By Carla Zanoni
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
INWOOD — After giving a clean bill of health to a spotted seal that came ashore the Inwood coastline at Dyckman Street along the Hudson River, marine experts have left behind a sign asking the public to keep its distance from the animal.
But some of those "experts" appear to be a little confused when it comes to marine husbandry — the signs hung on gates near the Inwood shoreline warn locals not to feed or harass wild dolphins, not seals.
According to Rob DiGiovanni, director of the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, the signs are more symbolic than not, with dolphins standing in for all marine mammals.
"However," he said, "we have had reports of dolphins in the Hudson river over the years."
Last year dolphins were spotted in the East River, according to Gothamist, but no recent record of a dolphin could be found other than a kayaker blogging about a friend’s run in with one near Pier 40 at West Houston Street downtown in the spring of 2005.
In 2006, a manatee was spotted along the piers on the Hudson as well, reported the New York Times, although it quickly swam north and out of the city to Sleepy Hollow.
Perhaps like the seal that returned to the waterway Thursday afternoon, not everyone is cut out for city life.
