Another Whale Death This One A Deep Sea Species
A whale known to feed at depths of 1,000 feet or more was seen struggling in the waters off Long Beach Island on Tuesday. The animal was in such bad shape that it had to be euthanized by the Marine Mammal Stranding Center. That’s right, another whale death in the waters of the Jersey Shore.
This is the 14th whale death to be found on the Jersey Shore since December of 2022.
This particular whale is a female Pygmy Sperm Whale. The body of the whale was immediately brought to a facility in Trenton, New Jersey for a necropsy. The facility in Trenton is the Animal Health Diagnostic Lab, part of the state Department of Agriculture.
According to this description of the Pygmy Sperm Whale, “Pygmy sperm whales spend very little time at the water’s surface and almost never approach vessels. When they are seen at the surface, they are usually either swimming slowly or lying still.”
Here’s the post on this stranding:
Every time a whale death occurs in the waters off the Jersey Shore, a group of concerned citizens links the death to the wind turbine development off the coast of Atlantic City. Because of the nature of the feeding habits of this kind of whale, specifically feeding in deeper waters than most of the other whales that have been involved in the recent deaths off our coast, some commenters believe that if there is a causal relationship with the sonar mapping involved with the offshore wind project off the coast of Atlantic City, then this necropsy might be able to show that cause.
To date, the cause of death for other whales has been either unknown or attributed to vessel strikes; in other words: being hit by a big boat. In fact, the last whale to wash up on the Jersey Shore was hit by a boat twice.
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