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A beaked whale on the beach near St. Clair Avenue in Spring Lake was reported to the Marine Mammal Stranding Center at around 6 a.m. on Thursday, June 13, the group said in a Facebook post. A volunteer responded to document the 13-foot-2 whale, which was "in moderately decomposed condition."
A Spring Lake public works crew transported the whale to the department's yard to be examined by MMSC staff. The carcass was then transported to the state's Animal Health Diagnostic Lab in Trenton for a necropsy.
It was the 19th beaked whale that the Brigantine-based group has responded to since it was founded in 1978.
"Distinguishing between beaked whale species in the field can be challenging due to very subtle anatomical differences, so more examination is needed in a laboratory setting to identify this individual," MMSC said in its post. "Beaked whales are one of the least-known groups of marine mammals as they live in deeper waters offshore, spend little time on the surface, and exhibit elusive behavior, making it difficult for researchers to study them. There is little information on the abundance of beaked whales worldwide."
The beaked whale is the second dead whale MMSC has discovered on Jersey Shore beaches in 2024, according to data from the group. A humpback whale was found in Long Beach on Thursday, Apr. 11 and a necropsy showed it died from blunt force trauma.
A 44-foot sei whale was caught on the bow of a cruise ship that docked in the Port of Brooklyn, New York. It was brought to Sandy Hook for a necropsy on Tuesday, May 7.
There were 14 dead whales found on the Jersey coast in 2023 and nine of those had already been discovered by MMSC as of Tuesday, June 13, 2023.
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