TOMS RIVER, NJ – As whales are showing up dead in near-record numbers at the Jersey Shore since December, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy continued to deny the anomaly had anything to do with offshore wind farm work being conducted.
Instead, the Murphy Administration announced that the five-member Phil Murphy-appointed Board of Public Utilities approved a third wave of offshore wind farm projects.
The administration is inviting offshore wind farm companies to expand the state’s already massive offshore wind energy footprint.
Murphy and the BPU contend that the recent whale deaths are part of an ongoing seven-year trend, but data on file with NOAA Fisheries shows that the recent mass stranding is outside of the bounds of the seven-year trend.
Read more here: Phil Murphy’s whale fish tale doesn’t add up to NOAA historical beaching data
The facts in the matter are simple. Nobody knows why more whales have been struck by vessels and dying since December. No studies have been conducted. All we know is more whales are dying than usual.
Some blame Phil Murphy’s 100% clean energy initiative, which will ban gas cars, and natural gas appliances and put New Jersey on a path toward clean energy independence. But to do that, Phil Murphy needs offshore windmills. A lot of them.
Some conservationists believe the work being done on the currently approved wind farm near Atlantic City is disorienting the whales and causing them to move into shipping lanes where they are being struck. The project currently involves ships pulling sonar buoys some say are interfering with the whales’ own sonar.
Read More: New Jersey gas car ban signed by Governor Phil Murphy
Murphy says that theory is dangerous ‘disinformation’.
Yet, he refused to halt the project for thirty das while scientists can get to the bottom of the latest increase.
No studies have been conducted to show that work is or isn’t related to the most recent whale beaching outbreak.