By Assemblyman Alex Sauickie

As a new legislator, there were certain issues I expected to work on. Veterans’ issues were among them, and one of the first bills I sponsored would require an independent investigation of the COVID-19 mass deaths at the state’s nursing homes for veterans, and to provide oversight in the future.

But my conversations with veterans’ advocates took me in an unexpected direction. I met with a group planning to build a sober living facility primarily for homeless veterans. They told me about the project, but also about their Code Blue facility. I learned that they provide temporary shelter to the homeless during very cold weather.

I then introduced a bill to provide them matching state grants to help them do their life-saving work. It became one of my first bills to receive action in the state Senate. I never expected to go in that direction, but now I’m committed to see it through.

Similarly, I planned to work on agricultural issues that are so important to our area – and to everyone who likes food – but that likewise took me to an unexpected interest. In a conversation with Ocean County agricultural experts, one of whom is also a commercial fisherman, the recent spate of dead whales appearing on New Jersey beaches came up.

One of the fairly obvious, but nevertheless striking, facts discussed in that conversation was that the only dead whales seen by people on land are those that have washed up on shore. There’s no telling how many remain in the water, so whatever the number we see, the actual number of whales losing their lives off our coast is undoubtedly higher than we can know.

This raises serious concerns when looking at information from New Jersey’s Marine Mammal Stranding Center. There were big spikes in whale strandings in 2019 and again in 2020, but they fell by half in 2021 and 2022. We don’t know how many more whales died and remained offshore, so we can’t know what the real death rate is.

However, even using this limited information, we see a troublesome picture. In only the first 10 weeks of this year, we have seen more whale strandings than in either of the last two full years. That doesn’t bode well for this year as a whole.

There are suspicions that the deaths of whales and other sea life are related to the nascent offshore wind energy projects along the state’s coast. While I’m aware of no direct evidence to prove that, it’s certainly not only possible, but it’s being prepared for.

It’s shown to be possible by a 2022 letter from the Chief of Protected Species for the National Fisheries Science Center to the Lead Biologist of the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. The detailed and heavily footnoted letter is about wind projects and conditions in southern New England, not off New Jersey.

So while the letter doesn’t specifically cover what we’re seeing in New Jersey, it does raise startling concerns about how such offshore projects can affect whales in a number of ways. It discusses not just the increased noise and vessel traffic from offshore wind projects, but also habitat modifications, increased entanglement risk due to changes in fishing, and oceanographic changes that may disrupt the amount and availability of the whales’ food.

If none of those concerns are relevant to New Jersey waters, then one wonders why wind farm developers have applied for federal permission to do work that may injure or kill whales and other sea life. These are called incidental take regulations/letters of authorization (LOAs) and incidental harassment authorizations (IHAs).

All of this led me to address the state Assembly on February 27 (see it at tinyurl.com/2p86st85). I’ve been working on issues that directly affect the people I represent, but I thought it was well worth the time to speak to this issue because of my own convictions and those of the many constituents who contacted me about it.

Although I don’t oppose offshore wind projects, I urged my colleagues to demand that they be halted along our coast until a thorough study is done on what’s killing the whales and how to stop it. Whales are majestic and beloved creatures, and those who value them are greatly disturbed to see what’s happening. They deserve a voice in Trenton.

As I told the Assembly, I have yet to find a person who doesn’t like whales. We need to protect them.

Alex Sauickie is a lifelong Jackson resident who represents his hometown and 13 other towns in the State Assembly.

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Note: This opinion piece originally appeared in The Jackson Times by Jersey Shore Online in its publication dated March 25, 2023.