The Lightning Rod Issue That Looms Over the Governor’s Race

Good morning. It’s Thursday. We’ll look at how the abortion issue divides the two major-party candidates for governor. We’ll also find out why dolphins are making a comeback in New York Harbor.

Wednesday, the ninth day in summer, was also the first day for the fall campaign to be governor. The one issue that divided Republican and Democratic candidates, fresh from their victory celebrations on Tuesday, was abortion.

As Nicholas Fandos, my colleague, points out, the confetti was still falling on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s victory party when she articulated an emerging message of her campaign as the Democratic nominee: If the Republican wins, he could try to limit abortion rights in New York.

That Republican is Representative Lee Zeldin of Long Island, who said nothing in his own victory speech about abortion or the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

It was no accident. In New York, where registered Democrats far outnumber Republicans, Zeldin needs to recruit voters from outside his conservative base — independents and disaffected Democrats worried about crime and inflation.

Hochul hopes to convince that same bloc that Zeldin’s positions are more extreme than he acknowledges, especially when it comes to a woman’s right to an abortion.

This issue could be extremely powerful in New York, where abortion was legalized in large part three years before Roe. New Yorkers have not elected a governor opposed to legalized abortion since Roe.

Zeldin regularly votes in Congress to restrict abortion access and prevent federal funds going to Planned Parenthood. He told a virtual “town hall” sponsored by the anti-abortion group New York State Right to Life in April that he supported naming a state health commissioner who “respects life as opposed to what we’re used to,” according to a recording of the event obtained by NY1.

And after the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade was issued last week, he said it was “yet another reminder that New York needs to do a much better job to promote, respect and defend life.”

Zeldin himself has said that the governor’s power to change abortion laws in New York is relatively limited, given the Democrats’ control of the Legislature in Albany. “New York has already codified far more than what Roe provided,” he said in a recent interview with The New York Times, an apparent reference to a 2019 law that made the federal protections a part of state law in case Roe was ever overturned.

Hochul demonstrated that governors can help reinforce the message that New York is safe haven for women seeking abortions by committing $35 million to state funds. Hochul and her Democratic allies don’t hide their strategy, with millions of campaign contributions available to spend between now & November.

“You’ve got an extremist view held by Lee Zeldin, and we’re not going to keep that a secret,” said Jay Jacobs, the state Democratic Party chairman. “The voters need to know what they are buying.”

Weather

A sunny day is expected with temperatures in the mid 80s. It will be clear at night with temperatures in the 70s.

PARKING ALTERNATIVESIDE

It will remain in effect until Monday (Independence Day).

The reporter who wrote that story — William J. Broad — told me that reporting on the dolphins’ comeback in our own backyard had been a respite from covering the months since President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine and put Russia’s nuclear weapons on “special combat readiness.”

I asked him to tell me more about dolphins and researchers who eavesdropped.

Eavesdropping on dolphins? What were the researchers listening for

Bottlenose dolphins — the type famous for wide grins and energetic leaps — are highly intelligent creatures that use sound waves to communicate and hunt food. Scientists discovered that they emit a series of rapid clicks known as the feeding buzzes which aid them in tracking prey. The team listened to the distinctive buzzes of bottlenose dolphins for two years. This allowed them to track their movements over the course of the day.

They were unsure where the microphones were placed and what they found.

The team set up underwater microphones to record the dolphins’ distinctive feeding sounds at six locations in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. The Lower Bay of Long Island, near the entrance into outer New York Harbor, was the location with the highest activity. In an area of high noise and shipping traffic, the Upper Bay off Brooklyn was where there was the least activity.

What are some of the most surprising places that dolphins have been spotted in New York?

Last year, a pair of dolphins was seen in the East River waters off Greenpoint, Brooklyn. This prompted gasps from scientists as well as onlookers. Sometimes dolphins will swim close to shore and become stranded. Howard Rosenbaum, a senior scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society and co-author of a recent research, said that the pair showed no signs or distress.

You can see dolphins from routine cruises in New York Harbor, or from the Staten Island Ferry.

It is unlikely, especially in areas with high ship traffic. The noise of many loud engines does not seem to bother dolphins. My wife and I went on a Circle Line Cruise recently with our visiting daughter. When we got to the Statue of Liberty, it was like a Manhattan traffic jam, only with all kinds of small and large craft jostling and crisscrossing one another’s wakes for better views. We saw no dolphins.

A number of companies offer sightseeing tours to see whales and dolphins around New York Harbor. I can’t vouch for the companies, but it seems like they’d go out of business if they didn’t deliver the goods with fair regularity.

Why is it that dolphins seem to be making a comeback in recent years? Is it a return on all the effort to clean the water?

Experts point to the New York Harbor cleanup as the main reason for the dolphin revival, but admit that the overall cause is unclear. Warming water due to climate change and recovery of menhaden stock along the East Coast are other possible factors. These small schooling fish are what dolphins eat, and they can eat up to 20 pounds per day.

Is it possible that the coronavirus epidemic is responsible for the increase in sightings

Yes, at least partially. People who never spent time on the waterfront suddenly found themselves taking long walks and couldn’t help but notice when a dolphin surfaced nearby. Maxine Montello, an official at the New York Marine Rescue Center, said another source of accidental sightings during the pandemic was people showing a newfound interest in driving boats — even when they had little or no experience. It can be scary out there, she said.

METROPOLITAN diary

Bird watching

Dear Diary:

Aft of an iron fence near Stuyvesant Town
I leaned to observe a flock of soaring birdlets.
Enjoy the summer sky and take your time
Equivocate, as though they were the netted
Particles of one diffusing brain.
Which roof should you choose, or which flat roof is best for your city?
One bird against the common good
You flew closer to a cloud, and ravished part
She made space for herself.
Then, I took her, at least a thousand feet away.
In that long ago extinguished instant
My friend, Mute against the Grating

— Herbert Klein