Science Friday - The Complicated Truths About Offshore Wind And Right Whales

Episode Date: April 3, 2024

By the time researchers found the dead whale on a Martha’s Vineyard beach, her jet-black skin was pockmarked by hungry seagulls, her baleen had been dislodged from her mouth, and thin rope was wrapped tightly—as it had been for 17 months—around the most narrow part of her tail.Researchers quickly learned this was a 12-ton, 3-year-old female known as 5120, and that she was a North Atlantic right whale, a species with just about 360 members left.A few weeks later, NOAA Fisheries announced that the entangling rope came from lobster fishing gear set in Maine state waters. The pain and discomfort of the entanglement likely affected 5120’s ability to swim and eat until finally, experts say, exhaustion or starvation probably killed her. A final cause of death is still pending.The death of 5120 was devastating to right whale advocates, who know that losing a female doesn’t just mean losing one whale, but dozens of others that could have come from her future calves. For them, a death is often followed by a period of grief, and a renewed commitment to their work. And that might have been the end of 5120’s story.But then came the online comments. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, across social media blamed offshore wind farms—the noise, electricity generated, and the mere presence of turbines. Along the way, the truth about 5120 became a non-concern.In many cases, the rumors about offshore wind hurting and killing right whales are quite possibly spread from a place of concern, mistrust, or fear by well-meaning people who want to know our oceans are safe for marine mammals. But few people want that more than right whale scientists, who have dedicated their careers to saving a species that appears to be just a few decades from extinction. For many of them, talking about offshore wind has its own challenges, both because of the unknowns that come with a nascent industry and the knee-jerk reactions from people on all sides of the issue. So they say that yes, they’re uneasy about the potential threats of wind farms. But they agonize over the prospect of climate change destroying right whales’ shot at survival via their food web and ecosystem.Read more at sciencefriday.com.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

When a young North Atlantic right whale died in January, the news got a lot of attention. Her black skin was pockmarked by seagulls, her baline had been dislodged from her mouth. I mean, she hadn't been dead long, but she was in rough shape. It's Wednesday, April 3rd, and it's also Science Friday. I'm sci-fi producer Kathleen Davis. When the whale dubbed 5120 washed up in Martha's Vineyard, many accused a nearby wind energy project of causing her death. despite a necropsy report that said otherwise.

Eve Zuckoff, a reporter from public radio station, C.A.I, reported on the ensuing misinformation campaign and what we actually know about what's putting these whales at risk of extinction. Here she is with guest host Ariel Duem Ross. So, Eve, you saw this whale shortly after it washed up on shore. What was that like? What did you see? Well, when I first saw the whale, she was on her back, this 30-foot. long animal kind of curled up on the high tide line. Her black skin was pockmarked by seagulls. Her baline had been dislodged from her mouth. I mean, she hadn't been dead long, but she was in

rough shape. And there was a clock on the effort to move her carcass to a wooded area where experts could have a dry space to do the post-mortem exam, that necropsy, and establish the cause of death. They decided the best way to move this whale would be to tie one end of a rope around her tail and have a small boat bring the other end to a tugboat waiting offshore. And once the rope was secure, that tugboat started revving its engine, trying to drag this 12-ton whale off the beach. Come on. Come on.

Come on. I watched on the beach with Brian Sharp, the director of a marine mammal rescue program for IFA, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, and the tow rope came taut, and then finally... There it is. It is. The whale was towed through the waves, loaded onto a truck, and finally driven to the woods. Wow. After the post-mortem exam, what were scientists, you know, able to learn about her? And what did they find as her cause of death? We learned this was just a three-year-old whale that researchers call 5120. And she had suffered this major entanglement in the ocean. A thin rope was

entangled around and cutting into the most narrow part of her tail. It had been there for more than half her life and a marine law enforcement team said it actually came from lobster fishing gear set up in Maine. It was marked very clearly with purple rope that is specific to the main state lobster fishery. To protect these whales a few years ago, regulators decided every lobster fishery and every state needs their own state-specific colors marking their gear. Purple is mains. That's what was found around 51's tail. Now, we'll probably never know exactly how 5120 got entangled in it. The rope just got tighter as she grew. That's what we know. So it seems to have affected her ability to swim and eat until finally, experts say exhaustion or starvation probably killed her. You've been covering the conflict between the fishing industry and whales for a long time. Can you tell me what the death of this whale actually means?

Yes, North Atlantic right whales don't get to die of old age, meaning they rarely die of natural causes. Experts found that over the last seven years, 39 right whales were seriously injured or killed by entanglements. That's like 10% of the population. And more than 85% of the population has been entangled at least once in their lives. When this gear can be found, it's typically coming from the lobster, snow crab, and jonacrab fisheries. Now, the other major way right whales die is by getting hit by boats. And by the way, climate change is just compounding these two issues. Because right whales, like most animals, decide where they'll go by chasing their favorite food,

which are these tiny little crustaceans called copepods. But as temperatures have changed, we've seen this food source shift into new waters. It was disastrous when this happened in 2017 because right whales weren't protected by both speed limits and fishing rules in the new waters they chose. And 35 of them died in a single year. So I've given you a lot of numbers. Here are the last ones, maybe the most important, between. Between 2011 and 2020, 43% of North Atlantic right whales died. That's 43% of a species.

So it's insane, right? So now that's how we reach this point where they're at risk of extinction in the next 30 years. Okay, so we know for sure that 5120 died because of fishing gear, but that is not the story that was told online about her, was it? No, Ariel, in just five days between finding 5120 on a beach. beach and revealing her cause of death, speculation ramped up. People were increasingly blaming a wind farm under construction 15 miles away from where the whale was found. And then speculation fully turned into misinformation. We saw anti-offshore wind groups like Save the Dolphins and Wales, New Jersey post on Facebook saying, quote, the whale did not have rope around its tail. It was only

added afterwards. That post alone got at least 215 shares. And it was one of the of dozens, then hundreds, maybe even thousands of comments peddling on truths. But look, I saw the rope embedded in 5120 skin. To get it out of her tail, a team needed an electric saw to get through four to five inches of tissue that grew over it. Right. You were actually there when the whale's carcass was taken away. So it sounds like this tragic death of this whale was being used to fight offshore wind to energy? What do we know about the groups that spread this misinformation? Well, in recent years,

we've seen these grassroots groups popping up, organizing their communities, filing lawsuits against offshore wind developers over concerns about right whales. And for a while, it wasn't entirely clear how much these groups were coordinating with one another or anyone else, for that matter. But then, these researchers from Brown University put out a paper that links 18 of these groups through funding, membership, legal representation, and more to bigger think tanks and conservative donors who are known to block climate policy in support of fossil fuel interests. I talked with Dr. Timmins Roberts, who studies disinformation around climate change at Brown, and he said these local groups may or may not know there's a larger strategy going on.

We found some evidence of a planning memo from 2012 that really laid out the game plan, that they would use local groups that appear entirely local, but are being fed information from a, you know, a centralized set of think tanks. And to be clear, right-wheel advocacy groups aren't the only ones fighting offshore wind. Opposition has come from fishermen, worried about how the farms will impact their catch. And there have been homeowner or beachgoer groups worried about the views from their homes or what happens if a cable runs from an offshore wind farm under their beach. So all of these groups have become kind of strange bedfellows.

So this is all great reporting. And I have a question because I'm a bit confused. Please. I don't quite understand why a huge tower-like structure in the ocean would be responsible for the death of a whale. Yeah, if you're not there on the ground, it might be confusing. So, okay, I looked into this and Noah has said, quote, there are no known links between large whale deaths and ongoing offshore wind activities. Okay. But scientists and regulators I spoke to told me that they're worried that offshore wind. wind farms might impact whales in four ways. The first points to the fact that wherever offshore wind farms

are being built and maintained, there will be more boats in the water, which increases the chance of hitting a right whale. There's also a risk of entanglements. Offshore wind farms will probably produce marine debris. Third is exposure to noise. This is a big one. Once the farms are operating, the risks appear to be lower than what they are during construction. Bioacoustics experts from the University of Rhode Island have found that only 50 meters away from the block of Island wind farm, the sound is so low it can't be detected above background noise, unless there's like no wind blowing and no boat passing in the vicinity. But during construction, there are worries that loud pile driving to anchor wind turbines to the ocean floor could result in hearing

impairment or it could mask whales' vocal communication, add distress and affect behavior. But we don't really know if this is actually causing stress for right whales. Yeah, we don't have a full understanding of the impacts yet when it comes to stress. But what I can tell you is that I talk to this researcher at Duke. And he told me that based on his experience, watching and tagging fin whales, a distant cousin of North Atlantic right whales, he's seen no change in behavior when pile driving is happening, beyond them swimming further away from the source of the noise. That said, I did some more digging on this. And the real way to know if a right whale has suffered hearing damage because of loud noises is to dissect the earbone.

And a veterinarian named Sarah Sharp from IFAA says you need those within 24 to 48 hours of the whale's death. Earbones are not easy things to get out of whales either. So you have to take the head off first and then you can access the earbones. They're very deeply set up against the skull. And even then, it would be almost impossible for her to know whether hearing damage was sustained from acute exposure to pile driving or nearness to a lightning strike or just aging. There's some uncertainty there clearly. But didn't you say that there are four ways in which whales might be affected by offshore wind? Yes, yes, thank you. Okay, finally, the last category of concern has to do with wind farms possibly changing ocean circulation and affecting those tiny copepods that right whales like to eat. Okay, that's not what I was expecting. Say more.

Well, to eat, right whales look for these really big patches of copepods. And they can eat two to four thousand pounds a day. the calorie equivalent of 3,000 Big Macs. But here's the problem. Offshore wind turbines extract wind energy out of the atmosphere, leaving less energy to push on and mix the ocean. Mark Baumgartner from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution told me that mixing is important. It's how you get nutrients from the deeper ocean to feed the algae in the upper ocean, which then feeds the copepods.

But again, we don't really know. Offshore wind could actually help right whales. Because you know how if you see a big rock in a river, there will be swirling water around it? Similar principle. Baumgartner said this swirling around the turbines could help with mixing. So ultimately, these patches of copepods could be unaffected or even made more rich and concentrated for right whales to eat. Okay, so, Eve, what I'm getting from you is that this is something worth researching. But better safe than sorry, right?

In the meantime, are there any protections that are already in place to prevent right whales from being harmed by offshore wind developments? Yes, there are protections coming from individual developers so far. We've seen Vineyard Wind, which is building the country's largest utility scale offshore wind farm off Massachusetts. This is the one kind of related to 5120. They've made this pledge to be basically right whale friendly. So to address noise concerns, for example, they're using a bubble curtain, which is literally a wall of bubbles they put up around the construction site to absorb and dampen the sound of pile driving. They're also. only doing pile driving when the right whales migration season has passed. They have acoustic

sensors and marine observers to look for right whales and stop construction if one is in an area. The feds are also working on their own generalized plan. They recently released something that pushes for more research to fill knowledge gaps, noise limits during construction, and this plan says that regulators should avoid leasing new wind developments in right whale habitat. Okay. Honestly, that's more than I was expecting. It does look like things are actually being done. Yeah, it's a lot. Did you talk to any scientists about what they think of those protections, right? Is this enough? Because of course, we really are talking about a critically endangered species. Right, where extinction is in every conversation. Yeah, I talked to seven or eight scientists across different disciplines for this story.

And they basically all said, yeah, they feel uneasy. Look, they need more time and funds to keep developing the data that leads to these protections. And of course, they'll need regulators to listen when they offer best practices. That is the recipe for safe coexistence of right whales and offshore wind farms. But all the experts I talked to also said, look, we need to start replacing oil and gas with renewable energy sources if we want any shot at fighting climate change. offshore wind farms have a lifetime carbon footprint that's about 40 times less than burning natural gas and almost 90 times less than burning coal. I think someone who said this really well was stormy mayo from the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, Massachusetts. He's studied right whales for more than 45 years and says he doesn't particularly like offshore wind, but he still thinks it's the best way forward.

I've personally always felt very much concerned about the industrialization of the sea. offshore wind is just another one of those cases. But having watched these animals as long as I have, it is clear to me now that the biggest looming issue confronted by right whales is the impact of climate change on the sea. And if the worst impacts of climate change aren't avoided, right whales may continue to be displaced and as a result get hit by more boats, entangled in more gear, and generally be devastated. Right. But Eve, I got to ask, what happened? with this misinformation story about 5120's death, you know, is it still spreading? Have people moved on or have they accepted the findings of the necropsy? It's a tricky question to answer. I don't know

how many of those folks who were angry online read the stories debunking the role of offshore wind in that whale's death. But I can tell you that a lot of the people who assumed that offshore wind was involved in her death, many of them really care about the future of these whales and their environment. And sometimes when you decide that you know who the culprit is, you know who your villain is, that can be really hard to let go of. But I did find out exactly how 5120's story ends. So I told you she washed ashore, but what I didn't tell you is that the land she washed up on

is land that the Aquino-Wampanag tribe has indigenous ancestral rights to. So they claimed 5120 is one of their own. It's worth pointing out that many indigenous tribes in the U.S. feel a kinship with whales. Right. So tribe elders blessed her and made offerings before scientists buried her in a wooded area on the Aquino-Wampanog's trust land. That's beautiful. Has anything been done in response to her death, you know, to prevent other right whales from getting killed because of fishing equipment? Well, a no spokesperson basically said they're adding this.

death to a long list of others so they can develop future protections. Already, we've seen New England Lopstromen make costly gear changes in recent years, using rope that's designed to break when a whale gets entangled in it. And in Massachusetts, Lopströmann are banned from fishing grounds for three months of the year to protect right whales. There are also speed limits for most boats over 65 feet in length along areas of the East Coast at certain times of the year to prevent, you know, ship strikes. And the government is in the process of finalizing more aggressive speed rules as we speak.

Okay, so there are a bunch of protections, but clearly not everything's working perfectly, right? Because this right whale died and there are fewer than 360 individual right whales left. Yes, it's an important number to repeat. In a population this small, they're fragile by definition. If a few more breeding females die, that could have exponentially catastrophic effects on the species. But it's not like there's any mystery about what's pushed North Atlantic right whales to the brink. You know, over the last few decades, entanglements and collisions with boats have crushed these animals. And yet all the technology and regulatory schemes designed to address those issues remain kind of in limbo.

Which is too bad because folks who could be making noise about that, some of them are focusing on offshore wind instead. You know, remember that IFAA veterinarian we heard from earlier, Sarah Sharp. She said something I heard a lot while reporting this story. All of the discussion about wind farms right now, I feel like is just distracting from the real issues that we know we've got decades of data that these whales are dying from entanglements and vessel strikes. And just we need to stay focused on those two main causes. If we're actually serious about saving right whales from extinction, all the biologists, veterinarians, and researchers I talked to agreed. Offshore wind isn't the place to start. That's Eve Zuckoff, climate and environment reporter from C-A-I.

Thank you so much for this story. Ariel, thank you. And if you want to read the full version of this story, go to our website, sciencefriiday.com slash whale. And that's all the time that we have for today. A lot of folks help make the show happen, including Ariel Zich, Jordan Smudjik, Diana Plasker, and many more. Tomorrow, understanding our inevitable cosmic apocalypse

with cosmologist Katie Mac. But for now, I'm CyFRI producer Kathleen Davis. We'll catch you then.