Rare whale spotted in New York City's East River near Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges

New York City got a rare whale sighting on Monday.

A whale was spotted in the East River near the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges. People on the Brooklyn shore got a glimpse of the whale flashing its tail out of the water, according to the U.S. Coast Guard, which received multiple reports from spectators.

The sighting caused a frenzy on social media, with people speculating it was a humpback whale, but Coast Guard spokesperson Logan Kaczmarek said the agency wasn’t sure whether it was a humpback or a North Atlantic right whale, one of the world’s most endangered whale species, Gothamist reported.

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But regardless the whale sighting in the East River is special because the usual boat traffic makes it hard to spot aquatic wildlife. “We do get a lot of marine mammals in the New York Harbor,” Kaczmarek said. “It’s not rare by any means, but the sightings are less frequent.”

As the reports from community members came on Monday, the Coast Guard put out a marine information broadcast to warn boaters to be cautious, so they would not collide with the whale, according to Kaczmarek.

iNaturalist user yuunikorn shared a photo to that platform confirming a Humpback in the East River on Monday.