Whale Dies In Highlands Marina; Locals Upset It Couldn't Be Saved

HIGHLANDS, NJ — A multi-agency response from the New Jersey State Police, state Fish & Wildlife and even volunteers from the Marine Mammal Stranding Center was not enough to save a juvenile minke whale that became trapped and died at the Sandy Hook Bay Marina in Highlands on Sunday.

Several eyewitnesses who watched the entire incident described a prolonged, tragic scene at the marina in Sandy Hook Bay: The 18-foot-long adolescent whale became trapped in the breakwater wall and, in a confused panic, repeatedly beat itself against the steel wall. A group of experienced divers who just happened to be there said they are very angry State Police and others did not allow anyone in the water to try and help the dying animal.

"It was horrible, the poor thing ... there was just bloody froth coming from it," said one of the divers, Gary Fillipone, a 62-year-old Highlands resident. "All these agencies came in and could not help it at all. It was just horrible."

The whale got stuck at about 1 p.m.: It appears the minke whale became disoriented in the shallow water and swam into the breakwater, which is a concrete and steel wall separating the marina from the rest of the bay, said Bob Schoelkopf, director of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center (MMSC). His group, which is privately run, rescues stranded marine mammals throughout New Jersey, and they directed rescue efforts at the scene Sunday.

Fillipone, the diver, said he and his friends, all longtime divers, could have helped yesterday — if only they had been allowed in the water.

"We'd been out diving and were just returning to the marina that afternoon. We saw what I at first thought was a kids' pool toy in the wall and someone told us it was a stuck whale," said Fillipone. "We all really wanted to help. I didn't dive that day and I had three full tanks of air. I could have tried to save it."

But State Police would not let anyone in the water as the whale thrashed about.

"I'm just fed up with authorities right now," continued Fillipone. "There were four of us that were maybe able to try and do something. If anyone can save that animal, it's four divers who were in the right place at the right time. And they would not let us help."

Fillipone said he's done underwater salvage recovery before and one of his friends on the boat has helped with the Monmouth County Sheriff's dive team. Fillipone also said he's been hit "by the fin of something" while doing a night dive once, and he survived.

Someone tried to tie a rope onto the whale's tail and pull it free, said Fillipone, but State Police removed the rope and screamed at the divers that it wasn't working.

After several hours of helplessly watching the whale thrash, Fillipone said he and his friends left the marina, feeling powerless and disgusted. The whale died at about 5:30 p.m. Sunday. Witnesses said the tide rose and the whale drowned.

"Nobody even got in the water to save it," said Fillipone.

That is accurate: State Police confirmed to Patch they were there in a boat, but their main priority was to set up a perimeter and keep everyone back from the whale as it thrashed about.

"State Police secured the scene. We don't do animal rescue," said Sgt. Larry Peele, a spokesman for the New Jersey State Police. "That is not our responsibility. Our responsibility is to make sure nobody was in danger."

Contrary to other reports, it was not the State Police dive unit that was sent in, either. It was only State Police operating from a boat. "Our dive team only gets involved if there is a person in distress. Again, we don't do animal rescue," Peele reiterated.

Police, federal government defend keeping people away from the whale

Instead, it was volunteers from the Marine Mammal Stranding Center (MMSC) who were the lead agency on the scene, Peele said. The MMSC has an agreement with the state Department of Environmental Protection and the federal National Marine Fisheries Service to rescue stranded or stuck whales, dolphins and seals up and down the New Jersey coast. That agreement is overseen by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a powerful federal agency.

"NOAA authorizes a network of stranding response partners to respond to marine mammals in distress from Maine to Virginia. The Marine Mammal Stranding Center is the authorized responder in New Jersey," said a NOAA spokeswoman.

Schoelkopf, who was not personally on scene, said it was his volunteers who told the State Police to keep people out of the water yesterday.

"You have a 2,000-pound whale thrashing itself to death and you don't put a 180-pound person in to save it," he told Patch. "Those divers have no experience whatsoever working with a 2,000-pound whale. Our team has 45 years of experience rescuing marine mammals and even they did not attempt to enter the water yesterday. Anyone getting in the water would jeopardize themselves and the animal by even just approaching it."

Another witness to the entire scene said he partly agrees with the divers.

"It was really difficult to watch," said Scott Policastro, the captain of Jenna P. Sportfishing, a commercial fishing charter that operates out of Sandy Hook marina.

"I agree with what they are saying to some extent, but I don't think a lot could have been done differently yesterday, honestly," said Policastro. "The thing weighs a couple thousand pounds and the State Police have a responsibility to keep everyone safe."

After hours of struggling, the minke whale died early Sunday evening.

"The whale became disoriented and it beat itself to death in the steel gridwork," said Schoelkopf. "He became nervous and worked himself farther into the wall. It just kept slamming itself into the concrete wall until it was bleeding."

"Rescuing whales is dangerous. Even well-trained and experienced marine mammal responders have been severely injured and some have even died while trying to help an injured, struggling animal," said NOAA spokeswoman Jennifer Goebel.

MMSC volunteers were en route to Highlands Monday morning to pick up the whale's carcass and perform a necropsy on the whale, Shoelkopf said. This was an 18.24 foot male, NOAA said. It was an adolescent whale and not a dependent calf — it had been weaned and was feeding on its own, according to NOAA. Minke whales reach sexual maturity at about 23 feet, so it wasn’t quite an adult.

Both Schoelkopf and the NOAA spokeswoman said there has been an unusually high number of juvenile minke whale deaths in the past year, and his group is working with NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service to find out why.

"It's unusual a baby minke whale was even in so near land," he said. "They are usually much farther out at sea."

"Right now, we have a team of scientists and stranding responders doing a necropsy to see what they can find out about what was going on with this whale," said Goebel, from NOAA. "There is an unusual mortality event happening with minke whales along our coast. We have been seeing many more deaths of minke whales than is usual."

She continued:

"Right now we don't have a cause of these increases in deaths, but in the ones we have been able to necropsy and find results for, the causes seem to be infectious diseases and human interactions (entanglements in fishing gear or vessel strikes)."

See a video of the whale thrashing in the steel wall that Policastro provided to the Asbury Park Press. If anyone has photos or videos from the scene Sunday, they can send it to carly.baldwin@patch.com if they would like it published.