Environmental groups, including Clean Ocean Action, are calling attention to the recent rise in the number of dead whales washing ashore in the New Jersey area.

Members of these groups are calling on President Joe Biden to take action to protect the whales.

The Georgia Avenue Beach is the site where a dead 30-foot humpback whale washed ashore on Saturday.

This was the second dead whale to wash ashore in the Atlantic City area since Christmas weekend and the sixth in the last 33 days in the New Jersey and New York region.

Whale sightings along the shore are on the increase. In a study published over the summer by Rutgers University and other groups, whales are now visiting the New York Bight waters more frequently and staying longer to feed between Fire Island and Manasquan Inlet.

The director of the Marine  Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine says they are looking for the cause of these deaths.  Samples from the animals may determine their cause of death, whether the cause was from boat strikes, plastic ingestion or sonar usage.  It could take months to get that determination.

Clean Ocean Action says the only unique factor in this region, in the last few years, is the excessive scope, scale and magnitude of offshore wind power plant activity in the area.

Some environmental groups want to call attention to the 488,000 acres of offshore wind farms, which are still in the planning stages.

Cindy Zipf, of the Clean Ocean Action, will be sending a letter to the president, asking for federal action as these windfarms progress to further protect the whales.