What real dangers to whales face?
While the exact causes of recent whale strandings along the East Coast mostly are not known, whales do face dangers from human activities.
The biggest threats are shipping collisions and entanglement in fishing gear, according to scientists and federal authorities. Underwater noise pollution is another concern, they say.
Some advocates for protecting whales have characterized the push against offshore wind power as a distraction from real issues. “It seems that this is being used in an opportunistic way by anti-wind interests,” said Gib Brogan, fisheries campaign director at the environmental group Oceana.
Since 2016, humpback whales have been dying at an advanced rate — one the…
