It is still unclear how a whale that washed up dead on a Seaside Park beach Thursday died.

A team of specialists associated with the Marine Mammal Stranding Center were expected to perform a necropsy on the whale on Friday. The results of that necropsy have not yet been released.

The 30-foot-long humpback whale was first spotted dead offshore Wednesday and drifted onto the sand Thursday.

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.

A $26 million research and monitoring project, paid for by wind farm companies, is already underway. That includes listening devices to track and locate mammals in specific areas, and sensors that can hear whale calls.

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.”