NOAA: Recent whale deaths not linked to offshore wind

By KARINA KoVAC kkovac@liherald.com

It was a somber scene Jan. 30-31 for those who traveled across the island to see, a humpback whale beached on Lido Beach.

The 41-foot male majestic giant is the ninth whale since December 2022 to wash up along the New York and New Jersey coast, for which some organizations blame the ramping up of offshore wind farms. But, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, there is no evidence to support that claim. The NOAA says it has been tracking an “unusual mortality event” for whales — involving 179 of the mammals — since 2016.

The Center for Coastal Studies said Luna had been tracked for four decades and was last spotted in December 2022 in the Gulf of Maine. Preliminary findings by NOAA suggest the whale was a victim of a vessel strike, but the samples collected will not yield definitive results for weeks or even months.

Luna was initially reported on the beach at 6:30 a.m. Monday, Jan. 30, with authorities arriving half an hour later. The whalewas dragged away from the water, snapping three cables in the process, Hempstead Town Supervisor Don Clavin said. Then state and federal authorities did an external examination on the first day of breaching.

“It’s a sight to see, but it really is heartbreaking — you know that this is what they’re seeing,” Clavin said. “This is the first one we’ve had washed up in probably four to five years, and talking to the men and women I work with here, this is the largest we’ve ever seen.”

The Atlantic Marine Conservation Society performed a necropsy the next day, and the whale was buried in the dunes after samples — including blubber, tis- sues, and organs — had been taken by marine scientists. The level of decomposition suggested the whale had been dead for several days before washing ashore, NOAA wrote in a press release after the necropsy.

NOAA communications specialist Andrea Gomez said the organization is grieving the loss of the whale with the communi- ty. As to the effect of offshore winds, she said there is “no evidence of any link.”

NOAA made that position abundantly clear during a media teleconference on the East Coast whale strandings a week prior to Luna’s washing up. During the conference, Benjamin Laws, deputy chief for NOAA’s permits

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