Dolphins in the Navesink

[neal debonte]

For those in New Jersey: Near the Oceanic Bridge in Rumson, on the Navesink River, a school of dolphins have staked a claim to some feeding grounds. A wonderful Father's Day surprise- a brief early evening cruise turned into an event that still has my daughters amazed. For those who can't cruise up, they can be seen from the bridge. Of course I was camera-less, but will try to get out and post some pics. I am a newer boat owner (Pease First Light), and the look on the kids' faces made it worth the wait.

[clancy]

I drove over the bridge on Monday, and I had a camera but didn't know about this.

[Zobel Sea Skiff]

Quite a few reports of Dolphin throughout Raritan Bay as well ! :)

Unprecedented in my experiance.;)


Tom

[paladin]

According to stepcritters...there's a larger than average community of them at Beaufort, N.C. as well. Don't know of any reports in the Chesapeake, but the shark sitings are peaking near Poplar Island to the Bay Bridge.

[botebum]

We always have them around here but this year I've heard the pods seem larger.

Doug

[clancy]

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d31/inuitsea/locin/d1c736a3.jpg


Two bottlenose dolphins make a splash yesterday in the Navesink River in Monmouth County, where a pod of 12 to 14 of the magnificent mammals has been swimming with its young for more than a week. But the friendly creatures also create a big concern. ‘‘Our problem is that they can’t turn around because of all the boats out there,’’ said Robert Schoelkopf of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine. The nonprofit organization and the National Marine Fisheries Service are hoping to persuade the creatures to return to sea before the busy Fourth of July weekend.

[neal debonte]

Great picture! I do hope people resist gunning through the river as they usually do - and take a minute to enjoy this sight! Taking my boat to Chatham for the holiday, after it makes a brief guest appearance at Mystic with Pease Boat Works. Hope they are still around...

[clancy]

Thunderstorms seen as way to get dolphins out of Shrewsbury River
by The Associated Press
Thursday June 26, 2008, 3:11 PM

Wildlife officials were hoping - but weren't particularly hopeful - that strong thunderstorms expected this evening and Friday might scare a family of 15 dolphins out of their playground in the Shrewsbury River and back out to the ocean.
The bottlenose dolphins have been wowing spectators along both sides of the river and drawing growing crowds of boats, some of which are getting too close for comfort.

With thousands of boats expected in the area for the July 4th weekend, authorities want to try to get the dolphins out of the narrow waterway and back out into the ocean.
"I'm concerned that by July 3, with the fireworks and thousands of boats in the area, that we have animals surfacing with propeller cuts, or animals floating up cut in half," said Bob Schoelkopf, director of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine. The group is leading efforts to try to get the dolphins out of the river before then.

Thunderstorms could scare the dolphins out of the river, he said.
"We're waiting for the storms to blow through there and see if that alters their swimming pattern," he said.
Assuming it doesn't, a team of about 40 animal rescue and environmental officials from as far away as North Carolina and Massachusetts will try to shoo the dolphins out of the river next week.
"The problem is, it's a deep river, and they might just dive and go right under the boats," he said.

The dolphins look healthy so far, but have not been observed feeding much, Schoelkopf said. That will soon lead them to start drawing on their fat reserves, which could weaken them if they stay in the river too long.
Schoelkopf said lone dolphins have been observed in the river before and gotten out on their own; larger groups have proved much more difficult to rescue.

In 1993, authorities tried to remove dolphins that had spent the summer and fall in the river. When the river froze, attempts to shoo the animals out to sea only chased them under the ice, where several drowned.


Lets hope for the dolphins people act responsibly out there.

[clancy]

I have even heard reports of people trying to swim with the dolphins.


Harassment of wayward N.J. dolphins increasing

More people are harassing a group of dolphins that has been lolling about in two New Jersey rivers, volunteers who have been keeping watch over them said Thursday.

Bill Schultz, the Raritan Riverkeeper, is one of several volunteers who have been keeping an eye on the pod of 12 to 15 dolphins that lately has been frolicking in the Navesink River in Red Bank.
He said boaters are increasing their harassment of the dolphins near the Route 35 bridge between Red Bank and Middletown.
"I'm starting to get concerned, because people are getting more callous in their treatment of the animals," he said Thursday before a public hearing in Toms River on beach access.
"I was out Sunday, and I counted 32 boats surrounding them," Schultz said. "There are more people who are violently chasing them with kayaks and personal watercraft. They just won't leave them alone."

Earlier this summer, the dolphins showed up in the Shrewsbury River in Sea Bright, possibly after making a wrong turn following schools of bait fish along the coast. While they fed and frolicked in the narrow waterway, most people gave them space, even though a few had to be shooed away by state Marine Police and federal wildlife officials.
But now that the dolphins have ventured into the nearby Navesink, the pressure on them is getting worse, said Lorraine McCartney, another Riverkeeper volunteer.
"People stop their cars right on the bridge and park and look at them until the police come and order them to move," she said.
Federal regulations require that boaters stay at least 50 yards away from the dolphins; harassing them is a federal offense punishable by a $10,000 fine.

Teri Frady, a spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said she had not heard of stepped-up harassment of the dolphins, and could not immediately say how many people have been issued warnings or fines for bothering them.

Schultz said some of the people he approached and informed that they were venturing too close to the dolphins immediately complied and appeared not to know they were breaking any rule. But others ignored him.
"Some of them just don't care," he said. "They want to get their Flipper picture."

What, if anything, to do about the dolphins has been the subject of great debate since they surfaced in the Shrewsbury River in late June. Federal wildlife officials are loath to do anything that would stress the dolphins, and say there is time to wait for them to head back out to the open waters of Sandy Hook Bay and then the ocean.

But volunteer rescuers are worried that waiting too long could invite an even worse replay of a disastrous scenario that resulted in the deaths of four dolphins who lingered too long in the Shrewsbury River in 1993. Ice eventually closed in on them and they drowned.