MAINE WIRE (Maine Policy Institute) • August 14, 2023
On Saturday, New Jersey lifeguards discovered a dead humpback whale washed ashore, the latest in a string of unexplained deaths of various whale species on the East Coast. Journalist Michael Shellenberger said the whale death was the 60th known death of the large mammals along the East Coast since Dec. 1, 2022. Although no official conclusions have been reached about why the whales are dying at an increasing rate, the spate of deaths does coincide with offshore wind development off the coasts of Rhode Island and New Jersey, where several of the whales have been discovered. Schellenberger thinks there is a connection between the powerful construction equipment used to build the wind turbine platforms and the dying whales. The potential threat presented to marine ecosystems by offshore wind development is significant for Maine. There is an unprecedented effort to construct massive floating wind turbines in the Gulf of Maine.