By TAMARA SACHARCZYK, NBC 10 NEWS
(WJAR) — A 20-foot dead whale washed up on Quonnie Beach in Charlestown in December, becoming one of several stranded whales found on beaches in Southern New England in 2024.
It’s a trend that scientists have been watching over the past decade, when whale deaths started to drastically increase in the region.
An Atlantic Coast humpback whale Unusual Mortality Event began in January 2016 and is still ongoing.
A UME is declared by the National Marine Fisheries Service when the number of deaths in a specific species increases significantly with inconsistent causes of death.
Since January 2016, 244 dead humpbacks were found on the Atlantic Coast between Maine and Florida, with 54 alone detected in Massachusetts and 13 in Rhode Island.
If the whales aren’t too decomposed, a necropsy is performed to determine a cause of death.
Sarah Callan is part of a team of scientists behind whale necropsies at Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut.
She said a successful examination can give them insight into how they died, and what happened in their final moments of life.
“We are going to look externally over the whole body, see if there are any abnormalities, any wounds,” Callan said.
Since 2016, Callan has performed about 20 whale necropsies, including on the animal found on Quonnie Beach last year.
“Prior to 2016, we had either no whale strandings a year or we had one,” she said. “In 2017 we had seven whale strandings, and that was our highest year.”
Numbers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, provide a closer look into the disturbing trend.
Last year alone, 28 dead whales washed ashore in Rhode Island and Massachusetts combined, compared to 16 in 2023, two in 2022, and 18 in 2021.
“The main causes of death we have seen are vessel strike cases, we have seen entanglements, and infectious disease,” Callan said.
However, if you scroll on social media, many blame the deaths on another phenomenon: wind turbines.
WIND AND WHALES
Every time a whale dies, hundreds of online comments blame offshore wind farms as the reason behind the death.
Sometimes, commenters point to the electricity generated by the turbines, others blame the noise produced.
University of Rhode Island Emeritus Marine Research Scientist Robert Kenney says there’s no evidence to back those claims.
“For one thing, you know what can cause the death of a whale. There have been a few whales killed by very loud sounds, but it was dynamite explosions,” Kenney said.
Every time a whale washes ashore in Southern New England, Kenney says URI’s Bay Campus is bombarded with phone calls and emails asking about any correlation with wind turbines.
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LOUD PILE DRIVING
NOAA has stated loud pile driving during wind farm construction has adverse impacts on marine life.
In August, the agency concluded proposed pile driving for the installation of 15 remaining monopiles for the Vineyard Wind project will “adversely affect, but is not likely to jeopardize, the continued existence” of endangered whales.
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Windmill developers are granted incidental harassment authorizations in their contracts with the government that circumvent the Marine Mammal Protection Act by allowing a certain level of “harassment” to marine mammals, including injury.
“Level A harassment could be temporary hearing damage, like you go to a rock concert in the next day you don’t hear very well, and it goes away,” Kenney said. “Level B harassment is disturbance, cause to move away.”
According to the Incidental Harassment Authorizations, Level A harassment can “injure a marine mammal,” while Level B harassment can cause “disruption of behavioral patterns,” including migration, feeding, breathing, and nursing.
Wind turbine developers are allowed a certain number of Level A and level B “takes” during construction.
When asked why the government allows any takes at all, Kenney responded, “Because the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act are written so there’s a balance between the needs of society and the welfare of animals. You can kill a whale if you have a really good reason for it.”
HISTORY OF OFFSHORE WIND
Offshore wind isn’t brand new.
In fact, the impact of construction has been studied in seals and porpoises off Europe.
A study by Wageningen University & Research found concerns first begin with an increase in ship traffic during wind turbine construction, when equipment the size of skyscrapers are hauled out to sea.
The more ships and equipment, the higher the chances of entanglement and ship strikes.
Then, there’s the loud pile driving.
The study found seals fled the area during construction, at least temporarily affecting their ability to feed.
“At least we can objectively establish that the seals seem to avoid wind farms,” the article reads.
The sound is so loud, some European countries require offshore wind farm developers to place bubble curtains around construction sites to buffer the sound of pile-driving.
Large baleen whales aren’t common near wind farms in Europe, which means construction on the East Coast of the U.S. will be the first true test for the mammals.
“We have never had wind farms in an area where there are lots of whales before,” Kenney said. “It makes me a tiny bit nervous, but we know that the effects of climate change on the ocean are much worse than what we are seeing from wind farms. We have to do something.”
Kenney also acknowledged it could be years before we know whether wind turbines have a lasting impact on whales, and what that impact is.
“We don’t really know what the long-term effects of this sort of construction disturbance is going to be,” he said. “We don’t expect them to be serious, but whales fool you sometimes.”
