Dead whale washes ashore in Seaside Park; mayor says offshore wind work needs to stop

The initial discovery in New Jersey occurred on the same day that another whale washed onto a jetty in Breezy Point, New York.

News 12 Staff

Mar 2, 2023, 12:13 PM

Updated 641 days ago

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A dead whale has washed up on the beach in Seaside Park.
Seaside Park police tell News 12 New Jersey that the owner of Funtown Pier donated his own heavy equipment to help move the whale at no cost to the town. It was unclear how the whale died.
This whale was first spotted Wednesday about a mile offshore. The wind and tides brought the whale ashore. Seaside Park Mayor John Peterson was one of the first people to see it.
“Sadness, mixed with outrage,” he says.
Despite scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration repeatedly saying that there are no connections linking offshore wind farm activity with the recent deaths, Peterson and more than 30 other mayors in New Jersey continue to call for a pause on the work.
“People of the coast, our fishing community, our residents, our tourists, officials – have all joined together and saying stop on the preconstruction activities of the wind farms until we have scientific answers from independent authorities,” Peterson says.
More than a dozen whales have either washed up or have been spotted offshore in the waters of New York and New Jersey since Dec. 1.
Republican Rep. Chris Smith wrote in part, "The fact that these whale deaths are occurring concurrently with the ongoing sound surveys and the underwater noise generated by acoustic vessels—even before construction and pile driving begin—cannot be ignored.”
The Marine Mammal Stranding Center, caught in the middle of this debate, is once again at the location and will perform a necropsy on this latest whale. The center posted on its social media pages all previous necropsies from the recent whale deaths have not yet been finalized - meaning it is still waiting for the results.