2nd whale to wash ashore in AC in 2 weeks raises questions

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A beached whale caused quite a stir in Atlantic City over the weekend, and it's not an isolated incident.

Seeing a 30-foot humpback whale washed ashore on Atlantic City's beach was not how Daryl Bulthuis expected to start his Saturday morning.

"It's kind of cool to see, but it's kind of sad," Bulthuis said. "I've been living here for 17 years and I've seen nothing like it."

You can no longer see the whale. Crews buried it under the beach.

"It's amazing how many people come out to see a dead whale on the beach," Bulthuis said.

While the whale is buried several feet under the sand, there are still whiffs of a pungent odor lingering in the air. What's also lingering are questions of why this whale washed ashore.

It's the second whale to wash ashore in Atlantic City in two weeks.

The environmental advocacy group Clean Ocean Action believes what's causing these whales to wash ashore is pre-construction activity for wind turbines being proposed off the Jersey Shore.

Executive director Cindy Zipf and other groups are calling on President Joe Biden's administration to take action.

"Stop all of the sonar," Zipf said. "Stop all of the pre-construction activity off-shore right now until we can determine whether or not that has had any impact or any part of the cause for all these whales washing up."

But Marine Mammal Stranding Center's Sheila Dean, whose organization examined the beached whale, says there's no evidence off-shore construction is to blame.

"There's so many other factors that can be happening," Dean said. "We don't really know at this point. Hopefully, we'll find out soon."

Once, she says, testing on samples from the whale is completed, but she says the whale did have a large bruise indicating it hit a large object like a boat, which alarms Bulthuis.

"To think we had something to do with the whale's passing is kind of disturbing," Bulthuis said.

In:
• Atlantic City
• New Jersey
• Atlantic County
• Whales