NOAA, an atrocity nobody wants to speak about

October 7, 2024 Global Warming

At a time of increased whale mortality, why is NOAA allowing wind companies to kill whales ?

“Veronica Baker“

---

NOAA, an atrocity nobody wants to speak about

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and wind energy companies are complicit in a state-sanctioned modern-day slaughter of marine mammals along the U.S. East Coast.

On its website, NOAA says it works “to protect populations of marine species from decline and extinction, conduct research to understand their health and environment, and assess and monitor activities that may affect their behavior”.

NOAA says the Marine Mammal Protection Act requires it to protect all whales, dolphins, seals and sea lions from “capture” in the nation’s waters.

“Capture” is NOAA jargon for harassing, hunting, capturing, killing or attempting any of these actions.

However, “exemptions” have been granted to planners and developers of new wind energy facilities along the U.S. East Coast.

Known as Incidental Take/Harassment Authorizations (IHAs), these exemptions give wind developers the ability to kill and harass marine mammals during construction and subsequent development activities.

For example, Bluepoint Wind, LLC, is authorized to kill or harass 270 whales between March 2024 and February 2025, in the coastal waters of New York and New Jersey, a region known as the New York Bight.
The “harassment” quota also includes other marine mammals.

---

---

Other active IHAs for wind operators include the following : Dominion Energy Virginia, 599 whales over the next five years.

---

---

Empire Offshore Winds, 509 whales.

---

---

Ocean Wind, 248 whales.

---

---

TerraSond, 381 whales.

---

---

Community Offshore Wind, 7,809 dolphins.

---

---

Orsted Wind Power North America, 6,000 short-beaked common dolphins.
And there are many more.

NOAA classifies these IHAs into two categories.
Level A harassment has the potential to injure or kill, while Level B harassment can cause changes in behavioral patterns.

Most of the releases just listed are Level B, but some companies have been released for Level A as well.
But even Level B harassment can indirectly increase whale mortality by forcing whales into busy shipping lanes.

Crucially, NOAA provides no scientific justification that Level B harassment is not lethal or does not cause permanent injury.

By NOAA’s own admission, marine mammal deaths along the Atlantic coast have been unusually high since 2016, peaking at 37 deaths in the year 2023.
Similarly, NOAA has documented the unusual mortality rate of North Atlantic right whales since 2017.

Why is authorizing wind companies to kill whales at a time of increased mortality?
And who is giving NOAA permission to do this?

NOAA’s treatment of these marine mammals stands in stark contrast to its institutional ethos of protecting these ocean giants from harm and even death.
A massacre that no one wants to talk about.

---