Yet another dolphin found in the cold tidal waters of New York & New Jersey. A pair of Bottlenose Dolphins in the Navesink River in Monmouth County, NJ, now an adult Common Dolphin in the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, NYC.
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Dolphin Swimming in Gowanus CanalBy MARC SANTORA
Published: January 25, 2013
The New York Times
A dolphin found its way into the headwaters of the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn on Friday, apparently trapped in a place where nature has long struggled to survive.
As crowds of onlookers braved the bitter cold to catch a glimpse of the sea creature from the Union Street bridge, curiosity turned to concern when the dolphin appeared to be having difficulty swimming in the narrow 1.8-mile-long waterway. Rescuers said they had never seen a dolphin so far up the canal, away from where it empties into New York Harbor.
Television broadcasts showed the animal bobbing up and down in murky black water.
Julika Wocial, a marine biologist from the Riverhead Foundation, a rescue organization, said it was worrying that the dolphin was by itself, “because they are very social animals; they usually travel in pods.” She said it was an adult common dolphin, 6 to 10 feet long and about 200 pounds.
Ms. Wocial could not confirm if the dolphin was injured, but she said it appeared to be moving more slowly than one would normally.
About 2:30 p.m., when the canal was at low tide, Ms. Wocial said that any rescue operation, if one was undertaken, would most likely not happen until high tide, about 7 p.m., when rescuers would see if the animal could free itself.
“We don’t know what this animal is going to do if any action is undertaken,” she said. “At this point we don’t know what the outcome is going to be.”
The police Emergency Services Unit and Harbor Unit were also monitoring the dolphin, but no rescue plans had been finalized.
The dolphin was first spotted about 9:30 a.m. at the mouth of the canal, Ms. Wocial said. Experts are monitoring the dolphin’s swimming patterns and breathing patterns, hoping to understand what, if anything, might be ailing it.
Andrew Beccone, director of a small library based in Proteus Gowanus, an arts center near the bridge, said he was walking over the bridge when he saw police officers and a crowd.
“I thought I was going to see a dead body,” said Mr. Beccone, who runs the Reanimation Library. “And so then I started gawking as well and within a minute I saw a fin pop up and a little blowhole.”
Sasha Chavchavadze, founder of Proteus Gowanus, said she watched the dolphin appear to get caught behind one of the pipes that runs through the canal to flush it out.
“I thought it was a goner because it turned upside down,” she said. “But the dolphin extracted itself and started swimming again.” Ms. Chavchavadze said she heard police asking “does anybody have a canoe” and not knowing quite what to do.
The Gowanus has long been considered the most inhospitable of waterways. For years, it was the dumping ground for industrial waste, a receptacle for sewage spill-off and generally a symbol for urban decay.
In 2007, when a 12-foot Minke whale appeared fit and lively swimming around near the mouth of the canal, it quickly earned a seemingly fitting nickname: Sludgie.
Sludgie the whale swam near the canal for two days even as people worked to rescue it. But the attempts failed and Sludgie died.
Robert DiGiovanni Jr., executive director and senior biologist at the at the Riverhead Foundation, said that in more than two decades of working in the field he could not recall a dolphin swimming so deep into the canal.
“I don’t recall having a dolphin all the way up in the waterway,” he said.
It is not uncommon for large marine animals like dolphins and whales to swim right up to the openings of New York’s waterways, including the Gowanus Canal, swept in during high tide and out again with the next high tide. Most of the time, the animals come and go without incident.
Mr. DiGiovanni said he could not comment on the condition of the water in the canal and the impact it might have on the animal.
Still, he said, the hope was that the animal would swim out during high tide. Any rescue that involves human intervention, he said, has inherent risks. Removing the animal from the water would be further complicated by the cold weather, he said.
“It is best, if possible, to leave it in its own environment,” he said.
Because the animal is a protected species, Mr. DiGiovanni said, any rescue attempt would have to be approved by the National Marine Fisheries Service.
As Friday afternoon wore on, the dolphin’s struggle to survive became more apparent. It flailed in the water, and nervous spectators watched and waited for it to take each breath, poking its head above water, and demonstrating that it was still alive.
Rebecca Rogers-Hawson, a volunteer coordinator with the Gowanus Canal Conservancy, joined other spectators on the Union Street bridge.
When Ms. Rogers-Hawson arrived around 1 p.m., the dolphin was swimming just beneath her and she spotted blood coming from its dorsal fin.
“You could see a stream of red in the wake of its trail,” she said.
The dolphin appeared to get stuck in some rope near the bridge, she said, freed itself and then swam a bit more before getting stuck again near the edge of the canal.
“I feel like I cannot leave now,” she said. “I want to know what is going to happen.”
Andy Newman and Tim Stelloh contributed reporting.
