3 June 2019
By Oliver Milman
For most New Yorkers, (click here) wildlife spotting is confined to squirrels, the odd raccoon and anguished encounters with rats. But in the waters surrounding the city a very different animal experience is quietly booming: sightings of whales.
A total of 272 whales were spotted in New York City waters last year, according to the citizen science group Gotham Whale. That is an extraordinary leap from 2011, when just five of the huge cetaceans were witnessed frolicking near the most populated urban area in the US....
By Eric Spitznagel
Paul Sieswerda (click here) was supposed to be retired by now. The 77-year-old, who has worked as a curator for the New England and New York aquariums since the late 1960s, was ready to call it quits in 2009.
“But then the humpback whales started showing up,” he says.
For at least a century, humpback whales hadn’t been seen near our shores. But in 2010, several boaters swore to Sieswerda that they’d spotted the 66,000-pound beasts gliding past the five boroughs.
One year later, Sieswerda launched Gotham Whales, a nonprofit that conducts sightseeing tours and also collects data on Atlantic whales. In 2011, just five humpbacks were identified in the waters off New York City. Last year, that number jumped to 209.
“So far this year, we’ve seen 268 whales,” says Sieswerda, a Boston native who lives on Staten Island. “And we’re barely into August.”...
