History, Natural History & the Arts
Artificial light at night has a profound effect land-based life – from birds to fireflies to humans. But a new study suggests we need to widen our view to include light pollution‘s effect on coastal marine ecosystems, impacting everything from whales to fish, coral to plankton.
This new synthesis of marine light pollution science is published in the journal Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. [Read more…] about Study: Light Pollution Threatens Coastal Marine Systems
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has released the State of the Ocean 2023 that provides an overview of actions taken to advance the New York Ocean Action Plan (OAP). The report highlights partnerships and achievements from the first five years of the OAP, including enhancing ecological integrity, promoting sustainable growth, adapting to change, and empowering public stewardship. [Read more…] about State of the Ocean 2023 Report Released
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is proposing changes to recreational fishing regulations in New York’s Marine and Coastal District. This rulemaking is designed to improve the management and protection of sharks by establishing gear restrictions for recreational shore anglers to enhance law enforcement’s ability to protect sharks and includes new handling and release methods for anglers to improve shark and angler safety.
The proposed regulation is available for public comment until August 7th, 2023. [Read more…] about New Fishing Regulations to Protect Sharks Proposed
Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) are an endangered large whale species that live primarily in deep offshore waters at the continental shelf break. The New York Bight (NYB), an ecologically rich region off the U.S. Atlantic coast between New Jersey and Long Island, provides habitat for the species throughout most of the year. [Read more…] about New York Bight Sperm Whale Behavior
All along the Hudson River estuary, volunteers including teachers, students, and residents are donning waders and venturing into tributary streams to participate in ongoing research on migrating juvenile American eels (Anguilla rostrata). [Read more…] about The Migrating Juvenile American Eel Monitoring Project
New Yorkers along coastal shores are reminded to keep a safe distance from marine mammals and resist the urge to intervene when an animal comes ashore. Marine mammals, which include whales, dolphins, porpoises, and seals, are protected by federal and state laws to ensure they are not harmed and to keep people at a safe distance. [Read more…] about Avoid Close Encounters with Marine Mammals
The 1840s brought about a transformation in the nature of transatlantic shipping. With the development of European colonial empires, the forced transportation of African slaves had become big business.
Liverpool was the focus of the British slave trade. As a result of crusading abolitionist movements and subsequent legal intervention, the brutal practice declined there during that decade. But more or less simultaneously a new form of people trafficking took its place. [Read more…] about Massacres & Migrants at Sea: Deadly Voyages To New York
Following the mid-nineteenth century revolution in steamship building, transatlantic passenger transport became a profitable enterprise. Travel went global, giving rise to an intercontinental “travel industry.”
Commercial oceanic transportation boomed. Bremen-based NDL (Norddeutscher Lloyd) and Hamburg-based HAPAG (Hamburg Amerikanische Packetfahrt Aktiengesellschaft) became the largest shipping companies in the world. [Read more…] about Culture War, Transatlantic Migration & The Wreck of the SS Deutschland
Due to an outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in the St Lawrence waterway in Canada, an estimated 5-15% of nesting eider females died this year, negatively impacting the eider population, likely for several years. [Read more…] about Eiders Hit Hard By Avian Influenza; Little Response From DEC
The Fulton Fish Market stands out as an iconic New York institution. At first a neighborhood retail market for many different kinds of food, it became the nation’s largest fish and seafood wholesaling center by the late nineteenth century.
Waves of immigrants worked at the Fulton Fish Market and then introduced the rest of the city to their seafood traditions. In popular culture, the market — celebrated by Joseph Mitchell in The New Yorker — conjures up images of the bustling East River waterfront, late-night fishmongering, organized crime, and a vanished working-class New York. [Read more…] about The Fulton Fish Market: A History