Dodging New York traffic: how hundreds of whales are on a collision course with ships and boats | Global development

IIt is the beginning of August and a crowd is gathered on the bridge of the American princess cruise boat while waiting for one thing – and they are not disappointed. Suddenly, a juvenile humping whale, known as NYC0318 in local archives, bursts on the surface of the water, engulfing thousands of small fatty fish.

For those aboard the 29 -meter ship (95 feet), the scene is a thrill to look at, partly because it takes place not far at sea but just off the coast of Manhattan, New York. Among the tourists, there is Chris St Lawrence, naturalist and communications director of Gotham Whale, a maritime research organization managed by volunteers in the city. He is not only looking for whales, he monitors the danger around them.

“When they feed, they can be really distracted and they don’t care about the boats,” he said.

When Gotham Whale began to follow the bumps in 2012, his humpback catalog in New York contained only five individuals. Today, it includes 470 whales – mainly transient juveniles such as NYC0318 pulled by the rich food opportunities of the New York Bight. But with the hunt for such a bonus, a growing problem comes.

What was formerly a marine motorway connecting the breeding grounds of the South to the northern food areas has become, since 2010, a destination for the search for regular food, putting bumps on a collision trajectory with maritime traffic.

Loading vessels, petroleums, cruise ships, fishing boats and recreational crafts all the bump food grounds crossed in the New York Bight – an area about the size of Switzerland, extending from the south of New Jersey to the east of Long Island and off the Hudson Canyon, a deep submarine.

Danielle Brown, research director at Gotham Whale, said: “I don’t think people realize that they are there, and these sea companies certainly do not expect to see them.”

Lesley Thorne, a marine scientist at Stony Brook University in Long Island, says that several factors are dangerously converging: recovery of humpback populations, potential changes linked to climate in their food and whales venturing into shipping corridors to feed. “It is this perfect storm of events,” she says.

SInce the end of the commercial whale, the bumps have become a success of the conservation. In 2016, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has canceled whales in New York waters (considered to be part of the Antilles population) under the endangered species law.

But the same year, large whale samples along the east coast of the United States began to increase, which prompted the NOAA to declare an unusual mortality event in 2017 which remains open today.

Thorne’s research in 2024 revealed that ships of ships was the main cause, although the tangles of fishing equipment has played a role.

The New York Bight is hosting an extraordinary range of endangered whales: blue, aileron, sei, sperm and straight whales from the North Atlantic. In 2024, the researchers critically documented whales to the right of the North Atlantic in danger near Hudson Canyon, near the delivery of shipping tracks.

In May of the same year, a cruise ship arrived in a port of New York with a SEI whale in an endangered in the process of end on its bow. The common print is food, but the power behavior in bump aggravates the risk.

“We see Menhaden surface aggregations [herring-like fish] who are really close to the shore, and we have almost exclusively juvenile whales that feed in these very close earthwater, as shallow as 15 feet [5 metres] water, “explains Thorne.” The combination of surface diet and shallow waters probably makes them more vulnerable to ships. »»

The search for Gotham Whale documents the toll, showing the whales with typing scars of ships and deep propeller wounds. One case this year involved a healthy bump observed one day, bearing new strike injuries a few days later in the same area.

As one of the fastest oceanic regions in the world, changing conditions can bring more whales from the shore to eat.

Janet Coit, who was the assistant administrator of the Noaa for fisheries under the Biden administration, said: “Scientists from our northeast fisheries center were clear that warming water affects the productivity of the ocean and brought whales more.”

The remedy – to relaunch ships or slow them down – is clear but not easily reached. “With three shipping lanes in New York, there is no possibility of re-sealing ships,” said Samantha Rosen, spokesperson for the New York State Environment Department.

Studies show that the reduction in the speeds of ships to 10 knots (12 MPH) decreases the probability and lethality of the strikes. Currently, ships 20 meters or more must travel more quickly than 10 nodes from January to May in seasonal management zones, including around the main ports. However, in January 2025, the NOAA removed the speed rule extensions of the proposed ships which would have better protected the large whales all year round by widening the protections in larger areas, longer periods and smaller ships.

Revisions, aimed at reducing the risks for straight whales, would also have helped other large whales, explains Thorne. But the resistance of sailors and legislators hampered the Noaa proposal, explains Coit. Meanwhile, voluntary slowdowns triggered when the whales are detected have limited efficiency.

The regulatory reverse coincides with significant reductions in financing, staff and climate research programs of the NOAA since January.

When the United States has promulgated wildlife protection laws in the 1970s, Coit says that there was moral ethics around whale savings and conservation. “I fear that this ethics will no longer underpin our values,” she says.

“If people want to save the whales, they will have to change their behavior.”