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Hudson River fish (bunker) die-off has environmentalists alarmed

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MaxKatt

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  The state DEC is investigating the dead Atlantic menhaden, or "bunker" fish

 

 

Hundreds of dead bunker fish have turned up on the banks of the Hudson River in recent weeks, and local environmentalists are alarmed.

Watchdog group Riverkeeper says it first received reports of a fish die-off in early June. At its peak, about a week ago, the watchdog group was receiving two to three reports daily of the same thing happening from Peekskill south to New York Harbor and around Long Island Sound, where thousands of the same bunker fish washed up.

John Lipscomb, Riverkeeper's water quality program director, called the news "very upsetting."

"We suspect the peak of the problem may have passed — we hope so," he said in an e-mail.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation was notified and dead fish have been sent for analysis to the Cornell Aquatic Animal Health Lab. Officials say there could be a number of factors contributing to the die-off, including algae blooms.

Rockland County resident Annadora Perillo got a whiff of the dead fish on her daily walk along the Piermont Pier.

"There were literally dead fish the entire way, start to finish," she said, adding, "It was disturbing to see such a large number."

The Atlantic menhaden, or "bunker" fish, is a saltwater member of the herring family. Each summer, the species comes into the brackish parts of the Hudson River to spawn, according to the DEC website. They can suffocate after being chased by blue fish into shallow waters where there is less oxygen

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Not far away in western L.I.Sound there are many hypoxic menhaden with bulging eyes swimming in circles on the surface.The huge bunker schools of the past two seasons are AWOL. Bluefish are absent as well. The good fluke bite is the only thing happening.

Tis better to remain silent and thought the fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.

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Pretty sure that  swimming in circles is caused by whirling disease, a virus that spreads through the bunker population, and  hypoxia are  separate and distinct phenomenon. Not that they cannot be present at the same time, but I would imagine that at any given die off, it is one or the other. Not that water quality is not suffering from ongoing pollution, but a virus is not conclusive evidence that oxygen levels are low.

Edited by Woodpecker
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Come down to Northern NJ all the healthy bunker and the big nasty bluefish eating them you could want. This makes fluke bucktailing a little dicey at times. All kidding aside Sandy Hook Bay is just loaded with both currently. I hope the LI and Hudson die offs are just isolated happenings.

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As far as I know, Whirling Disease is limited to Salmonids (trout, salmon, grayling, etc.). I'm pretty sure that bunker schools swimming in circles ("bait balls") is fairly typical behavior. Low dissolved oxygen levels will cause bunker to swim higher in the water column where the DO is typically higher. Of course, predators will drive them to the surface too!

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I did a little more research on this and it appears that something called IPNV (Infectious Pancreatic Necrosis Virus) causes a condition known as "Menhaden Spinning Disease" which seems to be a fairly frequent occurrence.

 

In case you want to read the scientific literature on this, here it is:

http://www.afs-fhs.org/perch/resources/14069231202.2.5ipnv2007ref2014.pdf

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  • 1 month later...

Yup.  Just saw this.... 

 

July 29, 2015

 

Scientists: Hudson fish die-off not due to bridge

 

Cornell lab says virus likely to blame for thousands of dead bunker fish

 

Scientists say a mass die-off of fish in the Hudson River was due to natural — not human — causes.

 

Scientists at the Cornell Aquatic Animal Health Lab say a virus is likely to blame for wiping out thousands of bunker fish, after ruling out other suspected culprits including algae blooms as well as the ongoing Tappan Zee Bridge construction and a May 9 fire at the Indian Point Energy Center that spilled about 3,000 gallons of oil into the river.

The conclusion was reported by Wendy Rosenbach, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

The die-off was first spotted in mid-May, lasting about a month.

At its peak, environmental watchdog group Riverkeeper said it was receiving two to three reports daily of fish deaths from Peekskill and Piermont all the way to Long Island Sound, where thousands of the same bunker fish washed up.

The Atlantic menhaden, or bunker fish, is a saltwater member of the herring family. Each summer the species swims into the brackish waters of the Hudson to spawn, according to the DEC website. Rosenbach said scientists were still working to identify the exact virus to blame.

The $3.9 billion bridge-replacement project is now at the height of construction. Local environmentalists maintain it's causing the deaths of endangered sturgeon in the river, although state officials say none of the deaths have been attributed to the project to date.

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