Humpback Whale Spotted In Hudson River By Hell's Kitchen

HELL'S KITCHEN, NY – A humpback whale was spotted by an eagle-eyed onlooker off of Pier 84 Monday afternoon.

Around 4:15 p.m. Andres Javier shared video footage on Twitter showing the whale moving slowly through the Hudson River as the sun set over the city.

"It's quite unusual for whales to be inside of New York harbor," said Paul Sieswerda, founder of Gotham Whale. "Which is fortunate because it's a very busy place."

Recent whale sightings in the waters surrounding New York City have increased in staggering numbers, as vastly cleaner waters have caused a 540% increase over eight years.

Experts at the Rockaway-based non profit Gotham Whale started tracking sightings in the area in 2010 – counting just five. Last year, they spotted an awe-inspring 272, almost all humpbacks.

On Tuesday, Gotham Whale confirmed on Twitter the sighting was of a humpback whale and encouraged anyone who spots whales in the waters around the city to report sightings on their Citizen Science form.

Sieswerda said the organization received another report of a sighting Tuesday morning, so it appears the whale is still in the area. As the whale stays in the harbor, there is always a risk of a collision with boat traffic, he said.

"I think people are aware that there's a whale in the area and hopefully the whale will be careful and the boat operators will be careful as well," he said.

In 2016, a whale traveled up the Hudson River and past the George Washington Bridge.

"We named that, in shameless self-promotion, 'Gotham,' and that whale stayed around for about four days," Sieswerda said. "It was actively feeding and in good health as far as we could tell and perhaps this whale is doing the same thing."

Sieswerda said he hopes the whale is in good health and feeding in the river, but he cannot confirm whether that is the case.

"Sometimes whales when they come into areas like this it's a sign that there's something wrong, but we're going to be optimistic," he said.

According to Gotham Whale, there are humpback whales in New York waters year round. The organization has created a New York City Humpback Whale Catalog which compiles data it gets from the "WANTED PROGRAM," which encourages citizen scientists to report whale sightings.

Gotham Whale has a catalog of whales that are identified by their fluke patterns, which are the underside of their tail fins, which have distinctive color patterns that can be used like a fingerprint to identify individual whales, Sierswerda said.

"If we can get a picture of this whale's fluke, that would be very helpful," he said. "That means the whale would have to dive down and somebody has to capture that shot, which is a real challenge."

Gotham Whale is also able to identify a whale using the dorsal fin and it is currently trying to identify the whale by its dorsal fin to see if it is one that was seen in the area earlier this year.

For Sierswerda, a whale spotting in December is very exciting.

"It's fabulous," he said. "It's a testament to the value of regular citizens reporting the information."