A group of rays was spotted swimming through Newtown Creek, a notoriously filthy estuary of the East River last weekend, according to Gothamist.
“I have not heard of anybody seeing rays in the creek before,” Willis Elkins, executive director of nonprofit the Newtown Creek Alliance, told the news site.
The group had shared a now viral clip of the rays on Instagram in the creek’s murky waters.
"Species wise they look like cownose rays, which are native to the area and feed primarily on crustaceans and shellfish — guess they heard about some of our mussel restoration projects :)," the Alliance wrote on Instagram. "Fun fact: a group of rays is called a fever. It is definitely the first we have seen in/around Newtown Creek."
Since Newtown Creek was declared a Superfund site in 2010, much work has been done to clean its squalid shores, according to Gothamist.
Oysters, clams, bass, moonfish, swans, egrets, robins and more have all been observed in and along the creek in recent years, according to a working document maintained by the Newtown Creek Alliance.
