Gawkers getting too close to dolphins
Wildlife volunteers say boaters are harassing a group of dolphins living in the Navesink River.
TOMS RIVER, N.J. - More people are harassing a group of dolphins that has been lolling about in two Monmouth County rivers, volunteers who are keeping watch over them said yesterday.
Bill Schultz, the Raritan Riverkeeper, is one of several volunteers who have been observing the pod of 12 to 15 dolphins that lately has been frolicking in the Navesink River in Red Bank.
He said boaters are increasing their harassment of the dolphins near the Route 35 bridge between Red Bank and Middletown.
"I'm starting to get concerned, because people are getting more callous in their treatment of the animals," he said yesterday before a public hearing in Toms River on beach access.
On Sunday, "I counted 32 boats surrounding them," Schultz said. "There are more people who are violently chasing them with kayaks and personal watercraft."
The dolphins showed up in mid-June in the Shrewsbury River in Sea Bright, possibly after making a wrong turn following schools of bait fish along the coast. While they fed and frolicked in the narrow waterway, most people gave them space, though a few had to be shooed away by state Marine Police and federal wildlife officials.
Now that the dolphins have ventured into the nearby Navesink, pressure on them has worsened, said Lorraine McCartney, another Riverkeeper volunteer.
Federal regulations require that boaters stay at least 50 yards away from the dolphins. Harassing them is a federal offense punishable by a $10,000 fine.
Teri Frady, a spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said she had not heard of stepped-up harassment of the animals, and could not immediately say how many people had been issued warnings or fines.
Schultz said some people he informed were venturing too close to the dolphins complied and appeared not to know they were breaking any rule. Others ignored him.
"Some of them just don't care," he said. "They want to get their Flipper picture."
What, if anything, to do about the dolphins has been the subject of great debate since they surfaced in the Shrewsbury River. Federal wildlife officials are loath to do anything that would stress the dolphins, and say there is time to wait for them to head back to the waters of Sandy Hook Bay and then the ocean.
But volunteer rescuers worry that waiting could invite a replay of a disastrous scenario that resulted in the deaths of four dolphins who lingered in the Shrewsbury River in 1993. Ice eventually closed in on them and they drowned.