Marine Life in the Hudson River

By: Aaron Krein and Amie Pradella

Fish Facts• Populations of fish have remained at average level.• There are many diverse species of fish in the Hudson.

(ex: 206 kinds of fish were discovered in 1995.)• Fish of the Hudson use Estuaries, like the Constitutional Marsh, as nurseries for their offspring.• In 1994, the New York State Department of Health suggested women and children shouldn’t eat fish caught in the Hudson. High levels of PCB’s are found in most fish that are in existence there.

Bottom Dwellers Open Water FishSturgeon River HerringCatfish BassesFlounder BluefishHogchokers SunfishEels Carp Killfish

Minnows

Blue Crab RegulationsHere are some highlights of the blue crab regulations that were effective in June of 2006:• Hard crab: 4 1/2 inch size limit• Soft shell crab: 3 1/2 inch size limit• Peeler crab: 3 1/2 inch size limit

Blue Crabs

Growth Blue crabs have an exoskeleton, When ready to shed or molt, the crabs find a place to hide, such as shallows or a submerged aquatic vegetation bed. The old shell splits along the back and the crab begins the task of backing out of its shell. Once free, the crab expands its new soft shell by inflating it with water. As the creature grows, it expels the water to make room for itself. The new shell hardens in 2-3 days. Soft shell crabs are rare crabs with a fresh new shell on their bodies that has not yet hardened, not another species of crab.

Blue-black herring

• Herrings are one of the best striper baits to fish live. They are usually around in the spring when the stripers make their run up rivers to spawn.

• River herring feed primarily on plankton, including copepods, amphipods, shrimp, and fish eggs. They are preyed upon by striped bass, bluefish, gulls, terns, and other coastal birds.

Life History and Behavior

• River herring are beautiful fish that hatch and move out to the ocean where they spend their adult lives before returning each year to spawn in the freshwater streams where they hatched.

River Herrings

• Diverse group of ray-finned fish.

• Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the heaviest and longest.

• Despite their name, not all catfish have prominent barbels; members of the Siluriformes order are defined by features of the skull and swim bladder. Catfish are of considerable commercial importance; many of the larger species are farmed or fished for food. Many of the smaller species, particularly the genus Corydoras, are important in the aquarium hobby.

CATFISH

• Any of numerous species of North American freshwater fishes placed with the crappies and black basses in the family Centrarchidae (order Perciformes). The family contains about 30 species

• Sunfish can be referred to as crappies, black bass, blue gill and pumpkinseeds. Sunfish are usually crossbred with other fish to make them worth catching. Without this true sunfish are usually of no interest to anglers because they are just too small.

Sunfish

Also known as: White River springfish Kingdom AnimaliaPhylum ChordataClass ActinopterygiiOrder CyprinodontiformesFamily CyprinodontidaeGenus Crenichthys

Fresh water fish!

Carp Killfish

• The Hogchoker (Trinectes maculatus) fish : it is a small flatfish, with eyes on its right side

• The habitat of a Hogchoker is sandy bottoms .• It was once said Hogchoker got its name because it was used as food for pigs.

Hogchokers

•http://hhr.highlands.com/nathist.htm

•http://www.dec.ny.gov/images/fish_marine_images/crabfreq.jpg

•http://life.bio.sunysb.edu/marinebio/fc.4.fauna.html

•http://www.thefishsite.com/fishnews/6927/hudson-river-fish-in-peril

•http://www.onearth.org/blog/the-hudson-river-a-habitat-in-trouble

•http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/fish_marine_pdf/hrblcrab.pdf

•http://www.striperspace.com/large_herr.html

•http://www.edc.uri.edu/restoration/html/gallery/fish/river.htm

•http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catfish

Work Cited

•http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/573843/sunfish

•http://ezinearticles.com/?What-Are-Sunfish?&id=532733

•http://www.arkive.org/white-river-killfish/crenichthys-baileyi/#text=References

•http://askville.amazon.com/Supposedly-hogchoker-fish/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=69262340