(alan, I'm half expecting you to put up some live video of this...)
Accidental tourist: Manatee cruises Hudson River
Monday, August 7, 2006; Posted: 9:45 a.m. EDT (13:45 GMT)
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/08/07/manatee.hudson.river.ap/index.html
NEW YORK, New York (AP) -- In the heat of summer, all sorts of
tourists head north to cooler climes. This year, a manatee has joined
the crowd, cruising past the nightclubs of Manhattan and continuing
north.
The massive animal has been spotted in the Hudson River at least three
times in the last week -- first off the Chelsea and Harlem sections
of Manhattan, then to the north in Sleepy Hollow in Westchester County.
"It was gigantic," said Randy Shull, who said he spotted the unusual
visitor Sunday afternoon while boating at Kingsland Point Park in
Sleepy Hollow. "When we saw it surface, its back was just mammoth."
Last month, trackers saw the manatee as it swam north, first near
Delaware, then Maryland, then New Jersey. By Saturday, it was seen in
Manhattan.
Kim Durham, rescue program director for the Riverhead Foundation, a
nonprofit group devoted to marine mammals, called it a "bona fide"
sighting, but there isn't photographic proof.
It is unusual for one of the creatures -- often associated with the
warm waters of Florida -- to travel so far north, although they have
been reported along the shores of Long Island and even Rhode Island.
Manatees are an endangered marine mammal. Florida wildlife experts
counted 3,116 in their annual survey in February.
John Vargo, the publisher of Boating on the Hudson magazine, said his
alert about the sightings was met with disbelief by some boaters.
"Some were laughing about it, because it couldn't possibly be true,"
he said.
"I'm 70 years old, and I've been on the river my entire life," Vargo
said. "I've seen dolphins and everything else, but never a manatee."
