COURT HOUSE – The Marine Mammal Stranding Center (MMSC) is reporting seven dead sea mammals on or near New Jersey beaches in May, four of them in Cape May County. The seven included five dolphins, one harbor porpoise, and one unidentified small cetacean.
A bottlenose dolphin washed up on a Stone Harbor beach, May 6, and was sent to the New Jersey Animal Health Diagnostic Laboratory (AHDL) for a necropsy.
Eleven days later, May 17, another bottlenose dolphin was stranded in the Court House section of Middle Township and sent to the MMSC.
Sea Isle City witnessed the next county stranding of a common dolphin May 21. That carcass was also sent for necropsy at the AHDL. Also, May 21, a bottlenose dolphin was sighted floating dead off the coast of Cape May. The carcass did not wash ashore.
While these sea mammals were found in the county, two common dolphins were stranded in Sea Bright and Spring Lake.
An unidentifiable, badly decomposed body of a cetacean was seen floating at Forked River.
The sea mammal fatalities have reignited a call from 50 mayors from communities in Delaware, New Jersey, and Maryland for an immediate moratorium on all offshore wind activity.
Among the mayors who signed a letter calling for the moratorium were Cape May County mayors from Stone Harbor, North Wildwood, Wildwood Crest, Wildwood, Ocean City, and Middle Township. The letter calls the current level of marine mammal mortality unacceptable.
Lower Township – Who are these people that are obvious experts on trash cans and leaf pick-up? Maybe they don't have any trash to put out or leaves in their yard!!
