Three Dolphins Stranded at NJ Shore Beaches

After nearly a month without any reported marine life strandings, three dolphins have died at the Jersey Shore this week.

According to the Marine Mammal Stranding, a sub-adult male common dolphin was initially found alive in Sea Isle City on Monday and pushed back out to sea by beachgoers. It stranded itself again and was euthanized due to being underweight and lethargic.

Two more dolphins, both sub-adult bottlenose dolphins, were found Wednesday in  Mantoloking and Keyport.

Dolphin in Keyport

Keyport resident M.D. Abramowitz told TAP into Hazlet & Keyport she found the dolphin when she went to feed swans Wednesday morning at a beach in the back of her home around 6 a.m. and thought it was a fake.

All three are undergoing necropsies by the Marine Mammal Stranding Center or the New Jersey Animal Health Diagnostic Laboratory.

No strandings for a month

This year, 45 dolphins have washed up on New Jersey beaches.

There had been no dolphin or whale strandings for nearly a month since an adult pygmy sperm whale washed up on a beach in the Loveladies section of Long Beach Island on August 29.  The next day a  bottlenose dolphin was found stranded in Cape May.

Wind turbine controversy

Four offshore wind projects have been approved by the federal government for the U.S. East Coast, according to the American Clean Power Association. Ocean Wind I, the first of two Orsted projects in New Jersey, will place 98 turbines about 15 miles off Atlantic City and Ocean City, generating power for 500,000 homes.

Critics of the projects have blamed work on the projects for confusing marine life causing them to swim into the path of ships and have asked for a pause in work to study the impact. Gov. Phil Murphy contends there is no scientific evidence and has refused to consider such a pause.