Crews will work Thursday to remove the carcass of a minke whale from a New Jersey marina, where it has been lodged for a day.
The dead whale — seen floating in Leonardo State Marina in Middletown — was first reported to the Marine Mammal Stranding Center on Wednesday at 2:45 p.m.
“A local MMSC Stranding volunteer was dispatched and on scene within 20 minutes. The approximately 20-foot long minke whale was confirmed to be deceased, and wedged upside down between a breakwater and the bulkhead,” the center said in an online update Thursday morning. “The tide was dropping, making the whale inaccessible to equipment to recover it.”
The Brigantine-based non-profit is authorized by the state and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries division under a federal permit to rescue and help marine mammals in recovery.
A staff member at the center said Thursday that additional information, including the whale’s cause of death, was not available as an investigation remains ongoing.
NOAA said earlier this month that so far this year 66 large whales — including 10 in New Jersey and 12 in New York — have stranded on the Atlantic Coast. The latest whale found dead in Middletown makes 11 in the state and came over a week after another minke whale was euthanized after a failed rescue in Barnegat Bay.
Minke whales, identified by NOAA as the smallest baleen whale species in North America, have slender bodies that can grow as long as 35 feet and weigh up to 20,000 pounds. Historically, threats to the species have included fishing gear entanglement, climate change, ocean noise, vessel strikes and whaling.
The Marine Mammal Stranding Center has counted 14 dead whales so far this year including the latest to wash up in Middletown. NOAA officials previously clarified they attach some whales to New York’s tally based on where they were first reported and the agency classifies pygmy whales as small cetaceans, along with dolphins and porpoises.
The Brigantine volunteer center also responded to a dead dolphin becoming stranded in Barnegat Light on Monday. So far, 45 dolphins have washed up in New Jersey this year.
Dead marine mammals have become the center of a wide-spanning political fight playing out with the East Coast’s offshore wind ambitions as the backdrop. Although the deaths have been largely attributed to warming ocean waters changing patterns of whales’ prey, putting them in the path of larger vessels, some of those opposed to offshore wind continue to point to New Jersey’s emerging investment into the clean energy industry — which has not been scientifically linked to any of the beachings.
Still, some of the criticism grew earlier this week when Cape May County — joined by local organizers and businesses — filed a federal lawsuit to challenge the rigor of environmental analysis done before wind turbines are built at the Jersey Shore and elsewhere. Some environmentalists have also supported offshore wind’s promise for cleaner energy and what it means for the Garden State’s plan to wean itself off of fossil fuels.
The Marine Mammal Stranding Center, whose members have largely avoided the political discourse, has implored residents to follow the science and remain patient for more information as necropsies, or post-death exams, are finalized for the marine mammals.
Regarding the minke whale found this week, staff at the center said they will work with the Middletown Township Public Works Department on Thursday to begin recovery efforts for the carcass with the next high tide at about 11 a.m.
“At that time, the whale will be moved to a nearby location for a necropsy,” said the center, adding that updates will be released online.
NOAA, a federal science and regulatory agency, has studied a spate of minke whale deaths across the Atlantic Coast since 2017. The studies, called “Unusual Mortality Events,” have also been launched for humpback whales and North Atlantic right whales.
