New Jersey State Senator Vince Polistina (R-2) sent a letter to Governor Murphy today to express concern about a rising number of East Coast whale deaths and to request a 30-day moratorium on offshore wind development activity to study if there is a link.
A deceased 30-foot humpback whale on an Atlantic City beach in December, one of many deceased whales that have been identified in the area recently. (NJ.com)
The full text of the letter is below (click here for PDF):
Governor Murphy,
I reach out today on behalf of a growing number of concerned residents, both in Atlantic County and throughout the State of New Jersey, upon hearing the tragic news that two additional whales have washed ashore along the East Coast; one in Manasquan, and one in Virginia Beach. The number of whale deaths along the coast of New Jersey and the entire East Coast is completely unprecedented from anything we have ever seen in our lifetimes.
With the primary difference off our shores being the sonar and drilling related to offshore wind studies, it seems completely irresponsible to blindly continue the work without definitive reasons why so many whales are meeting a tragic end. No one knows whether there is a correlation between the studies and the deaths, and the only thing we get from our federal regulators is that there is allegedly no “direct” impact, seemingly wanting to ignore the indirect impacts to marine mammal behavior allowed by the Incidental Take Authorizations granted by those federal bureaucrats.
If these studies were in any way related to oil and gas exploration off our shores your administration and every environmental group would be calling for an immediate and permanent stop. Why are you not treating these studies related to offshore wind the same way?
I once again request a 30-day moratorium on all offshore wind activity so that a diverse group of experts have the time to study all of the evidence gained as a result of the necropsies and death investigations and release definitive findings. Our constituents are increasingly demanding it and we owe it to them to deliver.
You repeatedly told New Jerseyans during the COVID pandemic to follow the science. I urge you to live up to that mantra and let science provide us some insight into what is going on before one more whale washes up on our beaches.
Sincerely,
Senator Vincent J. Polistina
District 2
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