7th Dolphin Washed Ashore Wednesday In Middletown Area

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — Another dead dolphin washed ashore in Middletown Wednesday afternoon.

This was first reported by Middletown Mayor Tony Perry, who posted the above photo to his Facebook page. The dolphin was badly decomposing and it washed ashore west of the Middletown/Navesink side of the Oceanic Bridge.

Perry told WPG radio station that this is the seventh dead dolphin to wash ashore in Middletown this spring: Two so far on local beaches, and five at Sandy Hook.

In 2023, there have now been 25 dead dolphins that washed ashore in New Jersey, according to the Marine Mammal Stranding Center (MMSC). And eight dead whales. (Higher numbers are reported by different groups elsewhere, and may likely include whales that washed up in December 2022.)

The federal government, under NOAA, has declared that New Jersey has seen higher-than-normal number of humpback whales deaths since 2015, and they classified it "an Unusual Mortality Event (UME)."

Only NOAA can determine an Unusual Mortality Event for marine species.

However, the director of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center, Sheila Dean, did say New Jersey is also currently seeing "an unusually high" number of dolphin deaths.

On Thursday, the MMSC released what they know so far of what has caused the animals' deaths; you can read it here: https://mmsc.org/cetaceans-200...

Some necropsy results lists bacteria infections, blunt-force trauma from being hit by a boat and parasites.

However, nearly all of those necropsy results are still pending.

On Thursday, the Marine Mammal Stranding Center wrote:

"This is not the first UME investigation that the Marine Mammal Stranding Center has been involved with. 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."

Some speculate windmill turbine construction is causing the deaths, as construction can interfere with sonar. New Jersey's two Republican congressmen are calling for a halt to wind turbine construction until it can be assured that is not what is killing the dolphins and whales.

They have not been successful; wind turbine construction and sonar mapping is taking place currently in the Atlantic Ocean off New Jersey.

It Was A Mother Dolphin And Her Baby That Died In Middletown Last Week (March 20)