This winter, I went on another ecocruise with with Classic Harbor Line out of NYC. This time it was a winter wildlife tour with a focus on seals. We headed out under the Verrazano Bridge and into Lower New York Bay, watching the skyline get smaller behind us. Along the way we spotted a bunch of winter birds, but the highlight was tiny Swinburne Island.
Verrazano Bridge and the NYC skyline
Swinburne is an artificial island that once served as a quarantine site for immigrants with infectious diseases. Now most of the buildings have crumbled away and the island has been reclaimed by wildlife. In the winter, that means seals!
First look at Swinburne Island’s seals
The uncropped version of the previous image, with Brooklyn in the background
This day, the tour was being led by urban naturalist Russell Jacobs. We were lucky – we saw over 50 Harbor Seals (and reportedly a few Grey Seals but don’t quiz me on ID 🙈), the highest number they’d seen recently! It was cold and windy, the kind of day where your face goes numb 2 seconds after stepping outside, but everyone onboard braved the elements for a look at all the cuties hauled out on the rocks.
Some seals were swimming in the water but it was really hard to capture those images while the boat was bobbing in the wind and waves
Wildlife sightings like this are becoming more common around New York Harbor. Water quality has slowly been improving thanks to decades of environmental protections like the Clean Water Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. It’s been hopeful progress.. Now let’s see what the future brings. (😭)
Seals everywhere!
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