Sea, plenty of fish!

Map shows wealth of marine life in local waters

THERE’S SOMETHING in the water — and it’s not just the 300,000 ships that pass through New York each year.

A new map, created by the Wildlife Conservation Society’s New York Aquarium and National Geographic, highlights an array of sea life that call the waters around New York City home.

Copies of the double-sided map (photo) will be handed out for free at the Brooklyn aquarium on Thursday beginning at 10 a.m. in celebration of World Oceans Day.

Whales, sharks, sturgeon and sea turtles number among the creatures the map locates off the area’s shorelines — one of the most urbanized seascapes in the world.

But these animals remain largely out of sight and out of mind to most New Yorkers, according to wildlife society vice president and New York Aquarium director Jon Forrest Dohlin, who said many residents assume that marine life exists “somewhere else.”

“The truth is, New Yorkers don’t have a deep-seated cultural identification with the maritime location as other coastal cities,” Dohlin said. “The map is designed to awaken people in the tristate area to the wildlife that shares their waters.”

Continued coexistence between New York’s coastal industry and its sea life, however, is no guarantee. The Coney Island aquarium’s map includes threatened and endangered animals native to local waters, including leatherback sea turtles and right whales.

“Whales are crossing these super-busy shipping lanes,” Dohlin said, adding that wildlife society aims to use sensors on buoys to help ships steer clear of whales.

“The question is how to maximize both ecological and economic benefit . . . and one of the map’s goals is to get people’s minds around the ecological riches right here in our waters,” he said.