REST IN PEACE: The whale’s burial site on the 19th Street beach is fenced off. Residents in the area were still complaining about the smell a week after the burial. (Photo by Ryan Morrill)
Barnegat Light Borough Council backed up the town’s action to bury the 30-ton whale carcass on the 19th Street beach a week before, bringing copies of letters from agencies saying that was the only way it could have been disposed of.
The 54-foot decomposing carcass is under 5 feet of sand close to the dune line, covered with lime and a 50-by-60-foot tarp, and fencing surrounds the spot.
“It’s not going to go anywhere,” said Councilman Ed Wellington, chair of council’s public works committee. “As the whale decomposes, it’ll stay underneath the tarp. We’ll continue to put sand on it.”
“We didn’t have a choice,” Council President Michael Spark told residents at the Sept. 7 monthly borough council meeting. The decision was “made by powers greater than us.”
Mayor Kirk Larson, a commercial scallop fleet owner, who had explained his large part in the decision at the time, was absent from the meeting, but the documents detailed the reasons he had given.
“Organs were eviscerated and liquefied,” wrote the Marine Mammal Stranding Center, a Brigantine-based organization that is overseen by and follows guidelines of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
“The carcass was already deteriorated and breaking apart in the wave action. Of the three NOAA-approved methods of disposal available to us, direct burial on the beach was the best method of disposal in this case. Further moving of the carcass (i.e. dragging off the beach, cutting the whale into pieces, and loading onto flatbeds for landfill disposal) would have further spread flesh and fluids over a larger area on the beach and could have been much more expensive for the township to accomplish. Towing to sea would have required EPA approval, which is a long process while the carcass would sit where it landed in the meantime. Towing is also the most expensive option for the township and the condition of the carcass would have meant it would break apart even further during the towing process, washing pieces of the whale back onto the beach over an even larger area.”
A fin whale that washed into Port Elizabeth on Aug. 7 is still awaiting a permit that was sought by the Army Corps of Engineers, officials said last week.
Another letter the borough handed out was from Ainsley Smith of NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office, Protected Resources Division, in greater detail.
Smith said towing a carcass out to sea and sinking it “is rarely a preferred option, for several reasons. Since a large floating carcass can be a navigational hazard, the plan must be coordinated with the United States Coast Guard, and as sinking a whale is technically ocean dumping, there are permitting and reporting requirements under the Environmental Protection Agency,” her letter said, in part.
She said burying the whale on the beach “is our preferred option” and “is commonly used and effective.”
Spark complimented Wellington and Public Works Superintendent Stuart McGowan for “getting a contractor” to bring machinery to move the whale and excavate the large hole to bury it. T & K Marine Construction performed the multi-step task Monday and Tuesday.
Complaints and questions had come in to the borough about the smell still at the site the week after the burial. One property owner on the 2000 block of Central Avenue said she went to the beach and “the smell is there. It was in my clothes. I had to go to 14th Street to get away from the smell.”
A resident said she is concerned bacteria could emanate from the site.
“The lime helps it to decompose quicker,” Municipal Clark Brenda Kuhn offered.
“The smell is in the sand,” Wellington said. “As the whale decomposes, it will sink. We go there every week to inspect it, and we’ll continue to put sand on it. It will become an ongoing project.”
Wellington described complications during the burial that included hitting water in the burial hole.
“We ended up with an 8-inch pump … the water coming out had blood in it. The bloody saltwater has been covered up.” He added that very soon, the carcass would work its way into the ecosystem.
In answer to another question from the public at the meeting, concerning “an emergency fund and an emergency plan for when this happens again,” Spark replied that “considering what we have done, I think we have an emergency action plan pretty well established.”
Borough officials said the cost of the burial thus far is $10,600. They also said a surplus fund in the budget could always cover such a situation.
Councilman Frank Mikuletzky said, in his opinion, disposal “shouldn’t be the typical town’s responsibility; it should be the state or the federal government’s.”
NOAA is not responsible for managing or funding carcass disposal, Smith wrote. She said, “We appreciate the town’s provision of heavy equipment and personnel to make this operation go safely and smoothly, so this particular situation was resolved before Labor Day Weekend.”
A Marine Mammal Stranding Center responder surmised that the fin whale may have been hit by a ship. The carcass also showed shark bites.
Councilwoman Dottie Reynolds reiterated her fear that planned offshore wind farm projects off the northeast coast will bring more wash-ups of dead or injured whales. “When it becomes a construction site out there, there will be so many more boats. It leaves a much smaller area that the whales can safely swim in, and they’re not going to know where it is.”
In other news, second reading was tabled on an ordinance regarding lot heights above road grade west of Central Avenue, and drainage. The planning board had not approved the ordinance as it was worded when it was introduced.
In committee reports, Mikuletzky’s police and public safety report reminded that traffic lights would be turned off for the off-season on Monday, Sept. 13, and to use caution.
He also noted “a lot of problem with bicycle riders not obeying laws.” There have also been cyclists not stopping at stop signs. “They’re doing what they want to do.”
At least one accident caused injury. “There was an accident that happened in an emergency where one of the first responders was severely hurt by one of the bicyclists that didn’t even obey what was going on,” but “went “blasting through.” The first aid squad member had been responding to a call when the incident happened.
“He got a ticket, but it’s going to be a slap on the wrist,” Mikuletzky said of the cyclist. “If they want to do this, they should go somewhere else, like the pines, where it’s not so congested.”
Total beach badge revenue of $224,726 was behind last year’s by about $3,000, Reynolds reported. That may have been because “we didn’t have enough checkers, and the booth was not open as many hours” due to staffing shortages.
The dog park took in $7,435 in passes for out-of-town residents, which was $2,100 more than last year. Dog park users were reminded to pick up after their dogs, and also to fill holes that the dogs dig, and to take dog toys back home with them. Holes and toys are hazards to emergency services when medical helicopters land in the field.
The public works department had another very active month. Renovations to the playground on West 10th Street are finished, to the delight of children, their parents and grandparents, Wellington and Reynolds said. Construction work at the new lifeguard house is completed, and the borough hall exterior painting contractor is finished. The public works department will be painting the shutters black.
— Maria Scandale
mariascandale@thesandpaper.net
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Barnegat Light Defends Decision to Bury Whale - The SandPaper
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