CRITTERS

An excellent measure of water quality involves looking at the indicator species representing in a habitat. Oysters are an indicator of good water quality in a brackish environment. High oyster populations also contribute to good water quality because of their water filtering abilities. The River Lab Program engages in several projects which investigate the biodiversity of the Hudson River estuary. GOOD NEWS - the river is alive! Although there are still many environmental issues with regard to PCBs, sewage and non point source pollution, increasing dissolved oxygen levels have allowed many species to flourish (student tests have found oxygen levels as high at 8 ppm). Below are images which depict some of our sampling methods and class activities and LINKS to pics of all the wonderful creatures we have discovered since January, 2001.

Fraidy of Hudson River Park Trust shows us the estuary food web before taking us foraging

~CATCH & RELEASE~

Both styles of oyster nets (we add the oysters) are still suspended in the water at Pier 40 - we have stopped using various traps since as our oyster lanterns become more established they are attracting a great variety of wildlife, analogous to a real oyster reef

our old baited crab trap - it caught more fish and snails then crabs but it was cool cause it was home made

Plankton - sorry we are not sophisticated enough to photo these little critters but we caught plenty! The Hudson is loaded with good critter food - algae, copepods, daphnia, and various larval crustaceans

ask dan he saw them

catching striped bass is not easy but we tried

critters'o'plenty - click on your choice of images below

Fish Pics OR Invertebrate Pics OR Oyster Page

Other Photo Galleries OR Back TO: River Lab OR City-As-School Science