Up close with a playful porpoise in New York Harbor
While paddling from Manhattan on Sunday, kayakers Vladimir Brezina and Johna Till Johnson were treated to an up-close, extended visit from a sea creature slowly making its return to New York City waters - the porpoise. (Or possibily, a dolphin.)
“We first saw the porpoise about a mile north of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge,” Brezina said in an email to NewYorkology. “It was presumably feeding in the mild tide rip that is there (they do that, since fish tend to hang out in these tide rips, waiting for THEIR prey to be swept toward them by the current). It was surfacing all around us — naturally we wanted to believe that it was playing with us. …”
“It stayed with us, on and off, for at least half an hour, until we were about a mile south of the bridge. At one point it came so close that I was afraid it would bump my kayak. I saw its tail and white underbelly, but during that pass I was so surprised that I failed to get a photo,” Brezina said. “After that we paddled to Swinburne Island (a couple of miles south from the Verrazano Narrows) to see the seals.”
Brezina, an experienced kayaker, said he and others have seen porpoises in NYC waters during previous winters, but usually in pods of five to 10 animals. In recent years, they’ve even been spotted in the Hudson and East rivers.
Seal sightings are now frequent, and there were recent but unconfirmed reports of larger whales in the Lower Bay, Brezina said. “Very occasionally, we’ve seen turtles and things that looked like shark fins,” he said.
In 2009, there was video footage of a whale near the Verrazano Bridge.
More video of seals and whales around New York City:
NY Daily News video from January of the whale- and seal-watching tours near Coney Island:
Wildlife Conservation Society video from The New York Aquarium’s fourth annual harbor seal count in 2009, which recorded 20 seals near Verrazano-Narrows Bridge:
(Many thanks for the tip to kayak blogger Frogma, who is always a good resource for paddling around NYC.)
