MANASQUAN, N.J. (WCBS 880) — A dead whale washed up on a New Jersey beach on Monday, making it the ninth whale to come ashore in the New York-New Jersey area since December.
People gathered on the beach in Manasquan to see the 35-foot-long juvenile female humpback.
A truck hauled the 20,000-pound mammals to a maintenance yard for a necropsy.
Sonar disturbances caused by offshore wind surveys are one theory for the increase in deaths.
Andrea Gomez, a spokesperson for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said that theory is false.
"Currently, there is no evidence to suggest that there's any linkage between offshore wind energy and any of the whale deaths," she added.
Gomez said 40% of necropsies pinpoint boat strikes or fishing entanglements.
In January, a humpback whale washed ashore on a Long Island beach and, according to NOAA, likely died from a vessel strike.
Manasquan Mayor Ed Donovan doesn't know what's going on with whales, but said that he's sure that "bait fish are much closer to shore because of offshore fishing."
"You can tell just by looking out at the ocean that there are a lot more whales in close proximity to the shore than there ever have been, or at least in my memory," Donovan said.
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