March 2, 2023 — Saying it generally supports offshore wind as an energy source, a local grassroots organization opposed to the placement of turbines in the Atlantic so close to New Jersey’s coast told President Joe Biden it is staunchly against “the ill-informed and insular decision-making process” while raising concern for the endangered North Atlantic right whale.
“The risks and consequences to the right whale from the wind projects currently planned are major and imminent,” Bob Stern, president of Save LBI, wrote on behalf of the more than 4,500-member group in the Feb. 15 letter to Biden.
On the endangered list since 1970, there are currently an estimated 350 North Atlantic right whales remaining with fewer than 70 breeding females, according to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration. The marine mammal “is one of the world’s most endangered large whale species,” NOAA Fisheries said.
Since the beginning of the year, NOAA Fisheries has reported the death of two North Atlantic right whales, one in Virginia and the other in North Carolina. There have been four documented entanglement cases, including two in North Carolina and one each in Massachusetts and Georgia. A repeat sighting of an entangled North Atlantic right whale off Cape May was also documented this year, according to NOAA.
“North Atlantic right whales are dying faster than they can reproduce, largely due to human causes,” according to NOAA Fisheries’ information on the 2023 calving season for the endangered species.