Brooklyn Woman Dives Into Sandy Hook Bay for 'Unprecedented' Swim Across New York Bight

Late Wednesday morning, Patricia Sener, a 51-year-old swimmer and activist who lives in Brooklyn’s Seagate neighborhood, dove into Sandy Hook Bay for what she and her supporters believe will be an ”unprecedented” trip across the New York Bight.

Sener will swim 17 miles in total, from the Clean Ocean Action headquarters in Sandy Hook to the shore of Atlantic Beach, Long Island.

“To the best of our knowledge, no one has done this before today,” says Alan Morrison, a board member at Sener’s organization, Coney Island Brighton Beach Ocean Water Swimmers.

Morrison is communicating with Patch from inside a fishing boat that’s trailing Sener as she swims. Later in the day, he’ll be swimming alongside her to help her keep pace.

Sener is also currently flanked by a kayaker who feeds her a sports drink every half-hour.

“She’s doing great!” Morrison shouts above the wind.

Wednesday’s swim across the New York Bight is certainly not record-breaking in length, so the precedent comes down to location.

For decades, the Bight has held a reputation for being dirty, polluted and teeming with boat traffic. “It used to be more of a dumping zone,” Morrison says. “But in recent years, its really become a wildlife sanctuary. Whales and dolphins have returned to the water. It’s had a renaissance.”

By swimming across the Bight, Sener hopes to both raise awareness for this changing body of water and raise more money for the NGOs Clean Ocean Action and Gotham Whale, so they can keep moving the Bight in the right direction.

In a statement released before she dove in, Sener said she hoped her feat would bring attention to the Clean Ocean Zone Initiative, a push to turn the Bight into the first-ever federally protected Clean Ocean Zone (COZ).

“This COZ would be the nation’s first-ever pollution-free ocean area where pollution sources such as raw sewage and oil/gas industries would be prohibited,“ she said.

Sener is expected to shore up at Atlantic Beach between 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.