The three-foot long carcass of a baby dolphin was discovered on the Queens shoreline Sunday, and wildlife experts say the dead cetacean could be linked to a mass stranding off the Cape Cod coast. The cause of death remains unknown, but the common dolphin was reportedly malnourished, and may not have been weaned. It was discovered by park workers in Fort Tilden park off Jamaica Bay, and was picked up by the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation. more ›

And for your awwww-story of the morning we present you with Charlie, an 8-month-old German Shepard who might as well be named after Charlie the Tuna. See, yesterday Charlie the dog went for a swim in Jamaica Bay and if it weren't for two NYPD cops on harbor patrol that is where he would still be. more ›

A 67-year-old airport cargo worker was sentenced to life in prison for plotting to blow up a pipeline near JFK Airport. Russell Defreitas, who was convicted last year for the 2007 plot, had been portrayed by his lawyers as "a man with a small mind, a big mouth and an ugly imagination," but ultimately harmless. The federal judge, though, found the "the offenses that were contemplated here, that the jury found Mr. Defreitas guilty of, are extremely serious." more ›

That Jamaica Bay emergency landing a NYPD helicopter had to make yesterday? It turns out the helicopter was on "security patrol for President Obama's arrival at JFK" when it was trying to head back to NYPD Aviation headquarters at Floyd Bennett Field to refuel...but it ended up falling into the bay, just 30 yards from the helicopter pad. The NYPD believes it had a mechanical failure. more ›

Around 3:45 p.m., a NYPD helicopter made an emergency landing in Jamaica Bay. WPIX reports, "Police say the helicopter landed upright... while returning to a nearby police department airfield [at Floyd Bennett Field]. One of the officers suffered a minor injury. The chopper was carrying a three-man flight crew and two scuba divers who were on a routine security patrol. Flotation devices were deployed before it landed in the bay." It's unclear what caused the emergency landing, but last year, NYPD choppers made emergency landings in Maspeth, Queens and Brooklyn's Prospect Park. more ›

On a recent kayaking trip passing the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, Bonnie Frogma spotted (what she dubbed) an unusual sight: a white pelican! (Mingling with all those Canada geese who are safe from the gas chambers in the protected area.) She told us, "I'm not an actual birder, [but] I do know what birds are ordinarily seen in the bay." more ›

Last year Mayor Bloomberg declared his support for, you know, killing Canada Geese before they kill us... so why are the ones closest to one of our major airports being protected? The NY Post says the National Park Service has halted any efforts to remove geese from the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge—which runs right up to one of the airport's runways. more ›

While a Wal-Mart moving in to Atlas Park in Queens may have been an April Fools joke, there may be one coming to Brooklyn, for real. According to Crain's, the superstore is scoping out the Gateway II shopping center near Jamaica Bay. This would be the city's first Wal-Mart, but this is certainly not the company's first attempt to get their foot in the door here. more ›

A group of anglers whose boat capsized in chilly Jamaica Bay late Saturday night narrowly avoided drowning when a teen prom party boat totally came to their rescue. 24-year-old Lisa Shaver, her boyfriend Anthony Dattolo, 25, and four other friends say their 25-foot, flat-deck Chaparral capsized after extreme winds suddenly picked up around 1 a.m. Shaver tells the Post the waters were so choppy that the vessel "was almost a 90-degree angle...Once it started to go down, it was like the Titanic...My boyfriend and I held on to each other the entire time. I thought the waves were going to carry me into open water, but we kept a tight grip on each other." more ›

Earlier this week, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced that a Queens marina owner was convicted of dumping untreated sewage into Broad Channel in Jamaica Bay. Cuomo said, "John Schmitt’s actions have been truly disgusting. Dumping raw sewage into a public waterway is not just bad for the environment; it is a clear abuse of the people who use the bay for swimming, fishing, and boating." However, Schmitt's lawyer says his client will appeal, "This is a case over a toilet and a sink. There are people in Broad Channel today who still don't have sewer lines." Schmitt has been previously accused of taking 600,000 square feet of land for additional boats and dumping fuel, concrete, and other toxins into the marshland. more ›

In Mark Kurlansky's 2005 book about New York City and oysters, The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell, the author suggested that given the improved environmental conditions of New York Bay, perhaps the time is ripe to start replanting the oyster fields that used to carpet the underwater surface. The City and environmentalists are now undertaking a project to replant oyster beds in the bay, not for harvesting, but as natural, or soft, anti-pollution filters. more ›

John and Annette Ferranti certainly did not feel they were in good hands with the Allstate Insurance Company, after Allstate refused to pay their homeowners damage claim they insist was caused by an Air France Concorde jet. The insurance company, which had wanted to appeal appeal a jury award of $1.15 million to the Mill Basin couple, finally agreed to pay the Ferrantis $995,000. more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a triple shooting on East 21st St. and Caton Ave. in Brooklyn, a missing child on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, and a mass casualty incident at Castle Hill Ave. and the Cross Bronx Expressway.
• Many New Yorkers donned black this Thursday in solidarity with the Jena 6.
• Cops are looking for a man who applied for a job at the Duane Reade on 34th St. and 5th Ave., only to return to the store a few minutes later brandishing a silver-colored gun and demanding money.
• The Parks Dept. has officially ended the bid for a company to build a 26-acre water-park on Randall's Island.
• A 45-year-old bachelor is striving for independence from the bedroom in his parents' home, where he's organizing a campign for an independent Long Island Nation. He wants Brooklyn, Queens, and the rest of the island to break off not just from NYC, but to secede from the United States.
• A kayak and canoe ramp opened in the Idlewild Park Preserve on Jamaica Bay in Queens, but not all residents seemed that enthusiastic.
• Former NJ Governor Jim McGreevey was ordered by a judge to pay his ex-wife $2,500 a month in alimony.
• New York City and State have agreed on a set of safety protocols that will be enacted at the Deutsche Bank building in the next two to three weeks.

Yesterday afternoon, the Fire Department responded to a call about nine people, including seven children, who fell ill when carbon monoxide leaked from a boat's exhaust system. A number of adults and children were aboard the Lady V, a 39-foot cabin "miniyacht," was in Jamaica Bay, off Brooklyn. more ›

The marshlands in Jamaica Bay that make up a portion of the Gateway National Recreation area and includes the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge are disappearing so quickly that some estimate all of the marshes could disappear in as few as five years. The New York Times reports that recent satellite images indicate that about 33 acres of tidal wetlands in the bay are disappearing annually, almost double the prior estimate of 18 acres per year based on a 2001 study. The cause of disappearing marshes is disputed and recommendations for their preservation involve a lot of money. more ›

Grant Stoddard (pictured) saw little islands (also pictured) as his plane flew above New York, and from that a seed was planted for possibly the craziest idea we've heard, well, this week: he wanted to live on one of these islands for a few days to, you know, test his wilderness survival skills while still having a clear view of the Empire State Building. After running the idea by a friend, Duke (who coincidentally spent a night on each of these islands), he's off. more ›

The Gateway National Recreation Area is a dual-state and tri-borough national park meant to showcase the Greater New York Harbor for all area residents. It includes the Sandy Hook peninsula of New Jersey that is the outer boundary of New York's Harbor, Long Island's Jamaica Bay that is a wildlife refuge, and Staten Island's parks that offer opportunities to visit historic forts and wildlife nature areas. All together, the group of parks is known as the Gateway National Recreation Area. A conservation organization is holding a public design competition for Gateway National Park. more ›

ART: FreeNYC reminds us that the new gallery Honey Space is opening tonight with a little shindig. The night will include a solo show by Thomas Beale, "otherworldly food, homemade drinks, one New Orleans circus star, a 9-piece brass band, and the products of years of concentrated effort." more ›

Through much of its history New York had a working waterfront. Be it for passengers, cargo, fishing, or ship building, warehouses and other industries, the waterfront was a busy, stinky, messy place. As a result the poshest residences were usually built inland, think Park Avenue. Since the ports are no longer used for industrial purposes there has been a rush to build along the shore. As discussed in a long article in Sunday's Times, maybe riverside condos aren't such a great idea. more ›

We bet most anyone who has attempted to follow a map in Queens can empathize with the plight of new immigrant Damon Mootoo. Mootoo, who had just arrived from Guyana, got lost when he left his brother's home on 152nd Street in South Jamaica and ended up wandering around in the cold for five days. Five days! The Daily News reported that Mootoo, who can speak English but is hard of hearing, "didn't want to approach a cop because he feared he'd be deported." He managed to get by by begging for water and sleeping in an abandoned car or under a piece of wood in someone's yard in the below-freezing temperature. more ›

In a Crosswalk on a Chilly Saturday Morning, by mdpNY. more ›

Yesterday morning, a Cessna 172 made an emergency landing in Calvert Vaux Park in Brooklyn yesterday. The pilot, Paul Dudley of Staten Island, had taken off from West Hampton Airport in Long Island and was headed to Linden Airport. But Dudley says after flying over the Jamaica Bay Inlet and Floyd Bennett Field, his engine went out and he decided to land the plane. more ›

You take some eggs, some rowdy residents, and some undercover cops and you get a crazy riot in Broad Channel. The NY Sun has a very detailed article about the riot between police and residents, where the only part of the story that the police and residents agree on is that a bunch of kids egged an unmarked police car. Which was only in the area to respond to earlier calls about property being egged! more ›

One of the many things I love about this town is that there are a thousand places where you might find yourself saying, “It doesn’t even feel like I’m in New York City anymore.” I started driving a yellow cab, in large part, to try to find as many of those places as I could. more ›

Five boaters got very lucky yesterday when their boat capsized in Jamaica Bay: They happened to be right near the NYPD's Aviation Unit at Floyd Bennett Field. NYPD chopper pilot Michael Hendrix told the Post, "I was in the middle of eating my birthday cake when I looked up and saw a boat listing. I said, 'That doesn't look right.' Shortly after, it started disappearing into the horizon. I grabbed my binoculars and saw it was sinking." That's quite a birthday. A helicopter and dive team saved two couples and the boat's owner from the water. The boaters had been fishing, when their boat suddenly took own water and the motor failed. None of the passengers were wearing life vests, so they were lucky it was Hendrix's birthday. more ›

Are street or place or even lane. - And hey, one more anniversary this weekend. I've been your Gothamist Weekend Editor for one whole year now, huzzah! It wouldn't be nearly as much fun without all of your comments and tips (and corrections, I live for your corrections). more ›

Rockaway, Queens. Just hearing its name makes us smile. Some of our happiest high school memories involve sitting on its beaches looking out at the Atlantic, content in the knowledge that we were still in the City and that Manhattan was but an A train away. But will it always be? That's the question posed by today's News in a story that might as well have been written by Chicken Little. Short answer: For now, but watch those hurricanes. more ›

Have you ever wondered how to bike to City Island from Manhattan? Now you know! Check out the five great other routes up at Recteck-- the most bizarre is the nine bridge circumnavigation of Jamaica Bay. That's probably not for beginners! more ›

The Gotham Gazette has a good article about the state of our city's waterways. The good news is that they are less polluted than they used to be: more ›