Yesterday (Wednesday, December 18) a group of surfers seemingly unphased by the snow squall decided to hit the waves at Rockaway Beach, but they were greeted with a big wave from a humpback whale that was passing through!
Caught on a live “surf cam” feed and shared by Surfline on Instagram, you can see the whale putting on a show and waving as a handful of surfers watch from the shore. The below feed was captured at about 4:10pm on Wednesday.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B6OHkXQH4Ub/
As Secret NYC mentioned earlier this year: According to NYC’s whale research and advocacy organization, Gotham Whale, sightings have spiked around NYC’s waters with 272 reported in 2018—a massive increase from only 5 whales spotted in 2011. This wild increase in numbers is said to be due to cleaner waters. According to reports, the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act have played an important role bringing these giant beauties back into our waters by cleaning the pollution that was filtering out from the Hudson River.
featured image source: Artie Raslich/Gotham Whale