\ud83d\udc0bA dead whale drifting along Long Beach Island has started breaking apart in the surf\ud83d\udc0bThe heavily decomposed animal is believed to be a female fin whale\ud83d\udc0bBeachgoers are warned not to touch or collect any pieces that wash ashore.<\/p>\n
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BARNEGAT LIGHT<\/a> \u2014 The carcass of a dead whale is beginning to break apart in the surf off Ocean County, prompting a warning for beachgoers not to touch or collect any pieces.<\/p>\n The Marine Mammal Stranding Center said<\/a> the whale, believed to be a female fin whale, was first spotted floating 1.5 miles off Long Beach Island on Sunday morning. Described as “heavily decomposed and scavenged,” she continued to drift north and was tracked with help from the U.S. Coast Guard and reports from beachgoers.<\/p>\n The whale was off Surf City, outside the breakers, by Sunday evening.<\/p>\n The whale continued its drift overnight and was off 11th Street in Barnegat Light on Monday morning. By Monday afternoon, it was just south of the jetty, according to the MMSC.<\/p>\n ALSO READ: Hello Fresh is closing one of its NJ sites with 374 layoffs<\/a>Dead whale continues drifting along Long Beach Island<\/p>\n Timothy Brindley of Barnegat Light told the Asbury Park Press<\/a> that the whale appears to have been dead for several days.<\/p>\n The whale’s body has started to break up in the surf, with pieces breaking off. The MMSC is asking the public not to touch the pieces or collect them, as whales are federally protected.<\/p>\n Anyone who finds a piece should call the MMSC’s 24-hour Stranding Hotline at 609-266-0538.<\/p>\n Report a correction<\/a> \ud83d\udc48 | \ud83d\udc49 Contact our newsroom<\/a><\/p>\n Biggest layoffs in New Jersey this year <\/p>\n New Jersey started 2026 with more than 4,700 notable layoffs announced, revealed by employers in the first three months. By mid-August, the total was above 11,500. Here’s a look at the largest announcements.<\/p>\n Gallery Credit: Erin Vogt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\ud83d\udc0bA dead whale drifting along Long Beach Island has started breaking apart in the surf\ud83d\udc0bThe heavily decomposed animal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132,12456,12459],"class_list":["post-436261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-new-jersey-news","tag-ultimate-new-jersey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}