Riverkeeper, an environmental organization, released a study report which is exclusively devoted to the health of the Hudson River. The report shows that many of the river’s fish are in serious long-term decline and “at risk of collapse” unless quick and aggressive measures are taken. According to the experts the main culprits are both the changes brought on by global warming and, more immediately, power plants along the river that withdraw huge amounts of water for cooling purposes, returning the heated water to the Hudson and disrupting the ecosystem.
Local fishermen do not feel the extent of the problem but can see a major decline in fish populations in the river. In the executive summary of the report it is said that neither the ecosystem as a whole, nor many of the individual constituent species’ populations, is in a healthy state. The study concentrates on 13 key species. While three species-striped bass, bluefish and spottail shiner-show a trend of increasing in numbers since the 1980s, the other 10 species, including shad, tomcod and white perch, have declined in abundance, some of them greatly.
Riverkeeper President Alex Matthiessen informed that the organization is genuinely surprised as it thought fish on the whole were doing quite well, based mainly on the fact that the Hudson has improved markedly over the last several decades as we got a handle on sewage and chemical discharges. According to the report the river’s mean annual water temperature is about 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above that recorded in the 1960s, and the seasonal temperature variation is also becoming more extreme.
