Dolphin washes up onto NJ beach — 4th one in 2024

🐬50 dolphins were found stranded on Jersey Shore beaches in 2023

🐬One of the whales found this year was pregnant with a severed tail

🐬The Atlantic Shores wind project continues off the coast of NJ

AVALON — A dolphin was found stranded on a beach Monday, the third of the year.

A group called Save the Dolphins and Whales NJ reports that a short-beaked common dolphin was found washed up in Avalon.

The Marine Mammal Stranding Center reported it was found dead with some evidence of scavenging. The dolphin was taken to the New Jersey Animal Health Diagnostic Laboratory for a necropsy.

Video of the dolphin taken while it was still on the beach shows blood coming out of its mouth.

It is the fourth reported dolphin stranding of the year by the MMSC.  A bottlenose dolphin was reported in Little Egg Harbor on Jan. 22 while a pregnant common dolphin with a severed tail was found in Harvey Cedars on Jan. 29.

Wind project work continues

50 dolphins stranded themselves on New Jersey beaches in 2023, according to the MMSC's count. By this time a year ago seven dolphins had stranded themselves including three together on Feb. 18 in shallow water off Sandy Hook.

Seventeen whales stranded themselves in 2023, according to the MMSC. None have been found so far in 2024.

Critics of offshore wind projects have insisted that prep work for these energy developments has been the cause of the strandings and asked for a pause in the work. The request has been rejected by the Murphy Administration as NOAA says there is no scientific evidence linking the deaths to the projects.

Economic factors ended the Empire Wind 2 project, which was to be built off the coast of New Jersey in Long Island Sound in January. Developer Ørsted announced in October that they were canceling their Ocean Wind 1 and Ocean Wind 2 projects.

Work continues on the Atlantic Shores project 10 miles off the Jersey Shore

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