In The New York Times article “Herring Return to the City, With Sex In Mind“  Joseph Berger writes, “Herring have found their way back to the Bronx — bound not for fish lovers’ plates, but for a clean, cool place to deposit the next generation.”

Berger reports on the work of New York City parks officials and environmental groups who, three years ago, “stocked the (Bronx River) with 201 alewife herring” in an experiment to test - 1: if the herring could spawn in recently clean water; 2: if offspring would survive a swim out to sea; and 3: whether they would return to spawn as well.  “Alewife herring spend most of their mature lives in the ocean off Nova Scotia, but lay their eggs in freshwater streams like the 21-mile-long Bronx River, the city’s only authentic river,” he writes.

And it worked! There seems to be one small problem to overcome: the 182nd Street Dam, which is 14 feet tall, blocks access to the ideal spots for spawning in the stream. The parks department has proposed building an aluminum fish ladder to help the herring.

- Jen Snow