Charting a new course

ABOARD THE JOHN J. HARVEY IN NEW YORK HARBOR – Up on deck, a group of inner-city kids – most have never before been on the Hudson River – squeal in delight, getting drenched by water.

A Battery Park Bargain

AS two of the officials who helped carry out Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller’s 1967 mandate to build a Lower Manhattan community on landfill in the Hudson River, and considering the unquestionable success of what he proposed evident in today’s vibrant Battery Park City,

Future Dangers for a Maritime City

From its description Rising Currents: Projects for New York’s Waterfront, a six-month research program being inaugurated early next month at the Museum of Modern Art, sounds like the kind of dry, somnolent workshop someone would dream up for a convention of civil engineers. Conceived to address the potential effects of rising water levels and apocalyptic storms on the city, the program is modeled on the principles of “soft infrastructure,” which proposes flexible ecological systems as an alternative to “hard” solutions like concrete dams and storm barriers.

Historic ship in Oyster Bay sold to Boston group

After deteriorating for more than six years at the Waterfront Center in Oyster Bay, the historic Nantucket Lightship has been sold for $1 by the National Lighthouse Museum to a new nonprofit group in Boston that plans to move it there next month and restore it as a museum.

Ilya the Manatee Still Missing Off of New Jersey

Ilya the manatee, who traveled to Cape Cod this summer via New York Harbor, finally turned up in Elizabeth, New Jersey, on Friday — several hundred miles north of where he should be this time of year.

Fish Regs Fight Goes Federal

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) asked the U.S. Department of Commerce and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) on Monday to set up a free, permanent registration process for Long Island’s saltwater anglers so they only have to register once in their lifetime.

Mobbed Up Dockworkers

The New York Shipping Association is trying to regain control of port labor in a move critics claim would open workers to the same kind of mob exploitation that inspired the film “On the Waterfront.”

Construction can move forward at former Spanish Camp

City OKs construction on all land except for that owned by builder who started process

Faber’s 425 acres of blue (pool) and green (park)

A bucolic oasis exists amid Richmond Terrace’s industrialized waterfront: The Faber Park and Pool.

RH Tugs: Hillary ate here; Madonna sang here

 Just down the road from the Snug Harbor Cultural Center in Livingston is the only full-service restaurant on Staten Island’s North Shore waterfront: R.H. Tugs.

Dock holiday as Bay Ridge gets new ferry launch

Bay Ridge’s 69th Street pier is on its way to becoming a boating destination and transit hub, thanks to a $300,000 plan to outfit the fishing wharf with a dock.

Vision of a Riverfront Lined With Ferry Docks

The Hudson River may no longer be the major economic and transportation artery it once was, but it is a big river — beautiful in parts — that is home to commercial boats like ferries and barges as well as pleasure craft like sailboats and jet skis.

A curious manatee from Key West is lost in New York

Call him a bohemian behemoth.

There he was, a warm-water loving South Florida manatee, some, 1,300 miles from home, in the New York Harbor.

Shipping to be part of Howland Hook waterfront for next half-century

The Port Authority has signed a 35-year lease extension with the city for the 202-acre Howland Hook Marine Terminal in Mariners Harbor. The agency also extended its lease for the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal by 20 years, with the option of further lengthening it to 2058.

Before They’re Gone Pamela Talese Captures Industrial Relics From Another Era

For Pamela Talese, painting the corroding landscapes of Brooklyn’s industrial waterfront is a race to capture what’s left before it’s gone.

Eric Sanderson pictures New York — before the City

400 years after Hudson found New York harbor, Eric Sanderson shares how he made a 3D map of Mannahatta’s fascinating pre-city ecology of hills, rivers, wildlife

From Bones of Immigrants, Stories of Pain

A few weeks ago, a hearse left Tom Amorosi’s brownstone in Park Slope with the remains of 36 people who died in the 1840s and 1850s.

Biologists fight erosion in Jamaica Bay

The whipping winds of Jamaica Bay sway the chest-high grasses of Elder’s Point East, a salt marsh island full of marine life.

$150 Million Price Tag Put on Gowanus Effort

A new $150 million project to substantially improve water quality in the Gowanus Canal and reduce its odor impacts was officially announced on Friday by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Titanic Memorial Cruise

Exactly 100 years since the world’s most famous maritime disaster, a cruise ship is to recreate the fateful voyage of the Titanic, complete with dinners and dancing from the era.