Dead Baby Whale Washes Up At Leonardo Marina In Middletown

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — A dead baby whale washed up in Middletown's Leonardo State Marina Wednesday, and remains there as of Thursday morning, said Middletown Mayor Tony Perry.

The whale is a 20-foot-long juvenile minke whale; minke whales are common off the Jersey Shore.

"I am standing here looking at the whale as of 9 a.m. today," said the mayor. "What's frustrating is Fish & Wildlife said they cannot remove it and apparently the Marine Mammal Stranding Center cannot get up here until noon. Its body has now been scraping up against the bulkhead of the marina for 16 hours at this point. I'm curious to hear what the cause of death was."

The Marine Mammal Stranding Center said on their Facebook page they were on the scene in Middletown Wednesday afternoon, but the low tide made it impossible to retrieve the whale.

"(We will) begin recovery efforts with the next high tide, which is occurring at approximately 11:00 a.m. (Thursday)," they wrote. "At that time, the whale will be moved to a nearby location for a necropsy."

Fishermen in Leonardo Marina told the mayor they first saw the whale Wednesday morning, swimming in the marina and bay. Then at 5 p.m. Wednesday Perry said he started getting a series of calls from Middletown Police and residents that the whale had become trapped in shallow water in the marina, and was in distress.

"It was low tide, so at that point the whale was just basically resting on the sand. The water was only about 16, maybe 20 inches deep," he said. "It was in distress, and then at some point it unfortunately did pass away."

Middletown Police have been on the scene since Wednesday evening, and will remain there until the Marine Mammal Stranding Center arrives Thursday afternoon and removes the whale.

This past spring, a total of seven dolphins washed ashore in Middletown: two on local beaches, and five at Sandy Hook. A dead whale was also found floating in Raritan Bay this past June.

New Jersey and New York have been seeing an increase in dead whales and dolphins washing ashore for several years now: 25 dead dolphins and eight dead whales washed ashore in New Jersey this year, according to the Marine Mammal Stranding Center (MMSC). Higher numbers are reported by different groups elsewhere, and may likely include whales that washed up in December 2022.

The federal government says no causal link has been found between the increase in whale/dolphin deaths and the use of sonar mapping to build wind turbines. The sonar mapping just started happening in the past year.

Perry has already joined calls for a halt to the use of deep-water sonar and wind turbine construction.

"I've been mayor of this town for five years now, and not once in that time frame has a whale washed up on my beaches. And now we've had two in 2023," he said. "So I take the simple approach of what is different today than in 2019, 2021 and 2022? And that is that the sonar mapping has been happening out on the coast. That's the only difference."

"What is the harm in simply evaluating and stating once and for all with an independent study that the sound-blasting from sonar mapping is not endangering animals?" he said.

History of dead whales/dolphins washing ashore in or near Middletown:

Dead Humpback Whale Floating In Raritan Bay (June 2023)

7th Dolphin Washed Ashore Wednesday In Middletown Area (April 2023)

Whale Dies In Highlands Marina; Locals Upset It Couldn't Be Saved (June 2019)