Whales Throng New York City Area, Surprising Scientists

A network of ten underwater sound recorders in place off the length of the south coast of Long Island and throughout New York Harbor (map) between 2008 and 2009 detected a surprising density of ocean giants across an unexpectedly vast area, experts say.

These "open mikes" picked up the ballads of the fin whale, blue whale, humpback whale, minke whale, sei whale, and the rare North Atlantic right whale, said Christopher Clark, Bioacoustics Research Program at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York.

The fin, humpback, right, and sei whales are on the U.S. endangered species list, meaning the federal government considers them to be "on the brink of extinction."

But what amazed the team the most was not the types of whales heard, but the sheer density of animals spread out over the entire study area, said Aaron Rice, science director of the bioacoustics lab.

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