Whale 'visits' NY harbour
2007-04-18 13:26
New York - Marine biologists were standing watch on Tuesday over a young whale that lost its way in New York harbour and nearly wandered into a narrow waterway notorious for industrial pollution.
The animal, described as a juvenile minke whale about 4.6m long, was cruising around Gowanus Bay, the outlet from the 1.6km-long Gowanus Canal in the Brooklyn borough of New York.
It appeared to be in good health and not distressed, said Kim Durham, rescue program director for the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research.
The foundation, based in Riverhead, New York, specialises in cases involving whales, dolphins, seals and sea turtles.
Durham and other experts were dispatched to the scene after the whale was spotted early on Tuesday.
A television news helicopter videotaped it leaping out of the water, a behavioural trait common to whales of the baleen species.
'Why is it here?'
The whale was in water hemmed in by docks and a large oil depot at the exit from the famously polluted canal, but Durham said she was not concerned that it would be affected in the short term by anything in the water.
The whale was not swimming in tight circles or exhibiting other behaviour that might be indicative of disease, Durham said.
She said the whale would be monitored overnight, with the hope that it might decide on its own to leave the area and swim out into the harbour, where the water is deeper.
"My main concern is not what it is doing but simply why it is here," said Durham. "This is not really an environment conducive to its good health."
The US coast guard and a police harbour patrol boat were standing by but did not plan to take action unless it was necessary.
NY harbour not home to whales
Whales are a rare sight in New York harbour, and it was not immediately known when a previous sighting of a live whale last occurred.
The Gowanus canal, named afterr a native American group that once lived in the area, runs about a mile from picturesque Boerum Hill in south Brooklyn to the bay in Red Hook, a quaintly rundown harbour area where grain ships once loaded cargo for Europe and shipyards turned out ferry boats and fancy yachts.
The last reported incident involving a whale was the discovery in 2000 of a dead whale floating in the harbour between Brooklyn and Staten Island, apparently the victim of a collision with a ship.
- AP