Marine commission: Whale deaths not linked to wind prep work

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — An independent scientific agency that advises the federal government on policies that could impact marine mammals says there is no evidence linking site preparation work for offshore wind farms with a number of whale deaths along the U.S. East Coast.

In a statement released Tuesday, the Marine Mammal Commission became the third federal agency to reject a link between the deaths and the offshore wind energy industry, despite a growing narrative among offshore wind opponents that probing the ocean floor to prepare for wind turbine projects is killing whales.

The deaths are part of an “unusual mortality event” involving humpback whales declared by the National Marine Fisheries Service in 2016.

PHOTO INFO — People look at a dead, 35-foot humpback whale, in Lido Beach, NY, Jan. 31, 2023. A female whale was found on Rockaway Beach, in the Queens borough of New York, on Friday, Feb. 17, the 12th in the New York and New Jersey area and the 23rd found along the East Coast, according to the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

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