The spate of whale strandings in New Jersey — seven in just over the last month — has prompted calls for a cessation of seafloor surveying by wind energy developers in the region. Clean Ocean Action and other groups demanded the shutdown pending an investigation into the “unprecedented number of dead, predominately juvenile, whales washing up in the last 33 days on the New Jersey/New York coastline.” They suggested the surveying — which can incorporate remote sensing technologies like sonar and magnetic mapping — is a likely culprit in the whale deaths. While that view is in no way universal, underwater sonar systems’ high-decibel sound waves have long been suspected to cause physiological damage to marine species.

Gov. Phil Murphy told NJ Advance Media Friday he does not believe that offshore wind development should be paused, “although we’re taking it very seriously,” he said of the whale deaths.

The seventh whale, a humpback, washed ashore in Brigantine on Thursday. A necropsy is being carried out by, among others, the Marine Mammal Stranding Center, which noted that preliminary results suggest it “suffered blunt trauma injuries consistent with those from a vessel strike.”

According to the Marine Mammal Stranding Center, “Over the last 20 years, there have been an average of seven whale strandings per year in New Jersey. During the last two years, whale strandings in New Jersey have been at or just below the average … The largest number of whale strandings occurred in 2019 and 2020, with twelve whales stranding during both years.” Five stranded in 2021.

“In addition to Humpback whales, species that have stranded in New Jersey since 2002 include: Right whale, Fin whale, Minke whale, Sei whale, Sperm whale, Pygmy Sperm whale, Dwarf Sperm whale, Pilot whale, Melon-headed whale, Beluga whale, Cuvier’s Beaked whale, Northern Bottlenose whale, Blainville’s Beaked whale, True’s Beaked whale, and Gervais Beaked whale.”