3 Dolphins Washed Ashore At Sandy Hook Have Died

HIGHLANDS, NJ — The three dolphins that washed up on the beach Saturday at Sandy Hook have died, the director of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center confirmed Monday.

The three dolphins washed up in very shallow water on the beach at about 11 a.m. Saturday. On Facebook, multiple local residents said a crowd had gathered around the dolphins and that some people were trying to push the dolphins back into deeper water.

However, many people reported that park rangers with the National Park Service stopped them from trying to help the animals and did not allow anyone to approach the dolphins.

"Protocol is that you don’t push stranded animals back in the water. That delays any medical attention they may need," said a spokeswoman for the National Park Service, which operates Sandy Hook.

"At 1:00 p.m. I arrived at Sandy Hook and noticed the low tide," said Middletown resident Helen Popo, who was on the beach to walk her dog. "I saw a park ranger truck and front loader and cars on the bayside. I walked over and saw a woman crying. I asked around and people said citizens went in the water to try to push them out around 11:00 a.m., but park rangers arrived and told them to get out of water."

"I was told all three were alive at that time," she continued. "One dolphin was moving when I arrived, but the beach was taped off. I counted seven rangers on beach and three people not in ranger clothes. All 10 stood in a group in front of the dolphins, talking. It was upsetting seeing the dolphins so close to the shore but them standing around! Just talking, chatting."

"At around 1:15 I walked the dog further away and when I returned five minutes later the front loader was now on beach. They were trying to drive it, but it was stuck in the sand. At this point the dolphin was thrashing in the water. The dolphin stopped moving between 1:15-1:30."

She said it was 1:30 p.m. when she saw the truck pull up from the Marine Mammal Stranding Center, the non-profit group responsible for responding every time there is an injured whale or dolphin that washes ashore on New Jersey beaches.

The Marine Mammal Stranding Center is based in Brigantine and the group said that by the time they made it up the Garden State Parkway, all three dolphins had died.

“We picked them up. All of them perished on the beach,” Sheila Dean, the director of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center, told NJ.com.

"It is never recommended that a stranded animal should be pushed back into the deeper water," said the Marine Mammal Stranding Center. "These animals strand for a reason and pushing these dying animals back into the water would only mean they suffer longer and will only wash up somewhere else."

Why We Ask You Avoid Beached Dolphins: Marine Mammal Stranding Center (Feb. 20)

Here is video someone posted of the three dolphins floundering in the surf at Sandy Hook:

Separately, hundreds of people, including New Jersey's only two Republican congressmen, gathered Sunday in a protest on Point Pleasant Beach to demand that Gov. Phil Murphy put a temporary halt on all offshore wind turbine construction.

That's because this winter — and recent years — has seen a spike in New Jersey whale deaths.

So far, 10 dead whales have washed ashore in New Jersey and nearby New York beaches this winter. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations (NOAA) said in this report that New York/New Jersey has been seeing an increased number of whale deaths since 2016, in what they call an "Unusual Mortality Event."

More than 20 whales have washed up dead on beaches from New England to the Carolinas since 2016, which NOAA said is "unusual." NOAA said it is still trying to find out what's causing the deaths.

But those who attended Sunday's rally — ranging from residents to politicians to commercial fishermen — suspect offshore wind construction may be responsible. They think the sonar used to map the ocean floor to build wind turbines may be hurting the whales' navigation, or impairing their navigation techniques, which would lead to an increase in whales being struck by boats.

“Collectively, New Jersey and New York have set the nation’s largest regional offshore wind target by aiming to install over 16 GW of offshore wind energy capacity by 2035,” said Congressman, Rep. Chris Smith (R-Manchester), who spoke at the rally, as did South Jersey Congressman Jeff Van Drew (R).

“No elected officeholder including President Biden or Governor Murphy — or any bureaucrat should advance such a sweeping, potentially dangerous policy without meaningful input from the people or by bypassing local officials as happened on Friday to benefit Orsted,” said Smith.

Orsted is the Danish company that already started building hundreds of wind turbines off Atlantic City.

Smith is calling for all wind turbine construction to be paused until the federal government can conduct a review. The review would not only look at how offshore wind activity affects whales and other marine wildlife but would also look at the effect of wind turbines on commercial and recreational fishing, boat traffic and tourism.

Smith said he has received no response to date from either the Murphy or Biden administration on his request to pause building the wind turbines.

The Marine Mammal Stranding Center said they are now doing a necropsy to determine what killed the three dolphins. They said on their Facebook page Saturday, the same day they retrieved the dolphin carcasses, that dead dolphins have washed up on New Jersey beaches in the past:

"In the summer of 1987, hundreds of bottlenose dolphins washed ashore in New Jersey, as well as along the rest of the East Coast. After several months of necropsies and sample collection, the cause was found to be a virus that had spread through the population. A similar event occurred in the summer of 2012, which was again found to be a virus."

Read full coverage of Sunday's rally, which a Patch reported attended and covered: Offshore Wind Moratorium Urged At Save The Whales Rally (Feb. 20)

Feds Want To Bring Wind Farms To 480,000 More Acres Off NJ (Jan. 2022)

Massive Offshore Wind Farms Coming To The Jersey Shore (Sept. 2021)