Many attendees of Sunday’s rally are locals to the New Jersey coast and say they came out to express their concern.
“I’ve gotten lots of information from different sources, and you can’t argue with the fact that 10 whales have washed up,” said Kim Wetzel, 57, an Ocean City resident.
Wetzel works in a primary school and became involved through whale advocacy work in Ocean City.
“Even though we don’t have the facts yet, the facts will come – but we’re seeing the evidence with our own eyes,” Wetzel said.
“Also, what’s real is common sense,” Michelle Gehring, a stay-at-home mom, also from Ocean City, added.
Gehring said that outside whales, residents of Ocean City were complaining that offshore wind projects were causing their houses to shake.
Both felt that more time and research was needed to understand how offshore wind projects affect the environment.
Zipf, who has organized for decades with her group Clean Ocean Action, said organizers originally supported a pilot project for wind turbines. But they have grown concerned as larger projects develop without a complete understanding of the turbines’ ecological impact.
“[People] are outraged because they feel like they weren’t told that this has been happening,” Zipf said.
“All of a sudden, their ocean is being turned into a giant power plant.”