How Did Humpback Whales End Up in New York Harbour?

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Picture the West Side of
Manhattan in the 1970s.

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The riverfront smells god-awful.

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Nobody walks there.

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Every toilet that flushes on that
side of the island goes straight

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into the Hudson untreated.

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Absolutely disgusting.

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It had been that way for generations.

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Now fast-forward to this summer, and
people are boarding whale watch boats in

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Brooklyn and seeing humpback whales in
the harbor or just outside What almost

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nobody talks about is how this happened
and how long it took, and that's what

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we're gonna talk about on today's episode
of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast.

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I am trying out a new microphone, but
an old microphone at the same time.

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This is the, uh, first, like,
professional microphone that I

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went to, after I really started.

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and so I wanna just check to see
if there's a difference in here

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'cause I've been having trouble
with the other microphone.

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I would love to hear if
you notice a difference.

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If not, that's cool, but if you wanna let
me know, my socials are in the show notes.

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and by the way, if you don't know who
I am and this is your first time here,

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this is How to Protect the Ocean podcast.

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I am your host, Andrew Lewin.

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I am a marine biologist, a science
communicator, and the oceans

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communications manager for a consulting
firm called Pisces Oceans based in Canada.

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We work with ocean projects to
help them succeed so they can have

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a greater impact on the ocean.

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So let's talk about pollution in general.

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Yesterday's episode, I spoke to Dr.
Judith Weis, who is a retired professor

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from Rutgers University, and she was
talking about the second edition of her

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marine pollution book, which by the way,
she was my first interview, that I ever

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published on how to protect the ocean.

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And now she is another interview on the
second edition of Marine Pollution on

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this How to Protect the Ocean podcast.

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And we are here to talk about marine
pollution because, there are some

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things that have changed over that
time, and we wanted to kinda do

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that, but 2,000 episodes later.

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So it's kind of fun to be able to do this.

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But the whole point of this episode today
is to kinda look at the feeling that you

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might carry on if you see pollution in
the waterways, whether it's freshwater,

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whether it's marine, it doesn't matter.

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it can really be difficult to say,
"Hey, are we ever gonna get to a

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point where this becomes easier?

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Where we can actually have clean
water?" And that's not always the case.

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It can be really hard because of the
fight that you have to go through to

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make sure you get clean water, which
to be honest, is a bit of an oxymoron.

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We should always have clean water.

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We should always have a nice
coastline, just, a nice harbor.

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But sometimes just historical
stuff has really gone on and,

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really gone off the rails.

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Like I live right beside Hamilton
Harbour here in Ontario, off the

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Great Lakes, off the Lake Ontario.

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And I look at the Hamilton Harbour
and, the water itself is pretty clean.

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I wouldn't necessarily recommend
people go swimming in it, people

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fish in it for all the time.

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But also like the bottom, the
sediment in the bottom has historical

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like, PAH, there's like some
really nasty chemicals in there.

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And it would take trillions of
dollars just to clean that up.

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I'm estimating here, but just
to clean all that sediment up

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and dispose of it properly.

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So what they do is they just don't
touch that part of, the harbor.

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They don't touch the sediment.

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If they do, they're very careful, and
when they have to dredge it, 'cause

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there's a lot of boats that come in
Hamilton Harbor, 'cause it is a major

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port in Lake Ontario, and they have to
make sure that they are being very clean

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and, making sure that, the spread of
sediment when you bring it up and you

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dredge doesn't go everywhere, so they
have to have curtains and all this kind

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of stuff, make sure there's no currents.

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It's a really tricky process.

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They have to go through an environmental
assessment every time they do

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it, and there's heavy monitoring.

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I used to do that monitoring while I
was working as a private consultant.

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we know that Hamilton Harbor has
gotten better, but it also has kinda

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stayed the same in the same way.

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And so it's, difficult to watch that
happen, where we are looking at how,

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untreated sewage and chemicals that
have gone on historically for decades,

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now, that can't happen anymore.

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It hadn't happened for a long
time, but it's still a problem.

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And so to make sure that we move
forward with this, like we move forward

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with cleanliness and making sure our
water quality is clean, we have to

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start looking historically at what
has been done in the past so that

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we can continue that in the future.

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And New York Harbor is a huge, piece
here, a, great conservation story when

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we look at bringing back the harbor and
bringing back good water quality to the

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point where we bring back the menhaden,
which used to be there in huge droves,

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used to be a very big fishing port.

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The menhaden that, shows off that it's
healthy seas, and the humpback whales

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that come back to feed on the menhaden.

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So once you start bringing those fish
back, once you get the water quality in

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a good condition, the healthy ecosystem
comes back to life, and you start seeing

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the animals come back, and that's really
great to see Now, let's go back and

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let's start to look at what caused all
of this historically bad water quality,

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let's go back to between the 1800s
and the 1960s to look at that cause.

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New York City grew faster than anyone
had ever planned for, and the sewers

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were built to flush the waste right
into the Hudson River, the East River,

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and the harbor itself, because moving
water was supposed to carry it away.

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So the idea is that once you put
it in the ocean, it gets diluted

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across that big water body, and
it goes out from the harbor.

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And by the early 1900s, roughly
590 million gallons of raw sewage

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a day were pouring into the harbor.

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As early as 1886, the city installed
floating screens at Coney Island to keep

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the sewage away from swimmers, 'cause
Coney Island was a huge place for people

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to just kinda hang out on the beach
and enjoy the Atlantic Ocean, enjoy

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the weather in the summers when it gets
really, really hot, and have a good time.

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But you can't have a good time if the
water's green or if the water smells.

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This is absolutely disgusting.

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Nobody's gonna go in there.

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They're gonna get sick.

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So they had these screens to keep
the sewage away from the swimmers.

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Now, by early 20th century, the
city's own environmental agency says

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the harbor had lost the ability to
support wildlife and recreation.

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So that's early 20th century.

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That means early 1900s.

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And treatment plants started going
up in the 1930s, but the West Side

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of Manhattan didn't have any, Every
flush from Bank Street to Inwood

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went into the Hudson untreated.

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Like, think about that, that
smell, that empty waterfront

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that nobody wants to go near.

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the screens at the beach.

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Like, that's gotta be full of
just literally crap . Like, that's

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really what it comes down to.

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And, the sewage system that everybody
had to inherit is not necessarily,

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like, the fault of anybody.

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It's not the fault of New Yorkers.

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It's just the s- way the system was built.

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And so there was a, critical point where
New Yorkers had to decide what they

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wanted to do with this system, Now,
in comes up what led to this cleanup.

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So now between 1906 and
1972, there started to be a

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little bit more of an outcry.

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So the public outcry it came pretty early.

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In 1909, the city began testing
the harbor water because

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people demanded it pretty much.

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And that, the survey still runs today.

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So the fact is, people started to
smell the area, the river sucked.

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It was just gross.

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Nobody wants to be around that.

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It can't be healthy for you, even for
back then where they probably didn't have

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the testing to be able to say, "Hey, this
is healthy or this isn't healthy from

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terms of an air quality perspective."
But it can't be that healthy.

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But the real turn came
from regular people,

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it's the people who actually stood up.

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In 1966, a group of Hudson River
fishermen met in an American Legion

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hall in Crotonville, New York.

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They dug up a forgotten 1899 law that
paid a bounty to anyone who reported

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a polluter, and they started using it.

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Think about that, going back 18, to
1899 law where they said, "Hey, we're

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gonna start giving out, these prizes
for people who snitched on Heathers."

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Like, it was the bounty
hunters of the past.

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And it started to be used,
and they started to win, That

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group became the Riverkeeper.

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It's a model for over 300
waterkeeping organizations worldwide.

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And then six years later in 1972,
Congress passed the Clean Water Act,

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which required real treatment and sent
federal money to build that treatment.

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So imagine this, ordinary
people who fished in the area

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realized that the water stank.

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Other people also realized
that the water stank.

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The fishermen got together and said, "Hey,
we need to have a system where we can

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use the old law of the bounties and start
to, snitch on people who are polluting."

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on all these different factories
and all these different areas where

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we know that there's stuff coming
out, whether it's chemicals, whether

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it's raw sewage, it doesn't matter.

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And it started to work, and then
the Clean Water Act came in 60

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years later, and they said, " now
we got real treatment coming in.

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So now we're putting in real
treatment plants to the point

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where every river is going to be
better." So that's when it started.

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So from like 1938 to today, we
started to see this type of change.

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The North River plant on Manhattan's
West Side was first proposed in 1938.

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It opened in March 1986, nearly
50 years later, so I don't know

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what happened between that.

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But the city's own records calls
that moment the first time in New

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York's history that daily raw sewage
stopped flowing into the Hudson.

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Even into the 1980s, Manhattan was
still discharging around 200 million

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gallons of untreated sewage a day.

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And the work didn't stop in 1986.

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Like the city now runs 14 treatment
plants, has spent more than $4 billion on

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overflow control and has put another $1.2
billion in removing nitrogen since 2002.

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So sewer outflows capture went from
about 30% in 1980 to over 80% to now.

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The North River plant ended up in West
Harlem after wealthier neighborhoods

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blocked an earlier site farther south.

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And residents dealt with odors for years.

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In 1988, seven protesters called
the Sewage Seven were arrested

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blocking the West Side Highway,

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that fight gave birth to the WE
Act, for environmental justice.

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Riverbank State Park was later
built on top of that plant

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So this is a point where we realize
that standing up for what you want,

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standing up for what's needed for clean
water was actually pushing forward.

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Because it made sense for a lot of people.

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They're like, "Hey, wait a minute.

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Why can't all New
Yorkers have clean water?

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Why can't we have these plants put
in even if the rich, you know, block

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these areas?" Sure, some of these
plants when you go by them, they stink.

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It's sewage water.

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We all have it.

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We all have it in our cities.

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It's never good to smell.

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But the fact is that we have clean
water going back into our waters.

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Again, here in Burlington where I live,
the sewage plant, puts out the sewage

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treatment all the way out, like two
kilometers out into the Great Lakes.

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But it has to be at a certain point, like
the levels have to be at a certain point,

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because if it doesn't, it's gonna just
cause more and more pollution as we hear.

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And we get our source water, like we get
our drinking water from Lake Ontario.

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So it's not a fact that this is a choice.

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This is a fact that we need to have
clean drinking water, whether you live

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in New York City, whether you live in
Burlington, Ontario, it doesn't matter.

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You need to have clean water, not
only for drinking water, but for

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other purposes, and making sure
that you have a healthy system.

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Now going back to New York City,
since 1992, bacteria levels in the

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harbor have stayed well below the
standard for swimming in dry weather.

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Oxygen hit record highs in the city's
2017 report, and the Hudson Riverfront

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that nobody wanted became a walkway
for people use every single day.

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When the whales came between 2011 and
2013, researchers logged one humpback

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sighting in the harbor estuary.

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between 2014 and 2016, they logged 45.

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As of this summer, Gotham Whale has
identified 500 individual humpbacks

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in New York waters with 80 to 100 new
ones showing up every single year.

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The whales are not coming
if the water is crappy.

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The whales are not coming
if there's not food.

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The fact that in 2012, like
catch limits on menhaden were put

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in, the small fish that whales
chase, that let the fish rebound.

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And having the greater water quality
in there allowed for the whales

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to come back to be like, "Hey,
we found some great food source.

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We found a great food source
and we're on the Atlantic.

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We have to go up to north.

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So on our way, we're going to stop off
and we're gonna enjoy this wonderful

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menhaden food." because those were
the indicators of a healthy ecosystem.

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We see the menhaden come back
and the whales come back.

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And it also allowed for whale
watching companies to start playing.

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Gotham Whale it's a very popular whale
watching company I think that runs out

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of Brooklyn, and they started to be like,
"Hey, like we have all these whales here.

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Come look at the whales
in New York Harbor.

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Come look at it just
beyond New York Harbor.

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You'll be able to see these humpback
whales at specific times of years

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when they come in," because it's
so clean, because New Yorkers can

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enjoy not only the benefits of a
big city, but also the benefits

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of a clean ocean, and that's huge.

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Now New York City is still not out of
the woods, Heavy rain still overflows

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the old combined pipes through about 700
outfalls, around 20 billion gallons a

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year by one advocacy's group estimate.

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So it is still a situation where we
need to make sure that area gets a

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treatment plant, And the water isn't
necessarily open for regular swimming yet.

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So you still have to know that there are
things that we need to do in New York

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City to make sure that this can get back
to, regular swimming, where it's healthy

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enough that we can do regular swimming.

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But the thing is, when you look at the
entire history of it that we went through

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So sewage became treated, from the pipes
because you were able to point to that.

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You were able to measure what
the water quality was like

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at the end of these pipes.

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So the treatment plants went
in, the pipes were there.

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We knew we could measure, we can
monitor, we can make sure that

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they're doing everything properly.

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That is huge.

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That is really great to see.

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Now, later in the week, we're gonna look
at pollution that doesn't come from a

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pipe at all and what the ramifications
are and how that is taken care of.

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But the big thing for you to realize
that If you're in New York City, you can

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be part of a Waterkeeper organization.

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If you go to waterkeeper.org, it
has a map, and you can sign up

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for their water quality alert.

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So you can see what's going on in
your area or across New York City,

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And, like, this ties right back to those,
fishermen that, met and became, like, the

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Riverkeepers, the Waterkeepers, in 1966.

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The Harbor Cleaners started with people
who watched their water and spoke up.

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Whether they're fishermen, whether they're
New Yorkers or both, they got to see

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what is gonna happen with their water
quality and how much better it's getting.

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And then now they get to make sure that it
stays okay and gets better in the future.

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And that is huge when you're
looking at a major city that

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had such awful water quality.

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Seeing a humpback surfacing in New
York Harbor with a Manhattan skyline

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behind it, like, are you kidding me?

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In water that was an open
sewer within, like, the living

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memory of most New Yorkers.

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This took decades.

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It cost a lot of money, but it worked.

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And it goes to show that if you speak up
for your ocean, you can get things done.

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It's not easy, and you need a
community to do it, but there's

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enough communities within New
York City that they got this done.

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And I think it's a really great story
to discuss with your peers, with your

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family, to say, "Hey, you know what?

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If we ever see bad quality like we're
seeing in Florida or we're seeing in

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other places, we know that we can stop it.

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We just have to speak up to the
government to say, 'Hey, you know what?

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This has to be the end of this.

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We need to make sure that we are going
to continue, and be better and make

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sure that our water quality is good.'"
So this is a great example of that.

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The results have been amazing.

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Manta ray coming back,
humpback whales coming back.

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Seeing the ability of starting new
businesses within a New York Harbor

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for Gotham Whale, and people can
go whale watching in the harbor.

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It's absolutely phenomenal, and the
people of New York City should be very

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proud of what they have been able to do.

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So I wanna thank you so
much for listening to this.

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I would love to hear your thoughts on it.

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If you're a New Yorker or you've
had a family hi- in New York.

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I would love to hear your thoughts
about the cleanliness of the harbor

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00:15:44,480 --> 00:15:48,668
or even like a first, person account
of how that's been, for you as

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you grew up in, New York City.

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So I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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If you are on Spotify, you're
listening to this on Spotify,

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there's a comment section.

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Hit me up with a comment.

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I would love to hear what your
thoughts are on this episode.

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And of course, if you are listening to
this on any other, app and you don't

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have access to comments, just hit me
up like DM me or hit me up on LinkedIn.

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00:16:06,780 --> 00:16:09,716
all my socials are in the show
notes, so you can check that out.

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I wanna thank you so much for
joining me on today's episode of the

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How to Protect the Ocean podcast.

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I'm your host, Andrew Lewin.

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Have a great day.

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We'll talk to you next time,
and happy conservation.