Whales Spotted Off The Jersey Shore – And Mary Lee Is Back

The Townsquare News Network is reporting sightings of beluga whales off our coast.

Three beluga whales were spotted in the Shrewsbury and Navesink Rivers, and local aquatic celeb Mary Lee the great white shark has returned a bit further south.

Beluga experts from the Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, Connecticut along with the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine have been tracking the animals for three weeks. They were first spotted in Rhode Island and have been making their way south.

The founding director of The Stranding Center, Bob Schoelkopf, is worried for the whales. Schoelkopf says the area is a “death trap” for animals that have appeared there before. Due to headwaters going south in the river, dolphins and whales that have been there before have difficulty navigating back out.

The Stranding Center says boaters spotting the whales should steer clear of them and stay at least 150 feet away.

Meanwhile, Mary Lee the great white shark has returned to New Jersey. According to OCEARCH, the scientific organization tracking Mary Lee and other great whites, her last ping showed her location to be off the coast of Avalon. The group gets a ping from the 3,500-pound shark every time her dorsal fin surfaces.

Tom Mongelli contributed to this report.

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