Concerned residents are protesting in response to 10 dead whales washing ashore on New York and New Jersey beaches over the past few weeks.   

Six dead humpback whales have been reported in New Jersey and four in New York. Across the greater Atlantic region, the total has reached 16.   

Community members met at Jenkinson Aquarium. News 12 spoke with one protester who says people need to speak out.   

“It's not normal. It's not natural. Something is very wrong,” said Trisha Devoe of Miss Belmar Whale Watching. “Never in my lifetime have I seen this, and as a matter of fact, we just closed out our best whale watching season ever. We had sightings every single day, sometimes four and five whales at a time. We thought this year would be great until December came, and they started dying and washing up on shore.”  

Some Jersey Shore climate groups, Republican lawmakers and local officials believe the deaths could be tied to offshore wind survey work on the New York and New Jersey coastline. 

“When you look at some of the intense survey work that is being done, it's noisy for whales,” said Cindy Zipf of Clean Ocean Action.  

However, Gov. Murphy has responded to those concerns, noting the administration had no evidence of a link between the whale deaths and the survey work for offshore wind projects. 

MORE: Environmental groups call attention to spike in whale deaths; looking for explanation and help from federal gov't  

Republican Rep. Chris Smith introduced legislation Friday to require the U.S. Government Accountability Office to investigate the sufficiency of the environmental review processes for offshore wind projects. He says they are looking for the truth.  

“I don’t want to find out 10 years from now that we’ve had fish killed. Habitats have been decimated, not just the whales but everything else,” he said.