project opponents did not sway New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat whose administration strongly backs offshore wind development. Murphy said Friday he did not think work on the state’s Ocean Wind 1 and Atlantic Shores projects should be suspended as critics demanded.

Two days earlier, Murphy announced that Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind LLC had signed a letter of intent with the state Economic Development Authority to lease and develop 35 acres of land at the New Jersey Wind Port, to be a construction base for its 1.5-gigawatt project planned off Long Beach Island.

The nearly 33-foot long humpback whale was reported late in the afternoon Thursday, Jan. 12 at Brigantine, N.J., a few miles north from where two dead humpbacks beached at Atlantic City two weeks apart in December.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Calls mount to stop offshore wind project as more whales wash up dead: ‘Need to take a very hard look at this’

January 17, 2023 — Lawmakers, fishermen and marine activists are calling for an investigation into whether offshore wind projects are killing marine life after a recent spate of dead whales washing up along the New Jersey-New York coastline.

Seafreeze fisheries liaison Meghan Lapp told Fox News that the Biden administration’s initiative to build wind farms to combat climate change could be threatening the lives of whales as an increasing number have turned up dead in various states across the country.

“I can’t authoritatively say that all off the whales that are washing up are because of offshore wind farms. But what I can tell you is that the seven whales that washed up off New Jersey in the past month have all washed up during intense geotechnical surveying of wind farm leases off of New Jersey,” Lapp said Friday on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”

Read the full article at Fox News

NEW JERSEY: No pause in wind farm prep after 7th dead whale

January 17, 2023 — New Jersey’s governor said Friday he does not think undersea preparations for offshore wind farms should be halted in response to a recent spate of whale deaths in New Jersey and New York.

Democrat Phil Murphy spoke after lawmakers at the local, state and federal levels called for a temporary pause in ocean floor preparation work for offshore wind projects in New Jersey and New York after another dead whale washed ashore in the area.

Also on Friday, most of New Jersey’s environmental groups warned against linking offshore wind work and whale deaths, calling such associations “unfounded and premature.”

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.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

New Jersey: 7th dead whale washes up at Jersey Shore. Calls to stop offshore wind work grow.

January 13, 2023 — The seventh dead whale in just over a month has washed up on the New York-New Jersey coastline, a local photographer and a climate group told NJ Advance Media on Friday.

The humpback whale, the resident said, washed up at a beach in Brigantine.

“This was at the far north end of Brigantine,” said Connie Pyatt, who noted that the whale was dead.

The dead whale washed up just miles from where another whale was found in Atlantic City on Saturday — which itself washed up blocks away from where another humpback whale was found in December.

The Marine Mammal Stranding Center, a non-profit organization which is authorized by the state to rescue marine mammals and respond to whale strandings, did not immediately provide comment Friday.

Read the full article at NJ.com.

NEW JERSEY: Following the clues to why more beached whales along Jersey Shore

January 13, 2023 — This whale was bound to draw attention.  

Unlike a similar one that washed up a month ago in Strathmere, a sleepy barrier island hamlet in Cape May County, this 33.5-foot female humpback rolled ashore on Saturday morning on Atlantic City’s downtown beach. Twenty-four hours later, its carcass, by then dozed up to the edge of the dunes, where it would soon be buried, was surrounded by small plastic campaign signs imploring onlookers to “Protect Our Coast: Stop the industrialization of our oceans.”  

The placards, colored in red, white and blue, were a clear indication that the whale was now a reeking lightning rod for a growing anti-wind farm movement in South Jersey. But, say experts, the stranded whales highlight the complex ecology of the species and the busy waters in which they live, and that not one factor is to blame but many — some of which even they still don’t fully understand.  

The whale was the sixth to wash up dead or dying on New Jersey and New York beaches in 33 days. Two — an adult female humpback and a female sperm whale — appeared on Long Island shorelines in early December. In New Jersey, an infant sperm whale was discovered in Keansburg, Monmouth County, in early December, while the three other strandings, all humpbacks, were in South Jersey. Saturday’s incident was the second in Atlantic City in two weeks; a similar sized humpback washed up not far away on Dec. 23. In July, a 25-foot humpback also beached in North Wildwood. 

On Monday, standing before a podium set up on the sand, directly above where Saturday’s humpback was buried, the smell of decomposition still hanging in the air, Clean Ocean Action’s executive director, Cindy Zipf, announced that the advocacy group, along with others, had prepared a letter to President Joseph Biden, calling on him “to take immediate steps to address this alarming and environmentally harmful trend.” 

“Clean Ocean Action has been working to protect these waters for about the last 40 years, and never have we ever heard of six whales washing up within 33 days,” Zipf said. “The only thing different this year than in the past years is the enormous amount of offshore preconstruction and development activities occurring by the offshore wind industry.” 

Read the full article at NJ Spotlight News

Lund’s Fisheries’ CEO Wayne Reichle: Scallops, calamari center firm’s sales strategy

January 11, 2023 — Cape May, New Jersey, U.S.A.-based Lund’s Fisheries’ latest investment in its scallop operations is one part of the company’s long-term sales strategy, Lund’s Fisheries CEO Wayne Reichle told SeafoodSource.

Lund’s announced in early January it has purchased a new USD 2 million (EUR 1.8 million) tunnel freezer for its operations in Cape May – a move Reichle said geared toward enhancing the control of the scallop resources the company processes.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Humpback whale washed up in Atlantic City had a head injury, officials say, as groups call for wind turbine inquiry

January 10, 2023 — A young humpback whale that washed up on an Atlantic City beach on Saturday had evidence of a large head injury behind the blowhole, an official from the Marine Mammal Stranding Center said Monday.

“The only thing we suspect may have happened is that it was hit by a large boat,” said Sheila Dean, executive director of the Brigantine-based center. “There was a big hematoma.”

With environmental and citizens groups calling for a federal investigation into whether sonar mapping related to future wind turbine projects off the coast may have played a role in four recent humpback whale deaths in New Jersey, Dean said it was premature to conclude about a cause of death.

Others noted that the National Marine Fisheries Service has designated an unusual mortality event for humpback whales based on an increase in mortality that began in 2016, before any wind energy activity.

Read the full article the Philadelphia Inquirer