Dolphins diving off Staten Island's shore

Dolphins diving off Staten Island's shore is an unusual sight
Published: Monday, June 11, 2012, 10:59 A
By Kathryn Carse
SILive.com

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- They show up fairly often in the Navesink and Shrewsbury rivers in New Jersey, sometimes needing heroic measures to rescue them. But dolphins frolicking in Raritan Bay is a rare sight.

In the early evening on Memorial Day, it is a sight 12-year-old Steve Reiss Jr. and his mother, Donna, saw from his Boston Whaler off of Lemon Creek, Prince's Bay.

According to Steve Sr., the family had just watched "Jaws" on Saturday night, so there was a momentary panic before the excitement of realizing they were dolphins, two of them. Mrs. Reiss started snapping away with her point and shoot, getting enough of the elusive divers to identify them as dolphins.

"It's not that common to see them so close to shore. We do a lot of fishing and see them off-shore. Never right outside the marina," said Mr. Reiss. Members of the Princess Bay Boatmen's Association, the family keeps their boats at Lemon Creek.

Mr. Reiss said that his wife reported her sighting to the American Littoral Society, an environmental group dedicated to coastal conservation. She said the people there also seemed surprised by the dolphins' presence and suggested that the large amount of bait fish such as bunker that is around probably drew them in.