President-elect Donald Trump’s comments about Massachusetts’ offshore wind farms have been met with criticism from local scientists and conservationists.
President-elect Donald Trump's comments about offshore wind farm activity in Massachusetts have struck a chord with others who have claimed they pollute and kill sea mammals, including endangered whales. But local scientists and conservationists are pushing back against those claims, saying there is no hard evidence supporting them.
Humpbacks, minkes and critically endangered North Atlantic right whales have been washing up ashore at an alarming rate in recent years.
The reason for this spike has been debated, with many speculating that the construction of offshore wind farms is responsible. This has been disputed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
"At this point, there is no scientific evidence that noise resulting from offshore wind site characterization surveys could potentially cause whale deaths," the NOAA says in an FAQ page on its website. "There are no known links between large whale deaths and ongoing offshore wind activities."
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Trump has criticized wind energy in the past, but took aim at the Bay State during a press conference this week at Mar-a-Lago.
"You see what's happening up in the Massachusetts area with the whales?" the president-elect asked. "The windmills are driving the whales crazy."
Trump alluded to the July 2024 operational fiasco at Vineyard Wind, the first offshore installation to provide clean power to Massachusetts and the region, which was suspended after a wind blade broke off from a mill, dumping debris across Nantucket beaches.
He also addressed the alarming rise in whale deaths over the last decade, placing the blame on offshore wind. He has instead voiced his support for offshore oil and gas drilling.
Green Oceans, a marine life advocate group, is also an opponent of wind farms. The Rhode Island-based organization has been at odds with conservation groups and the NOAA over data collected on the cause of whale deaths.
"It's definitely validating and it puts some wind in our sails," co-founder Bill Thompson, who opposes any type of industrialization in the ocean, said of Trump's remarks.
Green Oceans came about roughly two years ago and began looking into the ocean ship traffic from the construction and maintenance of offshore wind farms, which Thompson believes correlates with the whale deaths.
"We've done a fair amount of research into that in terms of the vessel traffic tracking, with the offshore wind vessels, where they've gone and where the whales have died," he said.
Whale and Dolphin Conservation, which monitors the coastline from Plymouth to Weymouth, responded to a humpback whale that washed up on Dec. 26 at Rexhame Beach in Marshfield.
The conservation said at the time that offshore wind is not believed to have caused the whale's death.
"We are well aware of social media campaigns which attribute these mortalities to offshore wind development, but, at least in our response area, there are no wind surveys or construction activities taking place," WDC Executive Director Regina Asmutis-Silvia said in a statement. "Our goal is to use the outcomes of these cases to help save other whales. It is beyond frustrating to have the integrity of our team challenged if our findings don't coincide with someone's political agenda."
Speaking Thursday, WDC Assistant Coordinator Caroline Genther shared the same sentiment. She and her team analyze the washed-up whales and their carcasses, reporting their necropsies and data to NOAA, which regulates marine resources.
"We're on the front lines of these whale deaths every day," she told NBC10 Boston.
NOAA lists 20 active "incidental take authorizations" for offshore wind projects and one gas project.
The Marine Mammal Protection Act defines "take" as "to harass, hunt, capture, or kill, or attempt to harass, hunt, capture, or kill any marine mammal," the NOAA writes on its website. It explains that "incidental take is an unintentional, but not unexpected, 'take.'"
According to the NOAA, incidental take authorizations have been granted for military sonar and training exercises; oil and gas development, exploration and production; renewable energy activities; scientific research projects and construction projects.
The NOAA declared an "unusual mortality event" for right whales back in 2017. Since then, there have been 41 deaths recorded, noting that only about one-third of deaths get documented.
Humpback whale death rates also climbed, with 232 deaths since 2016, 71 of which are off new England coasts, with Massachusetts recording 47, the highest for any state.
Thompson said the start of the "unusual mortality event" coincided with the start of geophysical surveys for offshore wind farming projects in the area.
Neither NOAA nor WDC have found data linking the offshore windmill companies to a death of a whale. They have been attributed to accidental fishing gear entanglements, vessel strikes and disease.
"It's hard to attribute deaths from vessel strikes to a specific vessel; that's very hard to do," noted Genther. "But also, that's a very small percentage of the boats that are in the waters."
Genther said increased fishing and climate change have led to the spike in whale deaths, adding that whales have changed their migration patterns and are spending more time closer to shore where there’s more human activity.
"If we start to get that data, we're going to be the loudest voices in the room talking against wind," she said.
Thompson argues that the lack of a smoking gun shouldn't rule out other possibilities.
"We're not going to go out there and say, 'Oh, that whale died because of Vineyard Wind.' We can't say that because we can't prove it," admitted Thompson. "And by the same token, they shouldn't be deflecting away from the possibility that it could be offshore wind."
WDC said it is focusing its efforts to save whales by working with fishing companies to replace the vertical-line finishing nets that are typically left in the water with on-demand fishing gear. It is also pushing for reduced speed limits to help avoid collisions and hard impacts with whales.
