A dead whale was seen floating in the Delaware Bay near New Jersey on Thursday, prompting inquiries from volunteers on how they could salvage the animal with potentially limited resources.
What is believed to be a large humpback whale was reported to the Marine Mammal Stranding Center, a volunteer-based organization often called to remove dead sea animals from New Jersey’s coastline.
Sheila Dean, the center’s leader, told NJ Advance Media the lifeless animal was reported to the organization on Thursday. The center notified the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration of the whale, but the federal agency did not return inquiries about how to recover the animal.
“Somebody would have to take us out if we were going to even look at it,” Dean said. “We’re sort of on standby right now.”
A NOAA spokesperson did not immediately return a request from NJ Advance Media for comment.
Specifications about the animal, such as its length, were unknown on Thursday afternoon, Dean said. Photos were shared online of the creature lethargically drifting in the bay.
The last dead humpback whale logged by the Stranding Center was listed in April on Long Beach Island, according to the organization’s records on its website. That whale was hauled from the beach after being reported to have suffered a fractured skull and other injuries.
While what caused the animal discovered Thursday to die remained unknown, state and federal officials have implied that vessel strikes are a common cause of whale deaths. The Delaware Bay is often considered a busy waterway for cargo ships ferrying freight from docks in New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania.
Critics of offshore wind development in New Jersey often blame the projects for marine mammal deaths. Both federal and state officials, however, say a lack of evidence can’t correlate the two.
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Eric Conklin may be reached at econklin@njadvancemedia.com.
