WATCH: Large Pod of Dolphins Appear in NYC's East River and Turn the Busy Waterway Into a Playground

On Monday, March 9, New Yorkers going about their days were caught by a rare sight in the East River. For a moment, the usually busy city channel turned into a playground for dolphins. Soon, many elated onlookers assembled to witness the pod of dolphins in their glory, as if cheering for their favorite football team from the bleachers. The short-beaked dolphins played and danced in the East River near Randall’s Island with the city's stunning skyline serving as a backdrop. The unexpected visit was a treat for the public, but the experts were left puzzled. Although it wasn't the first time the short-beaked mammals entered the East River, it was the largest pod of the species to visit the city channel in recent history. Experts are left to speculate as to what drew these creatures into the waterway out of the blue. 

“Whether it’s a migration or if it’s just that this is a good spot to eat — we don’t know. It’s a little bit difficult with dolphins,” Chris St. Lawrence of Gotham Whale told The Post. “It’s always cool to see big groups of dolphins in the city area. It shows that at least there’s enough food somewhere in the area to support that many animals," he added. Gotham Whale, a New York-based organization that promotes marine conservation, revealed that common dolphins are present in metro regions all year long, but they stick to living offshore. Whereas the bottlenose dolphins are often spotted along beaches and inside estuaries. Therefore, the species' visit to the busy waterway of New York City took the experts by surprise.

The organization speculates that food was the driving factor for the pod of dolphins to enter the East River. The east side of Randall’s Island is “pretty productive” for fish like striped bass, menhaden, and anchovies, says St. Lawrence. He recalled watching a pack of seagulls hunting for food in the same area later that day. If not for food, then the pod of dolphins likely entered the city waterway for recreation. “That area around Hellgate has a really strong current, and we know that dolphins often hang out in strong waves, so that could be another thing," he explained. Since the videos showed dolphins "jumping out of the water," St. Lawrence speculates that they likely turned the East River into a personal playground.

Coincidentally, something similar had captivated the New Yorkers almost exactly a year ago. At the time, a pair of short-beaked dolphins performed a graceful dance in the city's waterway. Unfortunately, one of them met a tragic fate as it washed up on the shores of Astoria, bloodied and battered after being hit by a speeding boat. This was one of the many reported accidents that prompted a unanimous passage of the Whale Awareness Act in the state Senate and Assembly this month. Meanwhile, Gotham Whale is making efforts to understand the behavior of marine mammals residing in the waterways in metro regions. The organization has urged the public to report any sightings like the recent one to help them better understand the population and their behavior.

Similarly, the recent sighting of a dolphin pod playing in the city channel provided useful insights to the organization. “That’s kind of why it’s important for all of these sightings across different years and even weeks and days to be reported: so that when we look back, we can we can look at patterns like that,” St. Lawrence said.

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