1 of 1- Goose
- Cogito ergo sum
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A Whale in the Hudson!
A Whale Takes Up Residence in the Hudson River
When Dr. Rachel Dubroff and her family chose their apartment at Riverside Boulevard and 63rd Street in Manhattan, they were thrilled by its picturesque views of the Hudson River. But they did not expect to have a front-row seat to an annual whale-watching event.
For two years in a row, Dr. Dubroff said on Tuesday, she has spotted a whale swimming outside her living room window. Last year, she didn’t quite believe the sighting was real. But she saw a whale again on Saturday — and in the same spot again on Sunday — and news reports confirmed her hunch: The Hudson River has a resident humpback.
“It was general excitement and shock,” Dr. Dubroff, 39, said, “and how thrilling that a whale can be in the Hudson, based on what we see float by sometimes.”
Indeed, the Hudson, as scenic as it is, does not scream “whale habitat.” But experts say cleanup and conservation efforts have led to cleaner waters and an abundance of fish, amenities that have attracted at least one humpback whale to the river waters off Manhattan this month.
There are other humpbacks in waters nearby. According to Jen Goebel, a spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, whales have been spotted near New York. And the Coast Guard said in a statement on Monday that it had fielded reports of a whale sighting in northern New Jersey waters, swimming from Sandy Hook to Raritan Bay.
The city-dwelling whale that Dr. Dubroff saw in the West 60s last weekend is thought to be the same one that has traversed the waterway, traveling to Liberty Island and to the George Washington Bridge, since it was first sighted around Nov. 9, according to the Coast Guard.
Paul Sieswerda, the president of Gotham Whale, an organization that tracks marine life around the city, said the whale had been seen by New Yorkers who have captured photos and videos of it feeding and swimming.
Mr. Sieswerda said that it was common to see humpbacks in the waters off New York at this time of year, as the whales finish up their feeding season and begin to think about heading south to breed in warmer waters.
“The whales found this spot as a feeding ground,” he said. “Rather than go all the way up to Massachusetts and Maine, they’ve found a good feeding ground right here in New York.”
Last edited by Goose (11/23/2016 11:01 am)
We live in a time in which decent and otherwise sensible people are surrendering too easily to the hectoring of morons or extremists.