🐋 Whale boat politics | Morning Newsletter

We’re still in luck with good weather. The sun will be out all day with a high of 78.

Our lead story focuses on a Jersey Shore boat captain who is in favor of wind energy and why it sometimes feels like he’s the last fisherman with his politics.

— Taylor Allen (@TayImanAllen, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)

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Capt. Paul Eidman, 63, wants you to know the whales are all right. Aboard the Jersey Girl off Point Pleasant Beach, he sees hundreds of them.

He knows the “antis” — those opposed to New Jersey’s planned ocean wind turbines — have tried to link the whale deaths to preconstruction sonar mapping conducted by wind energy companies Ørsted and Atlantic Shores. These companies are planning wind farms that will place hundreds of turbines in the ocean off Jersey’s coastal communities.

Reminder: Several elected officials and residents are fighting the wind farms with news conferences, resolutions, and protests. Cape May County has filed lawsuits to stop the project, and members of Protect Our Coast New Jersey have gotten arrested in Ocean City trying to stop Ørsted from working on onshore construction linked to the farms.

Eidman, who has been following the science, wants you to know that wind energy will save the whales from climate change, not harm them.

In the midst of relentless political fights, Eidman has maintained his position. But he’s increasingly alone.

In his own words: “We had five years of support, then all of a sudden this became politicized. A lot of the fishermen are conservative. I have plenty of Republican friends.The knee-jerk, red-hat, far-right-wing types are prevalent in fishing. I lost everybody. ... Now everybody hates me.”

Continue reading to dive into the world of whale boat politics.

Since Jonathan Holloway became president of Rutgers University in July 2020, he’s had to navigate the pandemic, a faculty strike, and a vote of no confidence from the university senate.

The Inquirer sat down with the university’s first Black president to discuss the challenges he’s faced, the decisions he made, and his path forward at the school.

The university senate voted no confidence in you last month. What was your reaction and is it going to change your course at all?

It’s not going to change my course. ... I very much believe in the direction we are going as an institution.

For reasons I never quite understood, a dynamic developed where the same group of people would be asking the same questions [at university senate meetings] every single time and they were increasingly hostile. September of last year ... I gave a Senate address during which a member of the Senate called me a liar.

I was like, wow, this is not a constructive way to engage. They don’t have to like my ideas but I have never lied to them.

You had a faculty strike last spring. How do you work on repairing those relationships?

We have 22 unions. We work beautifully with 17 of them. ... I know we are living in a moment of heightened union power. ... We’re also in an era of heightened vitriol everywhere in our society. ... So the work of repair is really challenging.

Read on for the complete interview, including his defense of the unpopular decision to merge Rutgers’ medical schools.

About how long did it take for Temple students to claim $200,000 worth of free Uber rides?

A) One week

B) One month

C) One semester

D) None of the above

Think you know? Check your answer.

👀 Watching: We finally have a new speaker of the House. Republicans unanimously elected Rep. Mike Johnson, a staunch conservative from Louisiana.

🧛 Perusing: A vampire and paranormal art museum inside an antique dealer’s Bucks County home.

Hint: It was a good run

BET CORRODE

We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here. Email us if you know the answer. Cheers to Lynn Major, who correctly guessed Wednesday’s answer: Lauryn Hill.

And that’s all I have for you. Enjoy the day and I’ll be back in your inbox tomorrow. 📧