Whale deaths in NC and along the East Coast have officials searching for answers
On Jan. 7, a critically endangered North Atlantic right whale calf was found dead, wedged under a pier in Morehead City. In the previous month, three humpback whales washed up on beaches between Beaufort and the northern Outer Banks.
The four North Carolina deaths are part of at least 14 whales that have washed up on East Coast beaches since Dec. 1.
Federal officials, scientists and conservation groups have said there could be multiple factors contributing to the rise in whale strandings, including an increase in the population of the Western North Atlantic humpback whales.
But one idea that's gained traction online and among some coastal residents and politicians is that huge offshore wind farms planned off many East Coast states, including North Carolina, could be harming the marine mammals. After nine whale deaths off their state in less than two months, several New Jersey GOP lawmakers have openly questioned if wind farms planned for the Garden State's near-coastal waters are impacting the animals, with Fox News host Tucker Carlson calling the projects "the DDT of our times."
With decarbonizing the nation's energy grid to help fight climate change one of his administration's goals, President Joe Biden has said he hopes offshore wind farms will power as many as 10 million American homes by 2030. That push has seen a flurry of new projects announced or initiated in Biden's first two years in the White House, including the auctioning off a pair of ocean sites off the Cape Fear coast for more than $300 million in May. Duke Energy and a French company won the leases for those areas, which could eventually power up to 500,000 homes.
But offshore wind projects aren't popular with everyone, with common arguments against them ranging from visual concerns and economic viability questions to negative impacts on the environment and wildlife, including migrating whales.
The most recent death, that of a humpback whale that washed ashore Jan. 15 in Maryland, prompted officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to address the issue with reporters. The officials repeatedly said that there's no evidence that work associated with offshore wind farms, which largely consists of surveying at this point, had played an impact on the whales' deaths.
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"There are no known connections between any of these offshore wind activities and any whale strandings, regardless of species,” said Benjamin Laws, deputy chief for the permits and conservation division with the NOAA Fisheries Office of Protected Resources.
In North Carolina three wind farm projects have been proposed − the aforementioned projects roughly 20 miles south of Bald Head Island and one 27 miles off Kitty Hawk on the Outer Banks.
Dr. Andrew Read, head of the Duke University Marine Lab in Beaufort, echoed the comments by the federal officials.
"We are still waiting for full necropsy results, but there is no reason to suspect that wind development is a factor," he said Tuesday about the recent whale deaths in the Tar Heel State. He added that while four dead whales in five weeks is unusual, it's not "unprecedented."
Katharine Kollins, president of the Southeastern Wind Coalition, a nonprofit that advocates for wind energy development in the Southeastern U.S., said the criticism of offshore wind was unfair when existing problems and challenges facing whale populations were well known.
"For those concerned about human-induced whale deaths, we must look at modernizing fishing gear, avoiding boat strikes, and ensuring that climate change doesn't disrupt the food chains in a manner that will make survival more difficult for entire populations of animals," she said.
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Looking for clues
Of the four dead whales that have been discovered along the North Carolina coast in recent weeks, three have been humpbacks. The species also represents most of the whales that have been killed in other East Coast states since late November.
Read said that while signs point to a growing population, biologists are also seeing more juvenile humpbacks choosing to overwinter along the mid-Atlantic coast rather than heading to their traditional Caribbean breeding grounds.
"There is abundant prey here in the form of menhaden and croaker, so the whales can continue to feed and grow during the winter," he said.
But that also means more whales hanging around in some of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, especially around the busy ports of New York and Norfolk, and that means a greater chance of ships striking the whales.
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Boats and fishing gear
Vessel strikes and entanglements with fishing gear are two of the leading human activities that cause whale deaths. This is especially true when it comes to the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, which shares many of the same Atlantic coast waters as the humpback.
According to the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium, an international group of government representatives, researchers, conservation organizations and fishing and shipping industry officials, there are fewer than 350 right whales left. Of those animals, the number of females of breeding age is estimated to be approaching 70.
The whale is also a slow breeder, with three years considered the normal time between births. That's another challenge when it comes to stabilizing and rebuilding the population. NOAA estimated there were 20 whale births in 2021 and 15 calves born in 2022. Officials have recorded 11 calves this breeding year, with the birthing season running roughly through April.
Due to the small number of right whales, which migrate between their summer feeding grounds off New England and the Canadian Maritimes and their winter breeding areas of the U.S. Southeast , every animal is seen as vital for the survival of the species. Recent animal deaths and entanglements, including a four-year-old female right whale spotted off the Outer Banks severely entangled in fishing gear a day after the dead calf was found in Morehead City, has prompted conservation groups to press for more stringent steps by the federal government to protect the remaining whales.
Emergency rule denied
But on Friday federal officials rejected an emergency petition from several wildlife groups that would have implemented seasonal speed regulations for boats 35 feet and longer in areas along most of the East Coast frequented by right whales.
Last year NOAA proposed the new measures, which would limit speeds to 10 knots of less close to shore, to prevent vessel-whale collisions. Previously, they had only applied to vessels over 65 feet and at the approaches and mouths to major ports, including Norfolk, Va., Charleston, S.C., and Wilmington, N.C.
But the effort has been met with strong pushback from charter and recreational fishermen, worried the move would all but shutdown their boating industries. They said the move also would devastate an important component of coastal economies.
The push for an emergency rule by the environmental organizations was in response to recent ship strikes, including a collision involving a private yacht and a right whale calf and its mother off St. Augustine, Florida. NOAA said it was denying the request because it was already working on long-term vessel-strike reduction measures and that it didn't have the time and resources to effectively develop and implement the emergency regulations.
According to NOAA, necropsy results on the dead calf found in Morehead City didn't find any evidence of entanglement or vessel strikes.
"Initial findings suggest the calf was only a day or two old when it died," states the NOAA post. "Multiple samples were collected in order to attempt to identify the calf’s mother through genetic analysis. They will be compared to samples taken from known right whale mothers to possibly determine its maternal lineage."
The young calf was found separated from its mother, and an aerial search for other nearby right whales didn't find any other animals.
Additional tissue analyses and other multiple tests of the dead calf are underway and results are pending, NOAA added.
"This calf will be added as the 93rd whale to the ongoing Unusual Mortality Event that the species has experienced since 2017," according to the agency.
Reporter Gareth McGrath can be reached at GMcGrath@Gannett.com or @GarethMcGrathSN on Twitter. This story was produced with financial support from 1Earth Fund and the Prentice Foundation. The USA TODAY Network maintains full editorial control of the work.