New York’s Plan to Bring Once Thriving Fish Back to the Hudson

All right, so the state of New York is a pretty cool place, we know this. It's a state filled with history, the scenery throughout the entire state, and most notably here in the Hudson Valley is an attraction that plenty of tourists come to see every year.

We do have one famous feature however that is arguably just as famous as New York City itself and that feature would be the Hudson River. The river is a landmark, a spectacle that thousands upon thousands of people admire every year. The river itself is approximately 315 miles long reaching from the Adirondack Mountains down to the tip of Manhattan. That being said, our beloved Hudson has changed a lot over the years but recent talks have taken place to revitalize it.

A Brief History Of the Hudson River

The Hudson River itself was originally discovered back in the early 1600s by Henry Hudson but wasn't officially named after him till the mid-late 1600s. Over a few hundred years of history, the famous river has been used every which way. It's been used religiously for the pushing and trading of goods, and resources, it's been used plenty for travel and once upon a time, the river was a major source of sustenance, as people would be able to fish the river and eat what they caught.

While we still use the Hudson for many of those same applications, however, it has been quite some time since it was used as a steady and reliable source of food. Numerous things have contributed to that, mainly the massive increase in population in the region led to more waste and pollution. With more people, it also led to overfishing which led to the eradication of edible fish from the Hudson. Altogether it means that for many years now, we have not depended on the Hudson for food. That very possibly could be changing soon though.

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Return of the "Poor Man's Salmon"

Recently a push has been made by New York State's Department of Environmental Conservation concerning what is known as 'Shad' or the 'Poor Man's Salmon'. Shad was one of the most popular fish fished out of the Hudson back in the day that people would actually be able to consume. The fish suffered greatly in the mid-1800s in terms of their population and took another hit in the 1940s. Even into the 2010's the population hadn't recovered.

However, the state DEC introduced plans to aid in increasing the species population numbers, with the idea being that following the plan it can reach back to at least the 1940s numbers. This plan would then ideally not only increase the population of the species but it would also allow for catch-and-release fishing as well as commercial fishing.

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One question some people may have is, why would a species of fish currently be safe in the Hudson considering the history of pollution? Well, the answer is that the Shad are an "anadromous" species, meaning that while they do and can live in the Hudson they also travel. Specifically, this species travels to particular breeding grounds but it's also this traveling that makes these fish less toxic than other species that spend all of their time in the Hudson.