There’s no evidence that windmills are responsible for killing whales

During a Sept. 25 campaign speech, former President Donald Trump claimed “windmills are causing whales to die in numbers we’ve never seen before.”

Similar claims have been circulating online since early 2023 following a reported spike in whale deaths along the East Coast in winter. 

A VERIFY reader also texted this question to the team: “Are whales being killed because of the windmills in the ocean?”

THE QUESTION

Is there any evidence that windmills are responsible for killing whales?

THE SOURCES

• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries
• Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
• Marine Mammal Commission
• U.S. Department of Energy

THE ANSWER

No, there is no evidence that windmills are responsible for killing whales.

WHAT WE FOUND

There is no evidence linking windmills, wind farms or the noise associated with offshore wind energy to recent whale deaths along the East Coast, according to all of our sources. Instead, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) attributes many of these deaths to “vessel strikes and entanglement in fishing gear.”

The U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is responsible for offshore wind energy development in federal waters. The agency approves, disapproves or modifies construction and operations plans before an offshore wind project can be constructed in the U.S.

Currently, there are multiple projects underway to build offshore wind farms in the U.S. in addition to the two already constructed off the coasts of Rhode Island and Virginia, according to BOEM.

NOAA has been tracking an uptick in the deaths of humpback and North Atlantic right whales along the East Coast since 2017. The agency, along with the BOEM and the Marine Mammal Commission, an independent scientific agency that advises the federal government on policies that could impact marine mammals, found no evidence that offshore wind energy caused recent whale deaths.

“At this point, there is no scientific evidence that noise resulting from offshore wind site characterization surveys could potentially cause mortality of whales. There are no known links between recent large whale mortalities and ongoing offshore wind surveys,” the NOAA said.

In April, the Department of Energy addressed the misinformation circulating about offshore wind farms and recent whale deaths on its website.

“There is no evidence that these early-stage wind development activities have resulted in serious harm to whales,” the Department of Energy said. “Past and current research show that vessel strikes and entanglements in fishing gear continue to pose a dangerous, life-threatening risk to whales.”

VERIFY partner station NEWS CENTER Maine contributed to this report.