Yana Paskova for The New York Times The dolphin, swimming off Queens on Wednesday.The dolphin that turned up Wednesday morning in the East River has yet to return to sea, and while rescue experts are growing more concerned, they say that the animal, while “on the thin side,†does not appear to have any obvious health issues and is still swimming well.
The dolphin appears to be an offshore bottlenose, which is “a little bit more of a concern because these animals typically are open-ocean animals†compared to their cousins the coastal bottlenoses, said Kimberly Durham,rescue program manager for the Riverhead Foundation. Dolphin also usually travel in groups, not alone.
The dolphin in the East River is only a few miles from Long Island Sound and open water, but as on Wednesday, it was spending Thursday in an area bounded roughly by the East 90s in Manhattan, Randalls Island and Astoria, Queens.
“We don’t understand why it’s staying in that area,†Robert DiGiovanni Jr., executive director of the Riverhead Foundation, said on Thursday. Mr. DiGiovanni said he got within 50 feet of it on Wednesday evening and said the dolphin knew to stay clear of his boat. He said someone reported seeing the dolphin eating a fish.
In the absence of any clear indicators that the dolphin is in trouble, he said his organization would just continue to monitor it.
