In the past this area was the US whaling industry's capital, particularly Nantucket, an island just off the coast of Massachusetts. Though whaling has been banned for many years, and strict laws prohibit molestation of these large wild mammals, it is not unknown for the whales to approach whale watching boats uninvited, particularly curious calves and juveniles: it is not unknown in particular, for example, for juvenile humpbacks to approach the boat and spyhop to get a better look at the humans aboard. In recent years it is also not uncommon to see these animals playing and feeding in harbors, including New York City or Boston where fish species of interest to the whales have lately returned in astonishing numbers. As of 2011, an expert from Cornell University has recorded the vocalizations of six whale species including the humpback, the fin whale, and the massive blue whale within close proximity of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in the lower portion of New York Harbor and there is at least one company offering marine life tours out of The Rockaway Peninsula in Queens. Due to these increasingly frequent visits, new laws address the safety of boaters, commercial fishermen, and the whales themselves: off the coast of Boston, for example, cargo vessels must slow down to protect the much slower North Atlantic right whale and there is talk of erecting an apparatus for the much more heavily trafficked waters surrounding New York City that can warn boats of a whale's presence and location so as to avoid accidentally striking the animal. Because of the relative diversity of whales and dolphins within easy access of shore, cetacean research takes place at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, and the Riverhead Foundation among other centers.