January 26, 2023 • Massachusetts, Opinions
‘Strategy’ to protect right whales from offshore wind development is recipe for extinction
Credit: by Constance Gee | January 24, 2023 | newbedfordlight.org ~~
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) published a draft of their strategy to protect the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale (NARW) from the hazards of offshore wind development this past fall.
The report is a heartbreaking portrayal of the plight of the 336 remaining right whales. Approximately 230 animals have died over the past decade. Autopsies and photo documentation conclude that fishing gear entanglement and vessel strikes have caused the deaths. “Stressors” of industrialized ocean noise and dwindling food sources have contributed to reduced health and compromised body condition in 42% of the remaining population.
“Human-caused mortality is so high,” BOEM scientists state, “that no adult NARW has been confirmed to have died from natural causes in several decades; for a species that might live a century, most animals have a low probability of surviving past 40.”
Fewer than 70 reproductively able females remain, with their lifetime calving potential having been reduced “from more than a dozen to perhaps just 2–3 calves.” NOAA Fisheries survey of right whale numbers and health concludes “the species faces a high risk of extinction,” with “the loss of even one individual a year” reducing any chance of future recovery.
https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2023/01/26/strategy-to-protect-right-whales-from-offshore-wind-development-is-recipe-for-extinction/
