Whales return to New
York City: Massive
mammals appearing
again in seas near city;
draws sightseers
BY Barbara Ross
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Sunday, January 30th 2011, 9:06 AM
Whales, dolphins and seals have made a triumphant
return to the waters just outside New York Harbor -
and the comeback has even sparked whale and seal-
watching tours.
Tom Paladino, captain of two ferry boats from the
Rockaways, says pods of aquatic mammals off the
city's coast have "increased tenfold."
"We used to see 10 whales a year - now we see 100,"
he said. "We saw dolphins almost on a daily basis
between June and September."
There are so many more seals in New York Harbor
that earlier this month he started weekend tours on
his ferry, American Princess.
On one trip last weekend, he counted 14 lolling on
a small island off Staten Island.
Cornell UniversityProf. Chris Clark estimates that as
many as 30 to 50 fin whales now live full-time in the
waters just past the Verrazano Bridge.
Acoustical monitors installed by Cornell in and near
the harbor discovered six species of whales touring
the New York-New Jersey bite - "a real menagerie of
giants," he said.
Blue whales are also among those showing up off
NYC shores (Fleetham/Visuals Unlimited, Inc.)
Experts say anti-hunting laws and cleaner waters
may have brought back whales and their cousins
after being largely absent for a century.
The numbers are "far, far more than expected, even
for me," Clark said. "I've been surprised elsewhere in
the world, but off New York - yikes!"
Much of the data was collected by a federally funded
study by Cornell and the state Department of
Environmental Conservation.
When acoustical traps were laid in New York waters
in 2008, researchers were surprised to hear not
only the 20-minute serenades of humpbacks, but a
cacophony of other fish making a racket, Clark said.
"Black drum fish lit up the night with their choruses.
Males were out there singing their hearts out: 'Hey
Baby! Hey Baby! Hey Baby!' There's a cornucopia of
life 10 miles off the Verrazano Bridge. It's mind-
boggling!" he said.
Officials said the study was supposed to last three
years but was abandoned when a DEC official
overseeing the project quit to get her doctorate.
Budget cuts made it impossible to hire a
replacement.
Clark said the whale study needs to be revived
because no one knows the extent of whale activity
around New York Harbor - or how best to protect
them.
Environmentalists are especially worried about
endangered species like the Right Whale, spotted
locally along with Humpback, Fin, Sei, Minke and
Blue whales.
The Right Whale is the slowest-moving local
species, traveling at no more than 10 knots, and is
the most prone to being killed by ships.
Clark is hoping to raise $1 million to revive the
whale study and install a sophisticated monitoring
system like one in Boston that notified boats to slow
down.
"We don't know what's off our coastline," said
Maureen Murphy of the Citizens Campaign for the
Environment. "I know more from 19th century books
than I do from anything printed in the last century."
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