What Was the Porpoise?
A lively pod of acrobatic dolphins briefly turned New York City’s East River into their personal playground — leaving marine experts puzzled about what triggered the rare appearance.
Roughly a dozen short-beaked common dolphins were spotted leaping and gliding through the waters near Randall’s Island on Monday, delighting New Yorkers who were out enjoying the first warm days of the year. 🐬
A pod of about a dozen dolphins was spotted frolicking in the East River on Monday.
Videos captured the dolphins leaping gracefully out of the water with the New York City skyline in the background, as stunned onlookers cheered at the rare and remarkable sight. 🐬
While dolphins have occasionally been seen in the waterway before, this encounter appears to be the largest group of short-beaked common dolphins to wander into the East River in recent years.
“Whether it’s part of a migration or simply that this is a good place to feed — we’re not entirely sure. Dolphins can be a bit difficult to track,” Chris St. Lawrence of Gotham Whale told The Post.
“It’s always exciting to see large groups of dolphins in the city. It suggests there’s enough food somewhere nearby to support that many animals.”
The sighting comes almost exactly a year after a pair of short-beaked common dolphins were seen playing in the East River.
Common dolphins are found in the New York metropolitan region year-round, but they typically stay offshore. Bottlenose dolphins, by contrast, are more frequently spotted along beaches and inside estuaries, according to Gotham Whale.
Because sightings of common dolphins in the East River are still relatively rare, experts aren’t entirely sure what draws them into the estuary. Gotham Whale believes the pod may simply have been following a food source.
The east side of Randall’s Island is “pretty productive” for fish such as striped bass, menhaden and anchovies, St. Lawrence said. He added that he later saw a flock of seagulls hunting in the same area Monday — after the dolphins had already dined and moved on. 🐬
