Massive Humpback Whale Washes Up Under Dock In North Wildwood
NORTH WILDWOOD, N.J. (CBS) -- New Jersey wildlife workers are dealing with a terrible sight – a humpback whale washed up under a dock in the area of Grassy Sound Marina just off the coast in North Wildwood.
"We're very popular right now with the whale," Jim Mooers, the owner of Grassy Sound Marina, said. "We're a whale watching site, I guess."
A 39 ton attraction caused quite the commotion Sunday as it shifted the focus from boating and fishing.
"I saw another guy running down the dock, took out my binoculars, took a peak and there was a whale stuck under the guy's house, a dead one," Moores said.
The whale, said to be a humpback, was spotted under the deck of this abandoned house early Sunday morning.
Mooers said this is a first.
"Never before… we had dead whales on the beach but nothing back here that I've been for 20 years," he said.
News of the giant mammal washing up to the dock spread quickly.
"It's been pretty busy," Bernie Strain said. "There's about 10, 15, 20 boats over there, people just wanna see a whale. I mean, I would rather see a whale alive than dead but it's a part of nature, I guess."
From social media posts to word of mouth, people came from far and wide to see it for themselves.
"We were whale watching about two weeks ago, we didn't see any whales and made our trip to Grassy Sound Marina and saw a whale," Strain said.
New Jersey State Police say the state's division of fish and wildlife will remove the whale around high tide.
But for those who got to see it, they say it was a whale of a time.
"I couldn't really tell what it was from far away but it's just kind of funny to think about remembering this is still the ocean and there's some pretty crazy, big whales and fish and all kinds of other stuff out there," Kristen Zarutskie said.