[QUOTE]NEW YORK (AP) — Maybe they want to sing on Broadway.
Humpback whales, the gigantic, endangered mammals known for their haunting underwater songs, have been approaching New York City in greater numbers than even old salts can remember.
Naturalists aboard whale-watching boats have seen humpbacks in the Atlantic Ocean within a mile of the Rockaway peninsula, part of New York's borough of Queens, within sight of Manhattan's skyscrapers.
"It is truly remarkable, within miles of the Empire State Building, to have one of the largest and most charismatic species ever to be on this planet," said Howard Rosenbaum, director of the Ocean Giants program at the Wildlife Conservation Society.[/QUOTE]
[url]http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/10/humpback-whales-increasin_n_6299302.html?ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000048[/url]
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Fleeing Japanese and European waters, perhaps?
[QUOTE=Worldwaker;46684682]Fleeing Japanese and European waters, perhaps?[/QUOTE]
nope.
[QUOTE]Rosenbaum said the humpbacks' reappearance could be simply a shift in their habits rather than a spike in population. [B]A greater abundance of menhaden, one of the humpbacks' favorite foods, could have attracted them from farther out in the ocean.[/B]
That might be because the water is cleaner.
"One would like to think that some of this has been triggered by an improved environmental ethic," Rosenbaum said. "We have the clean air and clean water acts, the Marine Mammal Protection Act and associated state laws. It's hard to make the link for sure but there's certainly been a behavioral change toward the natural environment."
Sieswerda agreed that various factors are in play but said, "I think it all begins with cleaner water," including the improved Hudson River.
Whatever the cause, humpback populations worldwide are increasing. Counting whales is difficult, but the International Whaling Commission says its latest estimates put the worldwide population at about 150,000. About 11,600 of those are in the Western North Atlantic, which includes the New York Bight off New York City. There might have been just hundreds before whale protection laws were passed.[/QUOTE]
seems they like the food at NY :v:
