Whale Almost Beaches Itself At Sandy Hook

HIGHLANDS, NJ — A local Highlands man shared this video below to Facebook of a whale almost getting beached off Sandy Hook Tuesday. However, fortunately, the whale was able to make it into deeper water.

Bob Schoelkopf, who runs New Jersey's Marine Mammal Stranding Center, said his group was not notified about the whale, so it must not have been beached, he told Patch. The Marine Mammal Stranding Center is the state's go-to marine rescue group; they rescue injured ocean mammals up and down the coast of New Jersey. (And yes, a whale is a mammal.)

Whales off Sandy Hook are nothing new, said Paul Sieswerda, the founder of Gotham Whale. His group, based in Staten Island, researches the many whales that are now found in the waters off New York City and New Jersey. The species most commonly found right outside New York Harbor are fin and humpback whales.

"There are hundreds out there," he told Patch. "We are trying to catalog them. Whenever people see a whale off New Jersey, we'd love it they reported it to us on our citizen scientist Whale Wanted form."

Gotham Whale is affiliated with American Princess Cruises, which provides New York and New Jersey whale-watching tours for $48 per person. In fact, they kick off their summer 2018 season this weekend, on Saturday, May 5. The boat departs from the Rockaways in Queens.

Photo of the Sandy Hook dunes via the National Park Service.