Gotham Whale has recorded as many as 100 humpbacks a year in New York waters over roughly the past decade, compared with 10 to 30 annually before 2018, according to ABC7 New York. The station reported in August that the group had documented its 500th individual humpback in local waters. Accounts differ on when the group counted 272 whales: The Guardian gives 2018, while Patch gives 2019.
A whale in the Hudson
A humpback was seen in the Hudson River near Manhattan on Thursday morning. The Guardian reported that it was still there in the early afternoon. Gotham Whale sought additional sighting reports and photographs to help assess the animal’s identity and size; its sex and whether it had arrived with other whales were not known, according to the outlet’s account.
The Guardian also reported that Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal shared a Thursday-morning photograph supplied by Gotham Whale, and that the group posted video of the whale on Facebook. The reported details of this new sighting come from the Guardian.
Earlier visits and growing hazards
Whales have been spotted in the Hudson before. Patch reported that a humpback was seen near Pier 84 in December 2020; the outlet also recounted a 2016 whale’s trip upriver to the George Washington Bridge, where it remained for about four days.
More whales have been feeding near New York Harbor on sand lances, Atlantic menhaden and other small fish instead of continuing to the Gulf of Maine, The New York Times reported in January. The Times also reported that shipping traffic has become more congested since the coronavirus pandemic, while the Guardian noted that increasing whale numbers bring greater exposure to shipping and other hazards. The Times report described a 29-foot female humpback that later died after washing ashore in New Jersey; officials determined that a ship’s propeller had injured her.
Two juvenile humpbacks stranded on sandbars off Fire Island returned to open water, with rising tides and responding crews helping at least one, according to ABC News. Gotham Whale’s request for reports and photographs about Thursday’s Hudson whale remains the route for adding information about that sighting, according to the Guardian.
