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.

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.

It's not a secret.  The tippy top of the Jersey Shore is a pretty spectacular place.  There's so much to do at Sandy Hook.

Fishing, surfing, running, biking, sail boarding, exploring history, wild life watching and even going "full monte" at the only beach north of Florida where you can fully naked!

Today, we're saluting this great treasure of the Jersey shore that puts a magnificent end to the Bay Shore beach areas along the Raritan and Sandy Hook Bays and starts the 130+ mile north to south stretch of Atlantic coast down to Cape May.  Sandy Hook, we love it!

We were fortunate to have a lot of our friends on social media contribute images to our collection.  Others are contributed by the National Park Service!  More pictures will be added as we receive them and process them.

There's lots of places on Sandy Hook where the locals know the surf kicks in. New Jersey has lost the reputation of being "lame" for surfing thanks to our fall and winter seasons.

Interesting pic from our Facebook friend Dana because you can get an amazing sunrise and an amazing sunset - both over the water - at Sandy Hook.