A new map produced by the New York Aquarium and National Geographic reveals the biodiversity teeming off the city's shores. The map shows the New York Bight, a 16,000-square-mile (41,440 square kilometers) area of the Atlantic where whales, sharks, sea turtles and squid ply the depths.
Among the rarest denizens of the New York Bight is the North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis). There are likely only about 500 of these behemoths (they weigh up to 79 tons, or 72 metric tons) left in the world, according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
"The map highlights the movements of one of the most endangered whales on the planet, the North Atlantic right whale, as it moves through New York's waters," Howard Rosenbaum, the director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Ocean Giants Program, said in the statement. "Hopefully, this will help draw attention to the needs of this and other species so close to our shores."
