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US government agency says 'no link' between dead whales and wind farm development
dead whales washing ashore to wind farm development.This winter, 16 whales have washed up dead along the Atlantic coast in places like Assateague Island in Maryland, Virginia Beach, Virginia, and Long Island, New York.The standings are part of what the National Marine Fisheries Service, or NMFS, call the Humpback Whale Unusual Mortality Event, which started in 2016.The Marine Mammal Commission said in a statement posted to its website on Tuesday that 40% of the whales were examined at necropsy and showed evidence that a ship struck them, or they got entangled in fishing gear.The commission also said these strandings are nothing new, and they are not isolated to the Atlantic coast.According to the commissioner, at least 10 humpback whales have stranded each year during the UME, though in 2017 the highest number of 34 were recorded stranded.What scientists have found is the number of humpback whales in the Gulf of Maine is increasing, and the younger whales are moving to the Atlantic coast, where they are vulnerable to being struck by ships.Many people, though, say wind farm development is the cause of the whale strandings.READ MORE: Dead whale found on beach at Assateague Island National SeashoreWind farm development and research is taking place up and down the Atlantic coast, in places like Block Island, Rhode Island; Montauk, New York; off the coast of Ocean City, Maryland, and nearly 20 miles offshore Virginia Beach, Virginia.Agencies like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, and U.S.