May 4, 2009 (Vol. 9, No. 8)

New Generation of Herring Appears in Bronx River

Three of the seven alewives captured in the Bronx River on April 7 and 8. The fish are believed to be the offspring of alewives that were reintroduced into the river in spring 2006.

After more than 400 years, alewife have returned to the Bronx River—with a little help from Lehman Biological Sciences Professor Joseph Rachlin and his team of researchers.

The members of Lehman's Laboratory for Marine and Estuarine Research (LaMER) team released 200 alewife herring into the Bronx River in 2006. The goal of the project was to reestablish a breeding population of these native fish in one of the nation's most urbanized waterways. Alewife herring, native to New York City waterways, vanished from the Bronx River as early as the 1600s, when dams built by Dutch settlers blocked access to spawning grounds.

But this April, offspring of the fish that were released in 2006 were detected in the river. Read more about the successful return of the alewife by visiting the Bronx Beat.

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