Yet another whale washes up on a NJ beach and is euthanized

The pygmy whale was alive when she was stranded, but her prognosis was poor and she had to be euthanized

By Veronica Flesher, Patch Staff, Wed, Aug 30, 2023 at 4:25 pm ET

​A live pygmy sperm whale was discovered stranded on the beach at Seaview Drive in Loveladies on Aug. 29, the Marine Mammal Stranding Center (MMSC) said.
​A live pygmy sperm whale was discovered stranded on the beach at Seaview Drive in Loveladies on Aug. 29, the Marine Mammal Stranding Center (MMSC) said. (Shutterstock)


LOVELADIES, NJ — A live pygmy sperm whale was discovered stranded on the beach at Seaview Drive in Loveladies on Aug. 29, the Marine Mammal Stranding Center (MMSC) said.

The whale, a 10-foot 9-inch long adult female weighing more than 800 pounds, was rescued by the MMSC with help from members of the Long Beach Township Beach Patrol.

The whale was rushed to the MMSC Center veterinarian.

“Upon examination, the whale was very lethargic and unresponsive, and had labored breathing,” the MMSC said. “After the medical assessment, it was determined that her prognosis was extremely poor, and she was unlikely to survive.”

The impact of stranding is traumatic on whales and dolphins as their body weight and organs are normally supported by the water surrounding them, according to the MMSC, but when they are stranded their own body weight causes crushing damage to their internal organs.

“The decision was made to humanely euthanize the whale to prevent further suffering,” the MMSC said.

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The whale was immediately taken to Animal Health Diagnostic Lab for necropsy, the MMSC said.

“The laboratory will be following NOAA protocols for sampling freshly deceased cetaceans, and preserving samples for analysis of the ears and other organs,” the MMSC said.

Read the full story here

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Ever hear of the e-vehicle maker VinFast? Neither did we

VinFast, the Vietnamese electric vehicle startup destined for North Carolina, is currently the world’s third-largest automaker by market capitalization as its blistering Wall Street debut continues to surprise. At market close Monday, a share of VinFast stock sold for $82.35 a share ­— up from $22 per share on Aug. 15, its first day as a public company. VinFast currently has a market value above $191 billion. For comparison, the market value of Ford, General Motors, and Honda combined is only $145 billion. Tesla is the world’s most valuable car company, with a market cap around $750 billion, and Toyota is second with a market cap of approximately $225 billion. Both automakers are profitable and have sold millions of cars. In contrast, VinFast has only delivered tens of thousands of vehicles and still registers steep losses

BY BRIAN GORDON, (Raleigh News & Observer)

Tesla. Toyota. VinFast. VinFast.

The Vietnamese electric vehicle startup destined for North Carolina, is currently the world’s third-largest automaker by market capitalization as its blistering Wall Street debut continues to surprise.

At market close Monday, a share of VinFast stock sold for $82.35 a share ­— up from $22 per share on Aug. 15, its first day as a public company. VinFast currently has a market value above $191 billion. For comparison, the market value of Ford, General Motors, and Honda combined is only $145 billion. Tesla is the world’s most valuable car company, with a market cap around $750 billion, and Toyota is second with a market cap of approximately $225 billion. Both automakers are profitable and have sold millions of cars. In contrast, VinFast has only delivered tens of thousands of vehicles and still registers steep losses.

On Monday, VinFast was among the market’s most searched and actively traded companies. According to the platform Stock Analysis, it was the day’s top trending company by a wide margin based on page views, attracting more interest than Amazon, Microsoft, Tesla, and Apple. As of 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, VinFast stock was down 35% on the day, but the company was still the market’s third-most valuable automaker. Having arrived to the NASDAQ exchange earlier this month after merging with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, VinFast turned heads on its first day as a publicly traded company. Its share price jumped 68% to finish at more than $37 a share, which has since more than doubled.

Read the full story here

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Public support for offshore wind energy slipping in New Jersey

The latest Monmouth University poll shows a drastic decrease in support although a majority still supports it

The EEW American Offshore Structures manufacturing plant in Paulsboro is the first monopile fabrication facility in the U.S., where the monopile windmills for Ocean Wind 1 are being welded, sandblasted, and painted. – RICH HUNDLEY III/NJ GOVERNOR’S OFFICE

By Matthew Fazelpoor, NJBIZ

Although a majority of New Jerseyans support the development of offshore wind, that endorsement has fallen dramatically, according to a new poll released Tuesday by the Monmouth University Polling Institute.

The survey found that just over half of residents (54%) are in favor of developing wind farms off the state’s coast versus 40% who oppose them.

That’s a stark plunge in support from a 2019 Monmouth poll on this topic when favorability stood at 76% with just 15% opposed. From 2008 to 2011, that support was more than 80%.

“There was a time when wind energy was not really a political issue,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute. “It consistently received widespread bipartisan support for more than a decade. That is no longer the case.”

Of course, the issue has become a hot-button and polarizing one with a number of community activists, local stakeholders, and a group of Republican lawmakers vehemently opposing offshore wind development – buoyed by a rash of whale and dolphin deaths as well as expressed concerns about tourism, sightlines, noise and more – that has led to calls for a pause in action until more is studied.

On July 6 at the EEW American Offshore Structures Paulsboro Marine Terminal, Gov. Phil Murphy signed three bills into law to promote a comprehensive vision for a 21st-century New Jersey economy, including legislation making major investments in the offshore wind and film industries and legislation promoting urban and residential development.
Gov. Phil Murphy and other prominent backers have pointed to offshore wind’s potential clean energy and economic benefits. – RICH HUNDLEY III/NJ GOVERNOR’S OFFICE

As NJBIZ has reported, despite those calls for a moratorium, things have been moving full speed ahead on the state’s three approved offshore wind farm projects as well as with the solicitation of future projects.

Gov. Phil Murphy and other prominent backers have pointed to offshore wind’s potential clean energy and economic benefits, in addition to federal agencies and experts finding no evidence linking the early phases of industry work (which currently includes ocean floor mapping using sonar technology) to adverse outcomes, as reasons not to pause.

The issue, though, is bubbling at the local levels up and down the Jersey Shore and will be at the center of this fall’s legislative elections.

Read the full story here

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Wyoming History: Sundance Had First Portable Nuclear Reactor In The United States

Aerial photograph of the first U.S. portable nuclear reactor facility near Sundance in the 1960s.
Aerial photograph of the first U.S. portable nuclear reactor facility near Sundance in the 1960s. (Courtesy Crook County Museum)

Editor’s note: Here’s an intereting story from a newspapaer with a most intereting name for we East Coast folk. Expect to see more of their stories here in the future.

By Kevin Killough, Cowboy State Daily

A small modular reactor demonstration project in Kemmerer has people in Wyoming excited for a nuclear future, but the Cowboy State has a little-known nuclear past. 

Wyoming was home to the first portable land-based nuclear power plant in the United States from 1962-1968, which was transported by air and built near Sundance. It provided 1.25 megawatts of power for three large radar domes at the now-defunct Sundance Air Force Station, which helped keep America safe from Communism. 

“It was during the Cold War, so they watched for missiles,” Rocky Courchaine, director of the Crook County Museum, told Cowboy State Daily.

The museum maintains an exhibit on the historic site of the first experimental nuclear reactor in the U.S.

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The reactor, known as PM-1, was part of the Army Nuclear Power Program. The idea was to have small reactors that could be deployed at remote sites that needed heat and electricity. 

The program developed a number of different small reactor designs, which were deployed at various remote locations, including Antarctica and Alaska. 

The location of the Wyoming reactor is remote today, but in 1962 when the reactor went online, it was largely wilderness. 

And in the early 1960s, “portable” wasn’t exactly a briefcase or backpack.

The reactor was assembled from 16 packages the size of shipping containers. They weighed about 30,000 pounds each. 

These containers were flown in by C-130 aircraft to Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota. From there, they were trucked to the Sundance Air Force Station about 10 miles north of Sundance on Warren Peak. 

The station was part of the Air Defense Command and fed radar data to the Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota. 

It was the era of the Cold War, and America was watching the Soviets closely. 

The radar installation on Warren Peak provided data that could be analyzed to determine if missiles were heading for America, or if detected planes were friendly or commies. 

Read the full story here

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Ugh! Another dead whale washes ashore. This one in New York

Officials are at beach just west of the Atlantic Beach...
Officials are at beach just west of the Atlantic Beach Bridge Friday securing a dead whale that washed up from East Rockaway Inlet. Credit: Jim Staubitser


By John Asbury, Newsday

Marine biologists and New York City parks officials are working to secure a dead humpback whale that washed ashore near Rockaway Inlet, west of Atlantic Beach.

The 30-foot whale was reported Friday afternoon and parks officials were working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to secure the remains and prepare it for a necropsy, said Robert DiGiovanni, chief scientist for the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society. 

Crews were guarding the whale’s carcass on shore and protecting the area from beachgoers approaching it in the surf, DiGiovanni said. 

A necropsy is planned on the whale Saturday to determine a cause of death. Officials did not know immediately when the whale died.

It is the third whale that has washed up near Long Island beaches this month and the 17th whale in the New York-New Jersey region.

That marks a record number of dead whales this year appearing on beaches in the region. Experts say a larger number of whales are coming closer to shore to feed and arriving earlier in the winter and spring, officials said. 

Officials said one of the main causes of these whale deaths has been trauma consistent with boat strikes,

It is the ninth humpback whale discovered off Long Island, in addition to three minke whales that died from a suspected biological condition.

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