A dead 50-foot fin whale washed ashore Friday on an Ocean County beach, according to the Marine Mammal Stranding Center.
The mammal was found in the surf in Barnegat Light at the northern tip of Long Beach Island.
Officials from the center said they were on scene until sunset Friday to come up with a plan to remove it and perform a necropsy on the whale ahead of Sunday’s forecasted coastal storm.
The necropsy will help determine how the mammal died.
No other details were shared by the center on Friday night.
Whale deaths and strandings are not new for Long Beach Island.
In October, a humpback whale was found stranded on a sandbar off the southern tip of Beach Haven. The young, 29-foot whale, died two days later.
In 2024, a dead humpback whale washed up in Long Beach Township.
That year, nine whale strandings were reported in New Jersey; there were four reported last year, according to stranding center statistics.