State Opens Up Bids For More Off Shore Wind Projects
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities has voted to open new applications for more offshore wind projects despite the public’s concern that those projects may be a cause behind a wave of recent whale deaths.
The public concern has grown so much that a rally in Point Pleasant Beach drew hundreds of people.
The window for new applications for offshore wind projects will be open through June 23rd. It will be the third solicitation for bids for projects in pursuit of Governor Phil Murphy’s goal of 100 percent clean energy for the state by 2035.
While the connection to recent whale deaths hasn’t been proven yet, residents are concerned that the sea floor mapping that uses sonar somehow conflicts with the marine life use of sonar to communicate and find food sources, perhaps making them more likely to be struck by large ships in the shipping channel. A recent report in the APP includes a list of recent whale deaths and the suspected causes of each. Of the 8 whales that have washed up on the Jersey Shore, 4 of them showed signs of blunt force trauma consistent with being hit by a ship. The other four weren’t investigated due to reasons including being too decomposed and inaccessibility due to a storm.
The ocean beaches on the ocean waters off Long Island have seen a troubling increase in deceased whales washing up on local beaches as well. When a whale that had been tracked for 4 decades named Luna washed up officials with NOAA said that they didn’t think the off shore wind projects were related to the whale deaths. However, a Fox News report claims that a memo from a NOAA scientist indicated that the project(s) would cause a risk. The NOAA scientist, Sean Hayes, was quoted in this article about the general health of right whales but didn’t list off shore wind projects as a threat, instead focusing on ship strikes and entanglements in commercial fishing gear.
Another cause for concern for locals is the potential impact on local tourism for the Jersey Shore as some people may find the windfarms to be an eye sore. Of course, that concern has been around since the beginning of wind farm development.
Regardless of locals concerns it seems one thing is clear: the current New Jersey administration wants to move ahead with off shore wind development.