Whatbird.com

Today (7/2/08) we went to see some Bottlenose Dolphins that have gotten stuck in the Shrewsbury River near Sandy Hook. From the news reports we’ve heard, there are over a dozen dolphins (2 calves), they’re feeding and doing well… they just won’t leave, possibly due to construction noise from a bridge blocking their path to the ocean. Since the news mentioned they could be seen from McLoon’s RumRunner Restaurant, that’s where we went. Apparently that’s where everyone else went too: there were lots of people in the parking lot staring out into the water at… nothing. We joined the masses and watched as boaters and jet skiers went by, most of them slowly but some sped recklessly through, despite the known dolphin issue.  We did manage to see three oystercatchers fly overhead, which was cool.

After an hour of standing there, a slow boater shouted to us that the dolphins were further down the river, towards the bridge under construction. Most of us went to our respective cars and drove down the road.  My boyfriend and I broke from the herd and pulled onto a side street where there were just two other people.  Just a few moments later in the distance we saw dolphins coming up for air! They just kept coming up for air and tail slapping.  We watched for quite a while but then the crowd found the spot too. It wouldn’t have been so bad – at first there were lots of people hoping the dolphins would go back to the ocean soon & safely, and being angry at fast boaters… but towards the end there were lots of loud, rude children around and non-joking comments from the adults like ‘I don’t think those are dolphins (because of the back fins I assume), they look more like sharks to me. I’d be scared to get in that water’ and a group saying ‘Why is that coast guard boat (state police boat) there? Other: to keep people away from the dolphins. Third: People have been swimming with them while the Coast Guard boats (State Police Boats) aren’t around.  First: They should really let everyone have that experience with them… as long as they don’t charge! [money]’ etc.  >_<  I don’t mean to be catty, but it really got to me and I needed a little vent.

We stayed as long as we could and then left, with nice memories of dolphins and fond hopes for their safe return to the ocean soon – preferably before the chaos of the 4^th of July celebration and all the extra boating there.