Ending Easy Life at The River Project, Fish are Returned to Hudson
As a blackfish is about to be returned to the Hudson River last year, kids at The River Project get a last look and touch. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib
It's hard to say good-bye.
But next month, with much hoopla and a ceremony, over 100 fish and other aquatic creatures will be set free, slowly lowered one bucket at a time into the Hudson River.
Caught in traps set in the river's muddy bottom, they have lived cozily since spring in fish tanks at The River Project, a marine science field station on Pier 40.
"We say good-bye and thank them for serving us for the year and letting us get to know them," said Cathy Drew, a Tribeca resident who founded The River Project on Tribeca's Pier 26 in 1986 and serves as executive director. (The tanks must be emptied before the winter because there is no heat in the station and the pumps would freeze.)
Standing dockside and waving to the fish will be children and parents, Project River staff and many of the interns from high schools around the city who have overseen the traps.
For many of the fish and other creatures, winter quarters is surprisingly close.
The striped bass and white perch will probably winter among the pier's piles, said Nina Zain, an environmental scientist at The River Project. The blackfish and oyster toadfish will head for the shoreline and bury themselves in the mud to keep warm.
"Fish usually stay in the estuary for three years before heading out to sea," Zain explained, "and a lot of the ones we catch are pretty young."
Every year, there are hundreds of visitors to The River Project who come to observe the fish, horseshoe crabs, snails, seahorses and other animals that have made their way into the traps. Many are surprised, Zain said.
"People have a negative view of the river," she noted. "They're amazed by how much life is there."
"The Release of the Fishes" is Thursday, Nov. 5, 4 to 7 p.m. at The River Project on the south walkway of Pier 40, at Houston Street. Everyone is welcome and there will be refreshments and raffle prizes.