From 2007-2009, an expert from Cornell University did an experiment listening in on the acoustics of the Harbor Estuary, where, to the astonishment of many, he discovered at least six species of whale vocalizing less than 20 miles from where the Statue of Liberty stands, just past the Verrazano Bridge where the water gets deeper. Historical records show that whales were plentiful in the area going well back into colonial history: in 1697, the charter for Trinity Church received its official royal charter, which gave it not only a large chunk of land in Lower Manhattan, but also the profit from any whales or shipwrecks along the banks of the Hudson. The return of these whales is evidence of the environment's improvement over the past forty years: whales have been absent from New York's waters west of the Hamptons for over a hundred years as the water became incredibly polluted and in 1989 the population was zero. In 2009, however, a young humpback whale attempted to penetrate the gateway to the upper harbor when it passed under the Verrazano Bridge, causing the men and women ashore watching the whole debacle from Fort Hamilton a great deal of alarm, concerned for its health and the safety of the Coast Guard officers trying to herd the frightened, massive creature back out to sea (the whale returned unharmed.) In late 2017, for the first time, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in partnership with the New York Aquarium began to count the whales in a census as the population has expanded mightily.