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Off-shore wind farms pose a threat to whales | READER COMMENTARY

For The Baltimore Sun
A dead humpback whale lies in the surf in Brigantine, New Jersey on Jan. 13, 2023. Environmental groups held a news conference Tuesday, Jan 17, 2023, in neighboring Atlantic City to support offshore wind power development and decry what they call the false narrative that offshore wind site preparation work is responsible for seven whale deaths in New Jersey and New York in little over a month. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)

A dead humpback whale lies in the surf in Brigantine, New Jersey on Jan. 13, 2023. Environmental groups held a news conference Tuesday, Jan 17, 2023, in neighboring Atlantic City to support offshore wind power development and decry what they call the false narrative that offshore wind site preparation work is responsible for seven whale deaths in New Jersey and New York in little over a month. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry) (Wayne Parry/AP)

After all the copy in these pages over the last year about ocean wind farms and the risk to whales, now this: Six dead whales have washed ashore off New Jersey and New York beaches in just over a month. Six of them (“Opponents of offshore wind urge probe in 6 whale deaths,” Jan. 13)!

New Jersey’s environmental group, Clean Ocean Action, points out that survey boats explore the ocean floor using pulses of sound at the same frequency whales use to communicate. Yet Ørsted, the Danish wind farm developer, denies its work can disturb whales in any way.

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Three of the whales were humpbacks, the species of the others not stated. They may have been right whales, spotlighted earlier in the news because only 350 remain today, endangered by wind farming, strikes by speeding boats, lobster trapping cables and plastics in the ocean.

We don’t have to let commercialism win this battle as usually happens. All whales play a necessary role in our planet’s ecology. They’re beautiful, intelligent creatures and our children and grandkids deserve to be able to appreciate them as well.

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Voice your support for environmental groups opposing the unchecked proliferation of Atlantic Ocean wind farms. Urge the Biden administration to call a moratorium on the wind work until probes reveal why these magnificent mammals perished.

Go against the current here. Please, speak up for whale preservation.

— Bruce R. Knauff, Towson

Add your voice: Respond to this piece or other Sun content by submitting your own letter.

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