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| Dolphins making their presence felt close to LI | |
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| Topic Started: Jan 13 2007, 11:30 PM (45 Views) | |
| Deleted User | Jan 13 2007, 11:30 PM Post #1 |
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Dolphins making their presence felt close to LI shores BY JENNIFER SMITH Newsday Staff Writer Dolphins weren't the only mammals swarming in the waters off East Hampton Thursday. Like paparazzi hounding celebrities, people took to the water in kayaks and snorkeling gear trying to get close to the dozens of dolphins seen frolicking in Sag and Northwest harbors. But biologists are concerned that the extra attention may stress the animals, who could then become stranded. Thursday, the crowds got bad enough that biologists observing the dolphins called in state environmental enforcement officers to shoo people away from the animals, which are protected by federal law. "They're in a different environment, they're feeding, and they're not used to being around human beings," said Chuck Hamilton, regional supervisor of the state Department of Environmental Conservation's natural resources office. "You just want to let them go along their way." Usually at home in deep waters some 80 miles off the tip of Long Island, the dolphins were first seen here earlier this week feeding and playing off Cedar Point Park. Observers estimate there may be between 40 and 75 dolphins in the cetacean tour group, which moved west into the adjoining shallow waters of Sag Harbor on Wednesday before returning to Northwest Harbor Thursday. Dolphins have been seen around Long Island before, even as far upstream as the Carman's River in Brookhaven, said William Wise, associate director of Stony Brook University's Marine Sciences Research Center. But such sightings are far from the norm, he said, and more likely to take place in summer. "To have this school frolicking in the Peconic Bays in January is most unusual," Wise said, noting that local waters are much shallower than those where they usually swim, which are hundreds of feet deep. Local harbors range from 10 to 30 feet, with deeper navigation channels. They're not the only marine mammals who seem to be atypically close to Long Island shores this month. Observers have been calling in whale sightings near Montauk to the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, foundation director Rob DiGiovanni said last Friday. He confirmed those sightings with an aerial survey and said fin whales were positively identified; humpback whales, right whales and minke whales may also have been seen. No one really knows why the dolphins came this far inshore. Scientists and those who work local waters think an abundance of food and warmer water are likely factors. "The bays and the sound have been full of herring and bunker this winter," said Mary Bess Phillips of Alice's Fish Market in Greenport. http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisla...=ny-main-bigpix |
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9:18 PM Jul 11