The logs and journals of the early navigators from the 1600's onward comment on the great number of whales seen off the New Jersey coast.
Whales are still there but in depleted numbers.
The off-shore fishermen see them spouting and occasionally one may be seen by an observer outlooking at Barnegat Light. Much has been written about whalers from New Haven and Long Island settling Cape May as early as 1640 thus creating the impression that whaling was an exclusively Cape May area industry in early New Jersey. There was great whaling activity on Long Beach in the past A few persons can still remember the mementoes of this in the whale bone fences and gateways that once surrounded houses in Surf City and High Point. While the whalers worked on Long Beach, and for many years thereafter, the beach was strewn with large whale bones bleached white by the sun. The Long Beach whalers had their own method of operation which differed from the way the Cape May whalers worked.