Students Do Science At 16th Annual Day in the Life of the Hudson

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — Shorefronts up and down the Hudson River were taken over Tuesday by thousands of local students. Armed with seine nets, minnow pots, and water testing gear they collected data, studied the river's 200-plus species of fish and myriad invertebrates, tracked its tides and currents, and examined water quality and chemistry during DEC's 16th annual "A Day in the Life of the Hudson and Harbor" event.

Kids were out at Kinnally Cove, Nyack Beach, Croton Point, George's Island, Riverfront Green, the Stony Point seawall, Foundry Dock, Cornwall Landing, Dennings Point, Waryas Park, Esopus Meadows and a lot of other places in Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Ulster and Westchester counties, as well as in NYC.

“DEC’s annual Day in the Life of the Hudson River and Harbor event gives students from New York City to Troy an opportunity to experience the tidal Hudson River firsthand with its diverse habitats and fishery,” said Commissioner Basil Seggos. “From the river’s headwaters in the Adirondacks to Manhattan, the Hudson ecosystems are linked in ways that benefit our communities and visitors, as well as New York’s economy.”

Students — from first grade through college — partner with environmental education centers to collect scientific data using hands-on field techniques to capture a snapshot of the river’s ecology at more than 85 sites. The data collected provides insights into an ecosystem spanning 160 miles of the Hudson River and New York Harbor and is posted online within a few days of the event. Participating classes represent the diversity of the school population in urban and rural communities along the estuary.

This year, the program’s 16th, nearly 5,000 students and 600 teachers from more than 90 schools participated.

Local schools included:

• Hastings High School
• EF Academy
• Irvington middle and high schools
• Tappan Zee High School
• Spring Valley High School
• Pearl River High School
• Nyack High School
• Liberty Elementary School
• Upper Nyack Elementary
• Blue Rock School
• Clarkstown North
• Ossining High School
• Croton-Harmon High School
• Nanuet High School
• Albertus Magnus High School
• North Rockland High School
• Fox Meadow Elementary
• Mahopac High School
• Walter Panas High School
• Garrison School
• West Point School
• Haldane Middle School
• Willow Avenue Elementary School
• Vails Gate STEAM Academy
• Oakwood Friends School
• Newburgh Excelsior Academy at Newburgh Free Academy
• Valley Central Middle School
• Wappingers Junior High School
• Walkill Senior High School
• Poughkeepsie Day School
• Marist College
• G.W. Krieger Elementary School
• Poughkeepsie High School
• Robert Graves Elementary School
• Park Mill Road Elementary

More than a field trip, “Day in the Life” gives students the opportunity to don waders or use a fishing rod to collect data on many of the Hudson’s 200-plus species of fish, from the abundant Atlantic silverside, to the lined seahorse and spotted hake, each caught only once. Fluctuations in fish catches and ranges can be due to many factors including weather, tides and salinity. Most are young fish, evidence of the Hudson’s importance as a nursery habitat.

Students also examine the physical and chemical aspects of the river with a wide range of equipment and contraptions, such as a home-made sediment corer assembled from local hardware stores. High-tech refractometers and simple plastic hydrometers can both be used to measure salinity and find the salt front – the leading edge of dilute seawater pushing up the estuary.

Estuary Program staff connect the field day with the classroom by conducting pre- and post-visits in numerous schools that participate in Day in the Life.

Lessons on-site and in the classroom fulfill state learning standards in a variety of subjects. Additionally, students learn about the Hudson River Environmental Conditions Observing System (HRECOS), a computerized network of real-time monitoring stations extending from Manhattan to the Mohawk River.

Dissolved oxygen levels, water temperature, turbidity and other parameters are measured by HRECOS every 15 minutes and posted online at HRECOS.org. These data can be used to help students better understand the dynamic factors that are constantly impacting the Hudson River ecosystem.

Now in its 16th year, “Day in the Life” is sponsored by DEC’s Hudson River Estuary Program, in partnership with the Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve, DEC Stamford Fisheries, the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Cornell University’s New York State Water Resources Institute and the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission.

PHOTOS/ NY DEC

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