History, Natural History & the Arts
An ongoing New York State Museum project is returning nearly 500,000 rescued freshwater mussels to the restored ALCOA Superfund Site in the Lower Grasse River near Massena, NY.
The State Museum was awarded an $713,000 cooperative agreement from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to lead the five-year effort, which is also expected to advance research informing future freshwater restoration efforts. [Read more…] about Rescued Mussels Being Returned to Lower Grasse River
The Gowanus Canal (originally known as Gowanus Creek) is a 1.8-mile-long waterway in Brooklyn that was once a saltwater marsh teeming with wildlife, but is now among the most polluted bodies of water in the United States.
The area’s early settlers, on the first land patents issued in Breukelen (today Brooklyn), named the waterway “Gowanes Creek” after Gouwane a sachem (chief) of the Canarsee, an indigenous Lenape tribe who exploited the waterway’s resources and farmed its shores. [Read more…] about Gowanus Canal is Getting Cleaner Every Day
In the 1930s William Beebe (1877–1962), director of the Bermuda Oceanographic Institution sponsored by the New York Zoological Society (now the Wildlife Conservation Society), was described as “the most popular scientist in the world.”
Beebe began his career studying exotic birds, insects, and marine biology. The Brooklyn-born naturalist then gravitated to exploring the Atlantic Ocean’s abyss. [Read more…] about Naturalist & Bathysphere Explorer William Beebe
Leslie Day’s life changed forever when, in 1975, she moved to a tiny houseboat on the Hudson River at the 79th Street Boat Basin ― a new home umbilically tied to Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
In her heartfelt memoir, River (Cornell University Press, 2025), Day reveals how she fell in love with ― and married ― her neighbor, a biology professor at Brooklyn College, became a naturalist, educator, and author, and raised her son on the boat. [Read more…] about Leslie Day’s River: A Hudson Memoir
The source of the Bronx River is now the Kensico Reservoir in Westchester County. From here the river flows south, passing 24 miles through White Plains, Scarsdale, Yonkers, and Bronxville until it reaches Bronx County, where it then empties into the East River, a tidal strait connected to Long Island Sound, between Hunts Point and Clason Point.
The river gets its name from colonial settler Jonas Bronck. The river once originated in an area the Weckquasgeek called Quaropes (White Marshes). [Read more…] about The Bronx River: A Natural History
Microplastic pollution is not a new problem. However, in recent years, the public has become more aware, and scientists are studying the seriousness of the situation. Have you ever stood on a riverbank after a heavy rain and noticed how much plastic waste floats by?
Gallon milk jugs, plastic bottles, food wrappers, plastic bags, rubber balls, etc., all race downstream. Plastic, plastic, and more plastic. [Read more…] about Microplastics in Our Waters, Food, Air
One of the most exciting rites of spring is the alewife run, an annual event where throngs of fish race upstream from the ocean to inland water bodies on a reproductive journey. These “river herring,” as they are categorized, actually spend most of their lives at sea.
Come spring, when the water warms to at least 5 degrees Celsius (41 degrees Fahrenheit), schools of alewives gather near river and stream mouths. [Read more…] about Against the Flow: Spring Alewife Runs Were Once Immense
The Trump regime’s 2026 budget passback plan, currently under consideration, eliminates National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) Office and its 10 research laboratories and 16 affiliated Cooperative Institutes, and moves the few remaining research efforts to different NOAA departments.
If enacted, the passback plan would close all of NOAA’s weather, climate, and ocean Laboratories and Cooperative Institutes. [Read more…] about Meteorologists Warn About Trump Regime’s NOAA Plans
Back on Friday, February 14th, NYS Environmental Conservation Officers (ECOs) Holliday, McGhee, Seabury, and Simmons responded to reports of a stranded Risso’s dolphin (Grampus griseus) on Little Albert’s Landing Beach in East Hampton, in Suffolk County on Long Island. [Read more…] about Risso’s Dolphin Stranded on Long Island Dies
For over a decade, scientists, environmentalists, and local and state government officials have been challenged by the invasion of Golden Clams into Lake George. However, in the summer of 1948, a renowned marathon swimmer, Frenchman Paul Chotteau (1898–1963), tried to introduce another invasive species, a shark, into the “Queen of American Lakes.”
In August 1948, Chotteau contacted Warren County Sheriff Edgar J. Baker asking permission to try out a shark-powered pontoon boat which the distance swimmer had designed. [Read more…] about The 1948 Lake George Shark-Propelled Boat Incident
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is seeking public input on the draft list of Species of Greatest Conservation Need and associated species status assessments for use in updating New York’s State Wildlife Action Plan for 2025-35. [Read more…] about List of Species of Greatest Conservation Need Being Revised
On October 4, New York State Environmental Conservation Officers (ECOs) from the Department of Environmental Conservation’s Division of Law Enforcement’s Marine Enforcement Unit responded to reports of a whale carcass floating in the vicinity of Raritan Bay off Staten Island. [Read more…] about Washed Up Minke Whale Shows Signs of Infectious Disease
A common but rarely-glimpsed denizen of the New York Harbor is the Atlantic horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus). This prehistoric-looking creature, which is more closely related to spiders than to crabs, has changed little over the past 450 million years.
Since before dinosaurs walked the earth, the horseshoe crab has scuttled around shallow seas on its six pairs of legs, feeding on marine invertebrates with its jawless mouth, and sensing the world around it with its ten eyes. [Read more…] about New York City Wildlife: Atlantic Horseshoe Crabs
Dead sharks and sturgeon will occasionally wash ashore. These mortalities can occur due to fishery interactions, boating, predation, parasitism, or other natural causes. The New York state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) collects information on the location, species, length, sex, and condition of these deceased individuals. [Read more…] about New York’s Shark and Sturgeon Salvage Program
Eelgrass meadows, the dominant seagrass species in the Northeastern United States, provide food and habitat for countless marine organisms, as well as erosion control and many other benefits to humans and the ecosystem. [Read more…] about Seagrass Research Could Aid Restoration Efforts
The National Wildlife Refuge System began on March 14, 1904, when President Theodore Roosevelt established the Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge in Florida. Since then the system has expanded to include more than 570 different refuges. There are 13 National Wildlife Refuges in New York State: two in Western New York, two in the Lower Hudson Valley/Catskills region, and nine on Long Island. [Read more…] about National Wildlife Refuges in New York State: A Guide
New York State Environmental Conservation Officers (ECOs) recently took part in rescuing a grey seal from John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens, a harp seal on Staten Island, and another at Shinnecock Bay in Suffolk County on Long Island. [Read more…] about Grey Seal at JFK Airport, Harp Seal Among Several Recently Rescued
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) will be collaborating with The Nature Conservancy and Stony Brook University on scientific studies at Atlantic Beach Artificial Reef off The Rockaways throughout 2024. The Rockaways is a common name for the Rockaway Peninsula at the southern edge of the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island. [Read more…] about New Artificial Reef Materials and On-going Research
The New York State Ocean Acidification Task Force (OATF) has released its Final Report, Ocean Acidification: Its Causes, Impacts, and Mitigation; A Report to the New York State Legislature. Ocean acidification (OA) is a major threat to our ocean’s health and an acidifying ocean brings with it threats to marine life and the services that the ocean provides. [Read more…] about New York Ocean Acidification Task Force Final Report
On January 11, 2024 NYS Environmental Conservation Officer (ECO) Dickson received a report of a dolphin on Cedar Beach in Babylon, Suffolk County, Long Island. [Read more…] about Deceased Dolphin Found Washed Ashore on Long Island
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