To meet the need for accurate and readily understandable information about whale mortality events and the level of the potential risk to whales from offshore wind energy development activities, a specialist committee of the Offshore Wind Environmental Technical Working Group (E-TWG) has released an FAQ document to aid in the dissemination of scientifically sound answers to common questions. Committee members represent a variety of sectors including government agencies, offshore wind developers, and environmental nonprofit organizations. These FAQ responses were also reviewed by expert stakeholders that included members of academia, state and federal agencies, and other environmental organizations.  

This version of the document includes a total of 12 FAQs and is available at https://www.nyetwg.com/communications-committee.

FAQ responses include:  
What are stranding and Unusual Mortality Events?
What are some of the causes of stranding events?
Why are baleen whales dying  in the Northwest Atlantic and is this a new phenomenon?
What can we learn from stranding data?
What are the biases or limitations of stranding data?
How are necropsies conducted?
What are the major components of an offshore wind farm?
What are the potential effects of offshore wind development on whales?
Does offshore wind development kill whales?
What federal and international environmental laws protect whales?
What mitigation measures are available to avoid or minimize OSW effects on marine mammals?
What mitigation measures are being required by regulators in the U.S. for offshore wind?

We have developed this FAQ document with the intention for it to primarily be used as a resource for stakeholders who are in direct communication with the general public and who regularly receive questions from the public on these topics. It provides multiple levels of detail in response to each FAQ, including a concise answer to the question and a more detailed answer with associated scientific citations, enabling readers to have a better understanding of the facts and available information sources. In addition to scientific citations, FAQ responses in many cases also have a "For More Information" section that refers the reader to materials aimed at a general audience, including web pages, videos, and popular media. You may use the information in this document to create other materials to aid in the dissemination of information.  

We hope that you consider using the information in this document to communicate with stakeholders. In particular, this FAQ document was explicitly created to provide scientifically accurate summaries that can, in turn, be used to create social media posts or other materials to aid in the dissemination of information. If you have other ideas for how to best support stakeholder engagement on these issues, please email julia.gulka@briwildlife.org.

For more information about the FAQs, the committee, or to submit a new FAQ topic for the committee to consider addressing, please visit https://www.nyetwg.com/communications-committee or contact julia.gulka@briwildlife.org.