![]() Mostly humpbacks, but also fin whales, minke whales, and even the North Atlantic right whale, a critically endangered species.” “People are always surprised to see whales here, but we’ve been doing these cruises for 10 years, and each year there’s been more and more sightings. “Normally we see at least one whale-our success rate has been 97 percent,” American Princess captain Frank DeSantis told me. On a 60-degree day in late November, I was on the upper deck of the American Princess whale-watching ship, scanning the waters off Rockaway Beach, Queens, in hopes of glimpsing the spout of an exhaling giant. “It shows that what we’ve been doing is working, so we need to keep doing that-and more-to protect these species.” Hot spotīy coincidence, I had a glimpse of NYC0089 just two weeks prior to its splashy city performance. “Seeing more whales in this area is a sign that the waters are cleaner and there’s more food here for these whales,” Brown says. Scientists say rising whale sightings are likely related to purer water and a brimming buffet of Atlantic menhaden, a fish favored by humpbacks, resulting from landmark environmental regulations passed in the 1970s as well as New York city cleanup efforts. “Including the Hudson River and Staten Island.” “With these increasing numbers, it’s not surprising that you’re seeing them in some unusual places,” says Brown. When I looked through the catalogue of 212 animals that Gotham Whale has documented since 2012, I saw it was a whale identified as NYC0089, which we first saw back in 2018 off Jones Beach.”īy Danielle Brown, Gotham Whale biologist ![]() ![]() “You could clearly see the unique markings on the dorsal fin, including a circular scar from a barnacle. “I immediately knew it was a familiar animal,” Brown says. Over the next three days, the humpback whale cruised by several popular tourist destinations, including the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum on Pier 84, One World Trade Center, and the Statue of Liberty, where a journalist snapped a photograph of the animal seemingly waving its tail at Lady Liberty.Ĭomedian Stephen Colbert joked on the Late Show that the whale had almost certainly come to pursue its Broadway dreams he even created a music video of its city tour to the tune of Frank Sinatra’s New York, New York, in whale song.ĭanielle Brown, a biologist with the nonprofit research organization Gotham Whale, first heard about the rare sighting when witnesses started tweeting photographs and video. “We couldn’t believe it,” one woman told NBC News, “a whale in the middle of the Hudson.” ![]() New Yorkers were stunned in early December when a creature as big as a school bus surfaced from the Hudson River. ![]()
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