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North Atlantic Right Whales face extinction–not due to wind farms

By Star-Ledger Guest Columnist Sue Russell

In early February, a chronically entangled female North Atlantic right whale calf died in lobster trap-pot lines near Martha’s Vineyard. Authorities said that she had suffered “for a prolonged period of time. ” Later in February, another female was found off the Georgia coast.

The gentle North Atlantic right whale is so near extinction it cannot spare one death per year. Since December, five of the whales have been found dead. Scientists warn that the whale will be functionally extinct by 2035.

The chief causes of death for the right whales are the usual suspects: entanglement in fishing gear and vessel strikes. The whale’s Atlantic Coast migratory route is an obstacle course of recreational and commercial vessels; tantamount to crossing the Jersey Turnpike at rush hour.

The U.S. government is enabling the right whale’s tragic slide to extinction. Greasing the way, in fact. The riddle is why the Biden Administration’s National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, known as NOAA, continues to sit on life-saving rules.

The answer is politics, beginning with Congress’s use of FY federal budgets for an end-run around the pesky Endangered Species Act. And let’s not forget pandering.

Susan Collins (R-ME) led the Maine delegation in amending the FY 2023 omnibus budget bill to block NOAA from issuing improved rules to prevent entanglement until 2028, withholding protection for six years from a whale that will be extinct in eleven.

Congress denied protection as scientists warned that current U.S. and Canadian policies allow at least five times the rate of entanglement the right whale can survive. Earning the sobriquet, “Extinction Democrat,” Senate leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) inserted the language.

Now, a ban on NOAA vessel strike rules is buried in the pending FY 2024 omnibus. Completing the circle, it would tie NOAA’s hands in expanding the 10-knot speed limit to vessels 35 feet and above. The proposed rule defines and expands high-risk zones, mostly at off-season times of the year. For cover, the sport fishing industry says NOAA cannot act until locator technology that does not exist is “fully” deployed. That’s years of research and development for a whale that is out of time.

The blocked vessel strike rule is enormously important: Oceana studies show that 90 percent of vessels exceed speed limits in place to protect whales and that reduced speed may cut fatalities by 80 to 90 percent.

Read the full essay here

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What’s whacking whales off the New Jersey coast?

Shore and wildlife advocates want offshore wind farm development paused until a cause can be determined.

Whale deaths — Cindy Zipf, from Clean Ocean Action, speaks during a press conference just off Florida Avenue in Atlantic City and the Boardwalk, to demand specific actions from President Biden to the alarming increased whale deaths, Monday, Jan. 9, 2023. In a span of 33 days, six whales, all endangered species, washed up in the New Jersey and New York coastal region. (Tim Hawk photo) |

By Steven Rodas | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Tire tracks in the sand marked the burial ground of a massive humpback whale Monday.

The dead 30-foot female whale washed up ashore Saturday and two days later lay buried underneath, leaving behind a decaying rotten smell.

“What a sad end to an animal in the prime of her life and an endangered species,” Cindy Zipf, executive director of Long Branch-based non-profit, Clean Ocean Action, told NJ Advance Media while walking on the beach. “The federal government should have been here with busloads of people really doing an examination if they were taking this seriously.”

Zipf was in Atlantic City on Monday afternoon — after the sixth dead whale was found on the New York-New Jersey coastline in 33 days — to ask the federal government to investigate if the whale deaths and work being done for offshore wind turbines could be to blame. She called the string of deaths “unprecedented.”

Steve Sweeney: NJ economy depends on offshore wind energy

While New Jersey moves toward a “cleaner” future, offshore wind continues to be among the hot-button renewable energy alternatives. Among the concerns expressed by residents and some officials is the impact to whales and other animals before, during, and after, construction.

It’s unclear if the deaths of half-a-dozen whales in the region since December is high. And although the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is currently studying an uptick of reported humpback whale deaths since 2016 across the East Coast, officials there say so far offshore wind has not been the culprit.

Read the full story here

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Like tourists, humpback whales are spending their summer time at the Jersey Shore

By MELISSA ROSE COOPER, NJ SPOTLIGHT CORRESPONDENT

Humpback whale sightings are becoming more frequent along the Jersey Shore. In a new study from Rutgers University, there were 101 individual whale sightings off the northern New Jersey and New York City waters.

As of this week, that number rose to 257. Researchers found many of the whales are young, under the age of 5, and they usually stick around for about 38 days. Experts say their continued return is proof efforts to clean up the waters surrounding New Jersey are working.

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Researchers use drones to weigh whales

Newswise — How do you weigh a living whale? The obvious response is very carefully, but scientists can’t exactly put these large marine mammals on a scale. Researchers from Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies (AIAS) in Denmark and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in the U.S. devised a way to accurately estimate the weight of free-living whales using only aerial images taken by drones. The innovative method, published in the British Ecological Journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution, can be used to learn more about the physiology and ecology of whales.

By measuring the body length, width and height of free-living southern right whales photographed by drones, researchers were able to develop a model that accurately calculated the body volume and mass of the whales. Because of their large size and aquatic life, previously the only way to obtain data on the body mass of whales was to weigh dead or stranded individuals.

“Knowing the body mass of free-living whales opens up new avenues of research,” says Fredrik Christiansen, an assistant professor at AIAS and lead author of the study, which was funded by a research grant from the National Geographic Society. “We will now be able to look at the growth of known aged individuals to calculate their body mass increase over time and the energy requirements for growth. We will also be able to look at the daily energy requirements of whales and calculate how much prey they need to consume.”

“Weight measurements of live whales at sea can inform how chronic stressors affect their survival and ability to produce offspring,” adds Michael Moore, a biologist at WHOI and a co-author of the paper.

To calculate the body volume and mass of southern right whales the researchers first took aerial photos of 86 individuals off the coast of Península Valdés, Argentina. The clear waters and the large number of whales that gather there every winter for breeding made it an ideal place to collect high quality images of both the dorsal and lateral sides of the whales. From these they were able to obtain length, width and height measurements.

The model also allowed the researchers to collaborate with the Digital Life Project at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in the USA to first recreate a 3D mesh of the whale, and then to work with CG artist Robert Gutierrez to recreate the full-colour 3D model of the right whale. These models can be used for both scientific purposes, such as studying movement, as well as for educational uses.

By adjusting the parameters of the model, the approach could be used to estimate the size of other marine mammals where alternative, more invasive, methods aren’t feasible or desirable.

Baleen whales, which include species like the blue whale, are the largest animals on this planet, with body mass being central to their success as an animal group. However, data on their size has historically been limited to dead specimens, with most samples coming from whaling operations, accidental fisheries bycatch or beach strandings.

Collecting data on dead whales has limitations such as being unable to collect longitudinal data over a whale’s life span and inaccuracies from physical distortion of carcasses caused by bloating and deflation.

“The difficulty in measuring body mass reliably in free-living whales, has prevented the inclusion of body mass in many studies in ecology, physiology and bioenergetics,” Christiansen says. “This novel approach will now make it possible to finally include this central variable into future studies of free-living whales.”

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a private, non-profit organization on Cape Cod, Mass., dedicated to marine research, engineering, and higher education. Established in 1930 on a recommendation from the National Academy of Sciences, its primary mission is to understand the oceans and their interaction with the Earth as a whole, and to communicate a basic understanding of the oceans’ role in the changing global environment. For more information, please visit www.whoi.edu.

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Pitch in, pick up, to keep Jersey beaches clean

At New Jersey's largest volunteer environmental event, guests clean up harmful litter while collecting impactful data. Sweeps take place Oct. 19 from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. — At New Jersey’s largest volunteer environmental event, guests clean up harmful litter while collecting impactful data. Sweeps take place Oct. 19 from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (Shutterstock)

By Veronica Flesher, Patch Staff

LONG BEACH ISLAND, NJ — Calling all volunteers! Clean Ocean Action’s Fall Beach Sweeps are set for Oct. 19 at more than 80 locations statewide, and registration opens on Sept. 3.

At New Jersey’s largest volunteer environmental event, guests clean up harmful litter while collecting impactful data. Sweeps take place Oct. 19 from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Registration opens Sept. 3 at 12 p.m. and is required in order to participate. Visit Clean Ocean Action’s website for more information.

“The beachy-clean fun continues ever onward as we get ready for Fall Beach Sweeps! With each Sweeps, we’re able to gather collectively to make change in the state of NJ through research, education, and citizen science. Join COA and many other like-minded individuals to give back to the beautiful ocean and other watersheds we enjoy year-round!” said Kira Cruz, Clean Ocean Action’s Debris Free Sea Coordinator and coordinator of the Beach Sweeps.

Sweeps provides people with an opportunity to “give back” to the ocean by helping remove litter, which pollutes our land and water and is harmful and lethal to marine life. The data collected by volunteers participating in the Beach Sweeps turns a one-day event into a legacy of information to increase public awareness and change wasteful habits, enforce litter and waste production laws, and improve policies to reduce sources of marine debris.

“Overall, the Summer of 2024 was beautiful, great waves, crystal waters, and marine life was putting on a show with whales breaching and dolphins splashing! Now you can give back, join us for the Fall Beach Sweeps to rid beaches of debris and collect valuable data to help us reduce sources of marine debris!” said Cindy Zipf, COA Executive Director.

These are the Long Beach Island locations being cleaned:

Brant Beach Pavilion (68th Street; 39.61556, -74.19806; additional parking at Bayview Park)
Wally’s Restaurant in Surf City (712 Long Beach Blvd, Surf City NJ 08008) In partnership with Alliance for a Living Ocean

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Increased vessel traffic linked to East Coast whale strandings

By Sabrina Garone, WSHU

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.

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Using social media to help kill an offshore wind project

From Rowan Today

Leading up to November 2023, when Danish offshore wind energy (OWE) firm Orsted decided to pull out of two major projects off New Jersey’s coast, there was broad statewide support for the initiatives.

But popular support for the projects, which had been as high as 80 percent among New Jersey residents in 2019, eroded in the intervening years, and a change in sentiment likely driven by social media contributed to Orsted’s decision to back out, a Rowan University researcher has found.

Dr. Alison Novak, an associate professor in the Department of Public Relations and Advertising within the Ric Edelman College of Communication & Creative Arts, believes the change in public support, which she said is now about 50 percent among all New Jersey residents and as low as 40 percent along the coast, was directly affected by X (formerly Twitter), and the ability for its users to interact with others around the world.

Writing in the journal Qualitative Research Reports in Communication last month, Novak found that the platform’s nature, which connects users through simple hashtags, enabled New Jerseyans to adopt a “globalization lens” in which they could study OWE projects elsewhere and compare them to those that were projected off the East Coast.

Based on an analysis of nearly 5,000 tweets, Novak found that many New Jersey X users became disheartened by various narratives, including that OWE companies overpromise and underdeliver in the construction of offshore windfarms, and that conservative positions often pushed by beachfront homeowners swayed public opinion against the projects.

“Users go online to negotiate the value of the proposed projects,” Novak said. “They want to know not just how this will impact my life but my children’s lives.”

Novak said conservative arguments related to the construction of wind farms, in particular that vessels used to scout locations and build towers, painted a false narrative that whales would be killed. Though the narrative was untrue, Novak said, it took hold.

Concerns about how the windmills will look, that they will negatively affect the aesthetics of the shore, were also distorted by conversations on Twitter, as were concerns about noise and how much the wind farms would ultimately reduce residents’ bills.

All of which weakened arguments for the projects, in particular how green energy initiatives like wind offset the use of planet-warming fossil fuels and that green energy projects produce good paying, long term jobs, Novak said.

The results of her study, conducted between 2020 and 2022, appeared in the article “Global discourses of protest and support of offshore wind energy,” April 17.

“I think the anti-wind group became a lot more active and better funded since 2020 (and that affected public opinion),” Novak said.

Novak, an expert on political strategic communication, digital media policy, and digital activism, said in addition to aesthetics, noise, and concern for marine life, opposition to the projects played upon homeowner fears that the windfarms could result in falling values for beachfront properties.

“It’s about a loss of agency, that the government, and international corporations like Orsted, were taking something away,” she said. “It’s a classic American discourse that draws on a very conservative talking point that goes back to the Revolution.”

Novak said that while Orsted reps were somewhat elusive about why the company decided to pull out, experts widely believe that concern about future state politics played a role. The current government, led by Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, supports offshore wind energy, but future administrations, particularly those led by Republicans, may not, she said.

If you liked this post, you’ll love our daily environmental newsletter, EnviroPolitics. It’s packed daily with the latest news, commentary, and legislative updates from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware…and beyond. Please do not take our word for it, try it free for an entire month. No obligation.

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Offstage Windbag vs. Offshore Wind Energy

Former President Donald Trump speaks in front of an American flag.

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Fear tactics fail Republicans in NJ, as Democrats hold fast

Editor’s Note – Veteran political writer Charles Stile analyzes what went wrong for Republicans in yesterday’s NJ legislative elections.

Charles Stile NorthJersey.com

New Jersey Republicans entered the legislative contests this fall buoyed by optimism. They held a shared hope that maybe — just maybe — their party could finally climb out of the wilderness and back into power for the first time in nearly two decades.

Or, at the very least, they hoped they could continue to weaken the Democratic Party’s iron grip on power in Trenton. GOP candidates wanted to build on the successes their party delivered in 2021 when Republicans stunned the political community by flipping seven seats and dethroned Senate President Stephen Sweeney at the hands of a little-known and underfunded truck driver, Ed Durr.

But optimism proved to be no match for the harsh reality of being Republican in a resolutely blue state. The GOP entered the race trailing in fundraising. The party once again fell far behind Democrats in the race for pre-election day voting, either by mail or early in-person voting.

And, at the end of the day, the party lacked a coherent message of hope. It didn’t articulate a vision of future Republican governance. The party sought to stir up its base with messages of fear.

The strategy failed.

The result: It was the Democrats, not the Republicans, who gained ground Tuesday night, winning back five seats.

Republicans hoped for a ‘common sense’ backlash that backfired

The Democrats will maintain their 25-15 edge in the state Senate, in part by defeating Durr, the truck driver in the 3^rd Legislative District, which offset an expected loss in the 12^th District in Monmouth and Middlesex counties. Sam Thompson, a long-time Republican who defected to the Democrats earlier this year, is retiring and the seat was expected to revert back to Republican hands. Owen Henry of Old Bridge will succeed him.

Throughout the fall campaign, Republicans believed they had a winning formula: Cast the Democrats as morally and politically bankrupt, advancing a series of radical, far-left policies that most middle-class and centrist voters find objectionable.

The party of liberal “King Phil” Murphy — as he was called during the pandemic — had run the table in Trenton far too long. Democrats had lost touch with a public clamoring “common sense,” a favorite GOP buzz phrase. Murphy’s was an administration, Republicans contended, that was banning gas stoves and killing whales by insisting on installing wind turbines off the Jersey Shore. Crime was running rampant in suburbia because of Murphy and the Democrats’ lax crime policies, GOP leaders claimed.

Read the full story here

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Op-Ed: “It’s Code Red.” Clean Water Action calls for fact-based decisions on offshore wind energy

We can’t let climate change fatigue make us throw up our hands in defeat and party like it’s 2029

By Janet Tauro and William Nierstedt, Clean Water Action

In the midst of severe worldwide climate-driven catastrophes, Governor Murphy recently stated in a radio interview that sweeping plans for the state’s offshore wind project that are essential to the state’s clean energy goals are in jeopardy without federal assistance.

Let’s hope that assistance comes through and fact-based support for wind energy regains momentum. Our country has long supported the infrastructure needed to power our economy – from transportation to drinking water – through policy, subsidies, and tax incentives. The nuclear power industry in NJ receives $300 million annually in subsidies. Globally, the International Monetary Fund reported that fossil fuel industries received $7 trillion in subsidies in 2022.

Climate studies widely reported by a team of United Nations scientists repeatedly warn that we must stop burning fossil fuels to stop heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions, with the Secretary-General declaring this a “code red” climate emergency.

Even the US Department of Defense has identified climate change as a national security issue.

We need to employ the best 21st-century technology to meet our energy needs, and in NJ, given its topography and steady coastal breezes, wind energy, which does not emit greenhouse gases, is essential, as is energy efficiency and solar. The state ranks eighth in the nation for solar installations, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, a national trade organization.

Rising global temperatures are melting arctic glaciers and threatening creatures that depend on ice like polar bears. The water from that melting ice is raising sea levels around the world risking coastline communities. In NJ, the state is experiencing more extreme storms, heat-related illnesses, flooding, and displacement from homes.

Tropical storm Ida barrelled through NJ in 2021, killing 30 people and destroying neighborhoods. Superstorm Sandy reportedly cost NJ and NY $69 billion to rebuild, and that is not including health care costs. Recent Hurricane Idalia damage estimates in Florida reported by Forbes could top $20 billion. Hurricane Ian caused 150 deaths and over $112 billion in damages.

The unsustainable costs and frequency have prompted some insurance companies to reportedly strike coverage for natural disasters and raise premiums.

Against this climate change backdrop, marine life globally is suffering and in NJ a spate of whale deaths has turned into an ugly political imbroglio. Scientists are delving deep to determine the cause; which at present appears to be vessel strikes, negative impacts to traditional food sources from warming waters, as well as ingestion of fishing gear and plastics. The Biden-Harris Administration reportedly released $82 million recently for whale protection measures.

The last thing the whales, all marine life, and we humans need is nasty bickering that detracts from careful scientific decisions necessary for our collective survival. We can’t let climate change fatigue make us throw up our hands in defeat and party like it’s 2029; reportedly the year before scientists say greenhouse gas emissions must be slashed by about 50 percent to get to zero emissions by 2050 or else climate change will be irreversible.

Partisan politics should play no part in any climate-abating decisions. Calm, respectful, and fact-based discourse will be our greatest assets during “code red” and beyond. Our survival and future generations depend on the actions we take now.

Janet Tauro, Clean Water Action, NJ Board Chair, and William Nierstedt, PP, AICP, CWA Board member

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From Rowan Today

We can’t let climate change fatigue make us throw up our hands in defeat and party like it’s 2029

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