City dwellers stunned by surprising visitors in bustling waterway: 'They spent the entire day right there'
Valentine's Day graced New Yorkers with an unusual but delightful sight in the East River: dolphins, as The Guardian reported. A pair of them presented a good omen for seeing more marine animals this spring and summer.
Drivers during their morning commutes on Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive reported seeing a pair of short-beaked dolphins — a species distinguished by yellowish hourglass markings along their sides. They swam that path until Feb. 11.
When Chris St Lawrence, researcher and spokesperson for Gotham Whale, heard about the dolphins, he checked things out for himself. "I went out there and I was able to see this pair of dolphins, and they spent the entire day right there," he told The Guardian.
So, why were they so close to shore? According to Maxine Montello, executive director of the New York Marine Rescue Center, they're likely "eating smaller schooling fish in that area." Another uncommon recent visitor in the area was a humpback whale in November.
Understandably, some people were worried that these lovable creatures were at risk in polluted waters. After all, the Roosevelt Island Daily News noted aquatic life suffocated from depleted oxygen levels after sewage flowed unchecked into the river during the Industrial Revolution. The massive waste led to the Clean Water Act of 1972, which paved the way for the river to be "the cleanest it's been in a century."
That doesn't mean it is worry-free. Mike Dulong, senior attorney for the New York water quality advocacy group Riverkeeper, told City & State New York that "21 billion gallons of this combined sewage end up in the city's waterways annually" from heavy rainfall runoff. That's why ongoing conservation efforts by governments and personal responsibility by individuals matter.
Thanks to reduced water consumption, Lake Powell reached a three-year water-level high after a dangerous low in 2023. Kazakhstan's North Aral Sea has doubled in size since 2008 after cooperation between the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation and the World Bank. An Ohio Department of Natural Resources dam removal project will improve water quality and aquatic biodiversity.
Monitoring waterways helps keep drinking water free from harmful microplastics and give space for marine life to safely swim and forage for fish. As St Lawrence said, "We are near an ocean that's very much alive."
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