Throngs Of Fish Are Dying Again Along The Hudson River: See It

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — An eerie sight has returned to the Upper West Side's Riverside Park in past weeks.

Hundreds of dead fish floating belly-up on the banks of the Hudson River.

The flare-up in dead fish — most of which are Atlantic menhaden, according to the environmental advocacy group Riverkeeper — comes almost six months after a two-week period in July where countless reports were made about the dead menhaden floating to the shores of the Hudson and other bodies of water throughout New York City.

A plastic red solo cup adds insult to injury floating among the dead fish.

@NYSDEC & @NYCWater - why do dead fish keep washing-up on the Hudson in Uptown Manhattan.

Cc: @riverkeeper @scenichudson pic.twitter.com/MeA8eoFpzw
— Juan Rosa (@JuanRosa_NYC) December 13, 2020

Observers have detailed seeing the fish swimming in circles and gasping for air, eventually dying at the end of the process.

The explanation for the phenomena from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) earlier in the summer was that prolonged periods of heat and sunny days led to low levels of dissolved oxygen that the fish need to survive.

However, now that it is winter, RiverKeeper anticipates a different cause of death for the fish.

A spokesperson from the organization told Patch that they are still waiting for its own scientists and researchers from the DEC to analyze the dead fish samples.

Die-off events of Atlantic menhaden are not unusual due to their particular vulnerability to low dissolved oxygen, according to the DEC.

In response to the mass fish casualties, the Department of Environmental Conservation has collected menhaden samples from the East End of Long Island and Hudson River for analysis by the Stony Brook University's Marine Animal Disease Laboratory.

Preliminary results of the finding will be available by the end of this week.