Since December, 23 dead whales have washed up on the East Coast, mostly between New Jersey and New York. Mostly Humpbacks are dying and coming onto shore at an alarming rate.

Autopsy reports from scientists have shown that many of the deaths have been caused by ship strikes.  A number of factors are contributing to the increase of death. Firstly, since pollution on the east coast shore has gone down, the whales have returned to the area.

However, because of this paired with the increase of online shopping and shipping overseas because of the pandemic, there are more and bigger tote ships coming across seas and getting in the way of these animals. The other causes of whale death are unknown, the bodies being too decomposed to determine anything. A rise in bacterial infections could also be killing these whales off.

source: The New York Times