Believe it or not, years of conservation efforts are making New York City ocean waters cleaner.
The clean-up is attributed to the Clean Water Act, marine animal protection measures and local efforts to clean up industrial waste.
As a result, fish and mammals that previously found the waters too dirty to swim there, are returning in droves. That and the fact that the waters are getting warmer.
The smaller fish, lower on the food chain, are attracted to the waters, and the bigger fish naturally follow wherever the food is.
“They know where good cuisine is. New York has always been famous for that,” said Paul Sieswerda, executive director of Gotham Whale.
While sharks have enjoyed most of the fanfare recently, whales, dolphins, stingrays and others are having their day on social media, and enjoying crowds of onlookers at the beach.
“These are still the sightings of a lifetime for me,” said Howard Rosenbaum, director of the Ocean Giants Program for the Wildlife Conservation Society, the organization which runs the New York Aquarium in Coney Island, Brooklyn. “Off of New York, you can see bottlenose dolphins and humpback whales with the greatest skyline in the world in the backdrop.”
On Sunday, nine whales were spotted in the NYC area. Ten years ago, only five whales visited the Big Apple. Now the number is in the hundreds.
Celia Ackerman, a naturalist who works with American Princess Cruises, captured images and posted them on Twitter. “It never gets old, it’s always thrilling,” she wrote, and expressed that, in the past, she couldn’t wait to move out of the city so she could study marine animals.
“I would have never imagined I could enjoy them here right in my backyard,” she wrote.
The increased sea life may require new rules about water traffic and observing the animals in a safe manner.
The companies that have boats that go out from the New York Harbor and Sheepshead Bay are enjoying the increase in marine life and income from the Whale Watching boat tours.
A Rockaway Beach surf instructor said, “I’ve been here 16 years, I have never seen stingrays,” he said. “Five minutes later, there goes five right by me, darting like UFOs, it’s crazy.”
