New York Wants Boaters to Look Out for Whales, and Now It’s the Law

There's something almost surreal about hearing "whale sighting" and "New York" in the same sentence, but that's exactly where the state's coastline is right now. Governor Kathy Hochul just signed the New York Whale Awareness Act into law, folding whale safety education directly into the boater safety courses thousands of New Yorkers already have to take before they're allowed on the water.

The law, sponsored as A.8515A/S.2292B, directs the Department of Environmental Conservation to build out guidelines aimed at cutting down on vessel strikes and other dangerous run-ins between boats and marine mammals. It's a response to something that's gotten harder to ignore along the coast: more whales, closer to shore, sharing some of the busiest boating waters in the country with jet skis, fishing boats and everything in between.

Why Whales Are Coming Back to New York's Coastline

Cleaner water and rebounding fish populations have brought whales back to New York in bigger numbers than have been seen in decades, including humpbacks and the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale. Governor Hochul called it a genuine conservation win, but also flagged the flip side: more whale traffic in busy boating lanes means more chances for something to go wrong.

What New York's New Boater Safety Law Actually Requires

Instead of creating a whole new certification boaters have to track down separately, the law folds whale-safe practices right into courses and registration materials people already go through. That's the practical part of this bill. Nobody has to add a new hoop to jump through; they just learn collision-prevention basics as part of what they're already doing.

DEC Commissioner Amanda Lefton framed it as pairing conservation with public awareness, and State Parks Commissioner Kathy Moser made a similar point: as whale sightings get more common, boaters need a real answer for what to do when they see one, not just excitement and a phone camera.

What Boaters Should Do If They Spot a Whale

Citizens Campaign for the Environment Executive Director Adrienne Esposito put it about as plainly as it can be put: vessel strikes are the number one killer of whales, and gunning the engine toward one for a better photo is precisely backward. The move is to hang back or cut the engine so the propeller isn't a threat. Simple, but apparently not obvious enough, which is presumably why there's now a law about it.

Montauk and East Hampton Lead Coastal Support for the Bill

The bill picked up backing from lawmakers and conservation groups the length of the coast, including State Senator Pete Harckham and Assemblymember Rebecca Kassay, who sponsored it, plus groups like The Nature Conservancy, the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter and Concerned Citizens of Montauk. Local leaders in whale-watching hotspots like Montauk and East Hampton were especially vocal, with East Hampton Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez talking about what it means to watch whales breach just off a town's own shoreline.

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Fittingly, Hochul signed the bill at the Montauk Point Lighthouse, a detail Montauk Historical Society Executive Director Mia Certic called an honor for the community.