An unexpected sight surfaced in Newtown Creek in New York City’s East River last week, suggesting that the notoriously toxic waterway might be righting itself.
In an Instagram post, the Newtown Creek Alliance shared a video of a group of rays, also known as a fever, splashing about in the famously polluted waterway.
Experts are unsure why the rays were ray-ing in this stretch of tributary, but many are hopeful the sighting is a sign that ongoing cleanup efforts are paying off.
A group of rays swims in Newtown Creek in New York City in August 2026. It is the first time people have observed the animals in the waterway. Joseph Hach via Newtown Creek Alliance The group of rays, which one genius commenter suggested calling a “rave,” appears to be cownose rays, which are native to the western Atlantic Ocean, including the eastern seaboard of the United States.
The Alliance speculates that it’s possible the rays were lost or accidentally stuck in the creek, but the fact that they were traveling en masse suggests something more profound.
“I have not heard of anybody seeing rays in the creek before,” said Willis Elkins, executive director of Newtown Creek Alliance, told Gothamist.
“Most of the time, especially if it’s a [group], they’re coming because there’s food,” he said. “The whole group swimming as one was really awesome to witness.”
Situated between Brooklyn and Queens, the Newton Creek estuary has long been known as one of the most contaminated stretches of waterway in the country.
Beginning in the mid-1800s, the creek became the toxic depository for refineries and other businesses along its shores.
View this post on Instagram In September 1978, researchers identified the Greenpoint oil spill in and around Newton Creek.
One of the largest oil spills ever recorded in the US, between 17 and 30 million gallons of oil and petroleum products from crude oil processing facilities leached into the waterway over the span of several decades.
While the source of Newton’s pollution has largely been removed, rainstorms routinely overwhelm the area’s waste treatment center, leading to substantial amounts of raw sewage making its way into the creek.
In 2010, Newton Creek was declared a Superfund site by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Joseph Hach via Newtown Creek Alliance In 2010, Newton Creek was declared a Superfund site by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, ushering in an era of cleanup efforts. These efforts include a push to restore the local oyster population in an attempt to naturally filter the water.
While progress has been made, the water is far from pristine.
In 2022, the EPA pushed back its deadline for cleaning up the creek, moving the clean-by date from 2023 to 2032.
Still, the evidence of these efforts suggests it’s going somewhat swimmingly.
Indeed, Elkins shared that 2026 has been a banner year for wildlife sightings,
“We saw some horseshoe crabs up in one of the tributaries where the water quality conditions are even worse than the mouth of the creek,” he said, adding that eels have also been observed.
Newton Creek has also been the site of human heroics.
Last month, an NYPD cop jumped into Newton Creek to save a woman from drowning.
Last September, the bodies of two men were found floating in the creek in two separate incidents.
