Whale Deaths: NJ Senators Join Democrats' Call For NOAA Transparency

NEW JERSEY — Democratic Senators want environmental officials to address a rising number of whale deaths with “transparency and timeliness,” including both of New Jersey’s Senate representatives.

Sens. Cory Booker and Robert Menendez of New Jersey joined Connecticut’s Richard Blumenthal, Oregon’s Jeff Merkley, and Rhode Island’s Sheldon Whitehouse in asking the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to release information about whale deaths and their causes, as the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

This comes amid a series of whale strandings on both coasts; in New Jersey, 11 whales have washed ashore since Dec. 5, 2022 according to the NJ-based Marine Mammal Stranding Center, which investigates and tracks the deaths of these animals. Most of the whales have been humpbacks, though a pygmy sperm whale which was too decomposed to examine was buried on scene March 24 in Ocean City.

In total, 30 whale deaths have been recorded on the Atlantic Coast since Dec. 1, according to NOAA. The administration has been tracking the deaths of whales for years, with a focus on an "unusual mortality event" among humpback whales since 2016.

“To protect these animals, we must follow the facts and address the known, documented causes of death,” Booker told the AP, adding that NOAA’s preliminary findings for many of the whales washing ashore on the Atlantic coast “have shown evidence of a vessel strike.”

Other aquatic mammals are washing ashore dead or in poor condition in New Jersey, too: 23 dolphins and two porpoises have been stranded since Dec. 28, according to the MMSC. This includes eight dolphins who washed ashore in Sea Isle City, a porpoise in Ortley Beach and the death of a mother and baby in Middletown.

Meanwhile, two Republican House representatives from New Jersey, Jeff Van Drew and Chris Smith, have joined GOP representatives from Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania in calling for Congress to halt offshore wind activities.

While preliminary necropsy results have shown several of the whales — including the Seaside Park whale (a female humpback) — had injuries consistent with having been hit by ships, the number of whale deaths in a short period of time has had various organizations pointing to offshore wind activities, which have faced significant opposition from their inception off New Jersey's coast.

A popular theory is that sonar surveying from offshore wind companies is causing the deaths of whales and dolphins, though multiple experts say no substantial evidence for this exists in the recent death investigations. Related article — Van Drew Asks Congress To Halt Offshore Wind At Jersey Shore

The Democratic senators “conspicuously did not blame — or even mention — offshore wind as a potential cause of the deaths” in their letter to NOAA, reported the AP’s Wayne Parry.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection said it is monitoring whale deaths along the state's coastline but says it is "aware of no credible evidence" that offshore wind-related work is causing the deaths.

Booker, Menendez, and the other senators were particularly concerned with deaths of two endangered North Atlantic right whales in Virginia Beach and North Carolina, and the almost 300 gray whales which have washed ashore on the West Coast since 2019, Parry reported.

The Democrats specifically asked NOAA to detail how it plans to address and prevent whale deaths; outline the agency’s procedures for notifying the public when a whale deaths is discovered and when the results of necropsy examinations are ready; and list any challenges the agency faces in determining the causes of whale deaths. They also ask whether specific actions by Congress or the administration might help.

There was an unusual dolphin mortality event 10 years ago, where more than 1,600 bottlenose dolphins died between July 1, 2013, and March 1, 2015, from Maine to Florida, including 153 bottlenose dolphins in New Jersey. The majority of the deaths were due to "cetacean morbillivirus infections, which is in the same family of viruses as measles," the NOAA report on that mortality event found. A number of the dolphins also had an underlying bacterial infection, the report said.

This story contains reporting from Patch’s Veronica Flesher and Karen Wall, and information from the Associated Press.