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Maryland state officers found a deceased whale off the state’s Atlantic coast final week, marking the second beached whale carcass found in the realm in three weeks.
Officers with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) Natural Resources Police found the carcass of an grownup male humpback whale on the north finish of Assateague Island National Seashore on Wednesday, the DNR confirmed to Fox News Digital. National Park Service workers moved the carcass, and on Friday, a necropsy was carried out by the DNR Stranding Response Program and National Aquarium.
“A definitive cause of death was unable to be determined during the examination and samples are being shipped for diagnostic analysis,” DNR spokesperson Gregg Bortz instructed Fox News Digital on Monday.
Meanwhile, on Jan. 16, one other humpback whale was found beached in the identical location, on Assateague Island National Seashore. The National Park Service stated there have been “no obvious signs to the cause of death.”
MAJOR WIND PROJECT WAS DEPENDENT ON BIDEN ADMIN WAIVING TAXPAYER SAFEGUARD: INTERNAL DOCS
A dead humpback whale is photographed washed ashore in Long Beach, New York, on Aug. 15, 2023. (Howard Schnapp/Newsday RM by way of Getty Images)
However, the string of whale deaths comes as builders race to assemble Maryland’s first offshore wind initiatives. Baltimore wind vitality agency US Wind is creating two initiatives, the 300-megawatt MarWin challenge and the 800-megawatt Momentum Wind challenge, that are slated to start producing electrical energy in 2025 and 2026, respectively.
Those two initiatives can be constructed 20 miles off the coast of Maryland on an Atlantic Ocean web site situated simply northeast of Assateague Island National Seashore.
“In response to the news of another whale death on Assateague Island, I am calling for a transparent release of the necropsy results to determine if offshore wind and sonar activity contributed to the cause of death,” Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., instructed Fox News Digital in an announcement.
Over the final 12 months, Harris, who represents Maryland’s Atlantic shoreline communities, and different House lawmakers representing shoreline communities in Maine, New Jersey and New York, have taken goal on the inexperienced vitality business in response to rising whale deaths. They have referred to as for a pause on offshore wind development till it might be dominated out as a explanation for the deaths.
A “Save the Whales” signal displayed on a ship in Belmar, New Jersey, the place locals have opposed offshore wind development. (Fox News Photo/Joshua Comins)
Last month, Harris hosted a public listening to, throughout which consultants testified in regards to the risks wind development poses for marine wildlife and referred to as for an finish to offshore industrialization in Maryland.
Additionally, the Government Accountability Office, the nonpartisan company tasked with conducting oversight of presidency operations, stated it might examine the impacts of offshore wind development after Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., requested a probe into the matter.
“This aggressive, independent investigation into the ocean-altering impacts of the 3,400 offshore wind turbines slated for the Jersey Shore will help address the wide-ranging questions and concerns that the Biden Administration and Governor [Phil] Murphy continue to dismiss as they plow full steam ahead with this unprecedented offshore wind industrialization of our shore,” Smith stated on the time.
The Biden administration goals to approve 30 gigawatts of offshore wind vitality by 2030. The US Wind initiatives in Maryland are a part of that lofty aim. (Getty Images)
“It is absolutely critical that New Jersey residents understand all the impacts of these offshore wind projects — which will permanently transform our marine environment and seascape and could put our tourism-drive economy at grave risk — before it’s too late,” Smith continued.
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However, federal officers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration downplayed considerations over wind development inflicting whale deaths, reiterating that an uncommon mortality occasion alongside the East Coast had been declared for each the humpback whale and Atlantic proper whale species years in the past.
In 2023, 37 humpback whales had been found dead alongside the East Coast, the very best annual quantity reported because the mortality occasion was declared in 2017, in response to federal information.
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