In the News: $15M plan to help fish swim to South Shore habitat

Extending far beyond our immediate coast and waterfront, the NY - NJ Harbor Bight's watershed includes the rivers, bays and waterways that exist far upstream of our estaury. In the Hudson River, salty estuarine waters extend all the way to the Tappan Zee Bridge and the Atlantic Ocean's tidal effects can be experienced as far north as Albany. Conversely, the impacts of development upstream can strongly affect natural resources downriver. In many cases, the waterways of our region have been altered by the construction of dams and bridges that in turn limit the ability of many fish species to forage and reproduce. Fortunately, a new program in New York's South Shore Estuary is working to create bypasses to these impediments, allowing fish to move freely and thrive once again both upstream and in the bays and open ocean writes Newsday today. JB

By Jennifer Smith
May 10, 2006

Some of Long Island's dams have been here so long they've become part of the landscape.

Built to power mills or create ice ponds in the days before refrigeration, the dams also hampered age-old migratory patterns of fish such as alewives and eels that once headed upstream from the sea to mature or spawn.

Yesterday, environmental advocates and local officials announced an ambitious 10-year plan to return those fish to 30 miles of river habitat along Suffolk's South Shore. They propose building fish ladders to help fish over barriers and, where possible, removing some of the 30 dams the group has deemed obsolete."

To make this dream happen, we need to open up the rivers," said actress Isabella Rossellini, a Bellport resident and member of Environmental Defense, the national non-profit group backing the proposal.

Read more...
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-lirive0510,0,6433060.story?coll=ny-main-tabheads2

Long Island's South Shore Estuary Reserve
http://www.estuary.cog.ny.us/