Whales in NYC!
You know, within a few tens of miles of Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan Opera of NYC, there are the largest animals on this planet, crooning and singing arias and magnificent songs, just offshore. And if you went to the very top of the Stature of Liberty, looking out onto the ocean south of NY Harbor … you’d be looking onto the stage on which the animals are singing. They’re right there.
– Christopher Clark, Director of the Bioacoustic Research Program at Cornell University’s Lab of Ornithology
There are whales right here in New York Harbor. And seals and dolphins and a wealth of marine life. Wildlife is returning not just to the skies and parks of the city, but to its waters.
Spouting humpback whale
Tom Paladino of American Princess Cruises in Queens has been leading wildlife-watching boat tours into the waters of New York Harbor and beyond. In a recent article in the NY Daily News, Paladino reports a tenfold increase in whale sightings in recent years, and says he saw dolphins virtually every day from June to September.
The Daily News posted a nice video of whales and seals seen from one of Capt. Paladino’s boat.
Six different species of whale have been identified in New York waters: Humpback, Minke, Fin, Sei, Blue and the endangered North Atlantic Right whale, of which fewer than 400 still exist.
Eubalaena glacialis (North Atlantic Right whale) with calf
In 2008, the Bioacoustic Research Program at Cornell University’s Lab of Ornithology placed acoustic devices in the waters around NYC to monitor and study the whales. Yes, the famed ornithology lab has a pioneering acoustic wing that studies animal communication with a focus on birds, elephants and whales. According to an article in the Daily News, a group of 30 to 50 fin whales appears to have taken up full-time residence just past the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.
Verrazano-Narrows Bridge; Photo: Andreas Praefcke
Thrilling as this news is, it’s also worrisome. The waters around New York Harbor are filled with boat traffic, placing the whales in danger of collisions, a leading cause of injury and death.
The New York bioacoustic study was short-lived, but Christopher Clark, Director of the Bioacoustic Program, is trying to raise money for further research as well as for a monitoring system to warn ships of the presence of whales.
Listen to NPR’s joyful 2008 interview with Clark as well as to the sounds of New York’s whales:
If you walk by the rivers, keep your eyes open for sea mammals.
Last March brought a dolphin to the East River
Photo by Bill Hannan of FDNY Marine Company 6
and a seal to the piers along the Hudson.
Seal at 64th Street and the Hudson River.
As native New Yorker Fats Waller so eloquently put it, “One never knows, do one?”
Fats Waller
Tags: Christopher Clark, Cornell Lab of Ornithology Bioacoustic Program, NYC marine mammals, NYC whales, species of whales in NYC, whales Verrazano-Narrows Bridge
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March 13, 2013 at 7:47 pm
[...] Spotted in East River Hudson River Dolphin Whales in NYC Hudson River Dolphin in [...]
June 20, 2012 at 5:42 pm
[...] addition to the whales of New York Harbor, marine mammals that have occasionally made their way into the lower Hudson include harbor seals, [...]
January 21, 2012 at 4:12 pm
This is wonderful. The waters must really have been cleaned up a lot in the last 40 years. I recall a manatee being in the Hudson a couple years ago too.
January 26, 2012 at 8:07 am
Yes, it’s nice to have some positive environmental news, isn’t it? The Hudson really is ever so much cleaner than it was, thanks to so much hard work and tireless advocacy onthe part of some far-sighted people, including Pete Seeger!
December 3, 2011 at 11:13 pm
This is an amazing coverage of this story..it makes me really happy to know that our cetaceans can come home to our waters again!
December 15, 2011 at 4:07 pm
Thank you so much, Marianne. It is quite something to realize our waters are full of creatures.
September 5, 2011 at 3:49 pm
Great article, very informative. I also enjoyed the boat ride. It is very beautiful. Thanks
February 1, 2011 at 7:59 pm
O frabjous day! Hulloo hullay! A life-enhancing blog–long may those gracious mammals swim and sing in Noo Yawk waters.
Thank you, thank you for the great info.
February 1, 2011 at 4:38 pm
a seal basking on a tire
February 1, 2011 at 12:36 pm
Awesome post! Thanks for sharing this info! As a kid who grew up in Manhattan in the 70s & 80s I would never have imagined this! Thanks for helping make my day!
February 1, 2011 at 9:58 am
Great post. Thanks as always for all your NYC wildlife stories.
February 1, 2011 at 9:27 am
Fascinating and wonderful. More, more, More. Daddy-O
February 1, 2011 at 9:02 am
WOWOWOW!!! What a marvelous post – I love whales – and to think they are right there in NYC harbour – Thanks for telling us this wonderful story… Let’s cheer Chris Clark on with his research, truly astounding. There is so much to learn about these magnificent sea creatures – about all of them that are returning to your great city’s waters.
February 1, 2011 at 8:59 am
Even a modest return to the teeming waters of the pre-Columbian onslaught is worth celebrating. Whale, ho!
February 1, 2011 at 2:19 am
30-50 whales under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge? Unbelievable. I’m sure most New Yorkers don’t know this, heck, most people don’t know this. Thanks for shedding light. I hope Chris Clark gets his money! (those whale sounds are so familiar, reminding us we’re one and the same.)