Three dolphins die after becoming stranded off New Jersey coast – DNyuz

Three dolphins reportedly died along the New Jersey Shore over the weekend.

Photographer Matthew Renk shared a video on Twitter on Saturday of the marine mammals floundering in the Sandy Hook Bay surf.

A rescue team from the Marine Mammal Stranding Center, a nonprofit that assists in strandings, was not able to save them.

“We took them in,” Sheila Dean (director of the center) told NJ.com. “All of them perished on the beach.”

This incident comes on the heels of weeks of similar events, including several large whale strandings along the East Coast and a dozen in the New York-New Jersey area since Dec. 1, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

New Jersey residents and some officials rallied in Point Pleasant Beach over the weekend, calling for a federal moratorium on offshore wind energy development until the reason for the recent uptick in whale deaths was determined.

“Without serious, aggressive and independent analysis on the impact of these projects, they must be paused,” Republican Rep. Chris Smith asserted. We want to know the truth. “We demand that our concerns be addressed and heard. We don’t want to be dismissed, ridiculed or trivialized. The people of New Jersey deserve better.”

However, experts with NOAA and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management have told reporters that they have not seen evidence offshore wind activity has caused any of the whale deaths. Furthermore, some environmental organizations and clean energy advocacy groups have said it is irresponsible to assume offshore wind is harming marine wildlife.

“At this point, there is no evidence to support speculation that noise resulting from wind development-related site characterization surveys could potentially cause mortality of whales. There are no specific links between recent large whale mortalities and currently ongoing surveys for offshore wind development,” NOAA said in FAQs.

Gov. Phil Murphy’s office stated to Fox News Digital on Tuesday that it takes all potential threats to state marine ecosystems and mammal populations very seriously. It will also ensure policy decisions are based in the most current science and evidence. The office said the notion that the administration and its federal counterparts have not adequately investigated whale deaths is “categorically false.”

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Fox News Digital’s Thomas Catenacci contributed to this report.

The article Three Dolphins Die after Being Stranded Off New Jersey Coast was first published on Fox News ..