The public has until Dec. 4 to comment on a proposed strategy to safeguard North Atlantic right whales and their habitat from the impacts of offshore wind-energy production, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries (NOAA Fisheries) department announced recently.
NOAA Fisheries and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) released their draft joint strategy Oct. 21 "to protect and promote the recovery of North Atlantic right whales while responsibly developing offshore wind energy."
"The draft strategy identifies the agencies’ goals and objectives to better understand the effects of offshore wind development on the whales and their habitat" NOAA Fisheries states in the announcement. The strategy describes how the agencies will work together to improve science and promote the Biden administration's goals of developing clean energy production and protecting environmental biodiversity, the announcement states.
“This draft strategy focuses on improving the science and integrating past, present, and future efforts related to North Atlantic right whales and offshore wind development,” Jon Hare, the director of NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center and one of the lead authors of the draft strategy, said in the announcement. “We also identify preliminary mitigation measures related to offshore wind energy project planning, leasing, and siting, site characterization, and unexploded ordnance surveys, construction and operation, and project-specific monitoring, and are looking for public comment on these measures and on the strategy overall.”
Offshore wind-energy development is increasingly rapidly along the Atlantic coast of the U.S., especially from Massachusetts to North Carolina, which is also habitat and a migration route for the rare and highly endangered North Atlantic right whale, NOAA Fisheries reports.
"Their population includes fewer than 350 individuals and fewer than 70 reproductively active females," NOAA Fisheries states in the report, "and has been experiencing an Unusual Mortality Event since 2017."
The report states climate change "is affecting every aspect of right whales’ survival—changing their habitat, their migratory patterns, and the location and availability of their prey. It is even increasing their risk of becoming entangled in fishing gear or being struck by vessels."
The draft strategy provides guidance to offshore wind-energy developers on working within regulatory processes and identifies regional and project-specific mitigation and monitoring measures such as the types of requirements considered by regulatory agencies and project proponents.
Janet Coit, assistant administrator for NOAA Fisheries and acting assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere at NOAA, said both agencies prioritize conscientious expansion of renewable energy resources and protecting the critically endangered whales.
“As we face the ongoing challenges of climate change," Coit said, "this strategy provides a strong foundation to help us advance renewable energy while also working to protect and recover North Atlantic right whales, and the ecosystem they depend on.”
