The Hudson River

A Rainy Day on the Lettie G. Howard

2005-06-16T05:46:00.000-07:00

Two 9th grade students, Isaias and Christy, produced a video about the Lettie G. Howard. The clip documents Section 2's day on the Lettie.

Click here to watch video
You must have Quicktime to view this video.

The Flow of the Hudson River

2005-06-15T07:09:00.000-07:00

The Hudson River is the river that flows out of the Adirondack Mountains. It flows about 315 miles southward to Upper New York Bay at the Battery in New York City. Giovanni da Verrazano was the first European to find the river in 1524, but it was not explored by Europeans until Henry Hudson in 1609.

Peter Lora

Photo of the Lettie

2005-06-15T06:39:00.000-07:00

The Lettie's History

2005-06-14T09:29:00.000-07:00

Hello my name is Matthew Rodriguez and I am going to tell you about my time on the Lettie. The Lettie G. Howard is a 1893 fishing boat from Glouster, Massachusetts. For her first eight years she was similar to the schooners that carried their Long Island and New Jersey catches to New York City's Fulton Fish Market. After an active life in the fisheries of the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, the Lettie was sold to the South Street Seaport Museum in 1968 and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1988. Between 1991 and 1993 the museum completely restored her to her original 1893 appearance, and fitted her out to accommodate trainees (like us) on educational trips (like the day sails we do with Harbor Class - which is what I'm writing this blog for). In 1994, the Lettie was certified as a Sailing School Vessel by the U.S. Coast Guard. The museum now offers sail training programs aboard the Lettie.

Traveling on the Lettie G. Howard

2005-06-07T22:12:00.000-07:00

As a part of Harbor Class we traveled on the Lettie G. Howard. The experience was very different because I never sailed on a sailboat before. Also, the Lettie is an old schooner. A hundred years ago the crew used what is now a space for bunks to store fish inside. They went fishing for Cod and Halibut out on the Georges Bank. The Lettie G. Howard was built in 1893 in Essex, Massachusetts. The hull of the Lettie is wood and the engine/propeller machinery is twin diesel/twin screw . The rig is a gaff topsail schooner, Fredonia model. The Lettie is now owned by the South Street Seaport Museum.

I sailed on the Lettie three times throughout the whole year. The first time I sailed I was taught how to raise the sails. It was a new experience for me because I had never done it before. I also learned what a chart is. A chart is like a map, but it maps the water depth and elevations around the river.

Comparing the Hudson River and Newtown Creek

2005-06-07T10:52:00.000-07:00

Hudson River and the Newtown Creek are both a part of the New York Harbor, but my experiences at each of these places were very different. When I went to the Hudson River I rode on a schooner called the Lettie G. Howard. I was taking all types of tests to find out how clean the Hudson River was. I found out the levels of dissolved oxygen, salinity, nitrates, phosphates, and ammonia. I also used a chart to fin out where the water was deepest.

When I went to Newtown Creek, I took the same tests but the experience was totally different. Newtown Creek was extremely dirty. I saw a lot of combined sewage overflows (C.S.O.s) and also a lot of oil. When I went I also got in a boat with an engine. This boat was significantly smaller than the Lettie G. Howard. I saw a lot of industrial buildings and factories along the Hudson River and the Newtown Creek. On the Newtown Creek there were candle, gas, cement, and oil factories. On the Hudson River there were a lot of apartment buildings, but not a lot of industrial buildings. Here are some results of the tests that I took from the Hudson River and the Newtown Creek.
JS

PCB's in the Hudson River

2005-06-05T11:49:00.000-07:00

BETWEEN 1947 AND 1977, GENERAL ELECTRIC DUMPED AN ESTIIMATED 1.3 MILLION POUNDS OF POLYCHLORINAD BIPHENYLS (PCBs) INTO THE HUDSON RIVER. PCB's are now found in sediment, water and wildlife in the Hudson River ecosystem as far south as New York Harbor. The Hudson River has alot of PCB's. The public was first informed of the PCB contamination of the Hudson River in the 1970's. Humans consume PCB's through contaminated fish. PCB's were banned from being dumped in the the Hudson River in 1977. The amount of PCB's has stabilized at levels that are significantly higher than those considered safe for human cosumption of fish.

by: Estefany Reyes.

Physical Science of the Hudson River

2005-05-28T07:06:00.000-07:00

The Hudson river is one of the rivers that is part of the New york Harbor Estuary. It starts at Mount Marcy; which is the source. The Hudson River has tides from its mouth all the way up to Hudson Falls. The mouth of the Hudson is the at the Battery in NYC. The Hudson river also is combined with the East river, and flows into the Atlantic Ocean. The Hudson flows 315 miles from Mt.Marcyto southern Manhattan.

The deepest area of the Hudson is 202ft and is called "Worlds End" which is between West Point and Castition Island. The river is saltier at the bottom than the surface because the salt sinks to the bottom since salt is more dense than freshwater. It has living organisms like cod, oysters, and plankton, and is safe for boating and swimming. Even though the Hudson is open to the public 24/7, it is polluted, and has PBC's{Poly-chlorinated Biphenlys}, which can be harmful to humans and animals.

Dissolved Oxygen in the Hudson River

2005-05-27T07:31:00.001-07:00

Hello, everyone my name is Carzell Addison . I'm a ninth grade student. The New York Harbor School is the school I attend. You see the NYHS (New York Harbor School) is a school that deals a lot with the New York Harbor. In this school we go on trips every two weeks with a class called the Harbor class. The whole school does not all go at once we take turns with our sections, which is what we call are classes. I'm in section one and we are the first to go on trips. I don't know what the other classes are up to, so here are the trips my class has went on:

Day 1: South Street Seaport Museum
(Intro to the Harbor)

Day 2: East River Apprenticeshop
(Newtown Creek)

Day 3: Pier 40 Floating the Apple
(Hudson River)

Day 4: Rocking the Boat
(Bronx River)

Day 5: The River Project
(Hudson Raritan Estuary)

Day 6: South Street Seaport Museum
(Oysters in the New York Harbor)

Day 7: American Museum of Natural History
(Biodiversity and Ecology of the New York Harbor)

Day 8: History Walking Tour of Lower Manhattan
(South Street Seaport Museum to Pier 40)

Day 9: Coney Island and the New York Aquarium
(Intro to the Atlantic Ocean Life)

Day 10: South Street Seaport Museum Blue Mapping
(Project Time)

Home Port Days: Projects and Presentations

Have you ever heard of dissolved oxygen? Well, if not you do not know what you are missing. From what I have learned I can tell you any and everything about dissolved oxygen. The reason is because I go to a school called, The New York Harbor School and it teaches all about dissolved oxygen and any other things that can be found in the New York Harbor. Throughout my ninth grade year in the New York Harbor School we have done the following:

1. Record our observations visually and in writing as we observe the estuary and extended water bodies.

2. Examine various types of maps and charts of the water.

3. Create maps of the estuary.

4. Dissolved oxygen water quality tests.

5. Observe the Flora and Fauna of the water bodies.

6. Read about the natural history of the estuary.

7. Meet people with expertise and deep connections to the estuary and harbor.

8. Get out on the water, work and have fun.

9. Connect our study to the Waterkeeper and South Street Seaport preservation models by articulating how our study can help us to become community caretakers and advocates.

10. Brainstorm other ways we need to examine the estuary and the harbor in order to become waterkeepers.

11. Present our findings in various media for the greater public.

After all of the above I know all there is to know about Dissolved Oxygen and it is very important in the New York Harbor. So, if you want to learn more about how and why dissolved oxygen is very important in our New York Harbor, roll your eyeballs down this page and you are guaranteed to be impressed.

First, what is dissolved oxygen? Dissolved oxygen is the amount of oxygen held in the water. Also, it is one of the most important qualities of the water quality test. DO is short for dissolved oxygen. DO is measured by ppt's (parts per thousand), millimole ounce per liter (mmol/L), milligram ounce per liter(mg/L) or milliter ounce per liter (ml/L). Dissolved oxygen can be held more in cold water than in warm water. Testing for dissolved oxygen is fun and learning. Below is a picture of a DO test kit:

Next, dissolved oxygen is a very important water quality and it is very important for our water quality in the Hudson River. For example, an aqueduct amount of dissolved oxygen is needed for the good health of our aquatic life. Dissolved oxygen is used by plants and animals. If there were no dissolved oxygen there would not be life in the New York Harbor. So, dissolved oxygen is very important in the Hudson river.

Also, Dissolved oxygen has been changing over the years. It has not changed tremendously over the years in the Hudson River, but it did increase. For example, from 1950 to 2005 dissolved oxygen increased consistently. Every five years the dissolved oxygen increased about two tenths. It increased from 5.7 ppt to 8 ppt. The churning of water with oxygen increases the amount of dissolved oxygen. On a graph it will show the dissolved oxygen increasing with time.

In Conclusion, dissolved is very important for the plants and animals in the New York Harbor because if there were no dissolved oxygen in the New York Harbor there would be no aquatic life inside of it.

2005-05-27T07:14:00.000-07:00

The Hudson River is a very big river.When we travel on the Lettie G.Howard thourgh the Hudson the climate is often really cold.It's beautiful but the Hudson is very contaminated.

Temperature

2005-05-26T11:00:00.000-07:00

The Hudson River is a very long river. When we went to this river, the climate was very cold. The temperature was 17 degrees celcius. This is one of the lower temperatures of the places that we went. The wind on the water, like many rivers, was very, very strong.
The tempeature of the water was very cold,and of the ambient too.

PCBs of the Hudson

2005-05-23T11:06:00.000-07:00

Hudson River is a long river. Its mouth starts in upstate New York and flows southward to the open Atlantic Ocean. We, the Harbor School students, studied the lower part of the Hudson at Pier 17 located in Manhattan, NYC. At the beginning of this year, we had a serveral trips out on the Hudson working with environmentalists to see and understand what is happening to the Hudson River and what had occured to it in the past. Each time we arrived at the Hudson River we took water quality tests first, including infomation such as water temperature, turbidity (the water clarity measured by how far deep you can see through the water), salinity (the amount of salt contained in the water), and dissolved oxygen (the amount of oxygen mixed into the water, which is important to all marine organisms). These datas were recorded for future reference.

One issue that we're concerning so much about the Hudson River is that it is contaminated with a toxic chemicals called PCBs (Poly-chlorinated Biphenyl). As you may not know, PCBs were dumped into the River by General Electric Co. GE produces electricity by nuclear plants. While the plant processes nulcear fussion, tremendous of heat energy yielded. As a matter of fact, it is ver serious to keep the tank cool under a certain temperature in avoiding a melt down to happen. Thus, the GE had to find some ways to keep the tank's temperature stable and low, one way was to utilized the flowing Hudson, the second way they did was to use of a chemical - PCB. PCBs are usless when it is used, so the GE just dumped them right into the river, carelessly. Afterward, the Hudson River is contaminated with PCBs, then bad things can happen.

PCBs
Cancer-causing agent, affects reproduction and immune system, neurotoxilogical effects, toxic to liver in animal studies
Extremely high amounts in a poisoning incident in Japan affected infant birth weight and development.

Check out my personal blog, Jimmy

Link to Salinity Info

2005-05-23T07:35:00.000-07:00

http://www.answers.com/Salinity
Salinity is the saltiness or dissolved salt content of a body of water. In the Harbor School, we test for salinity.

D.F.

Reflections

2005-05-20T07:31:00.000-07:00

At the river project we got to learn more about plankton and observe some plankton that we collected from hudson river through a magnified glass. We also got to see the many species of fish and other live organisms like skates, clams, flounders, and crabs that live in the Hudson river.We also got to measure the size of several different clams to determine their relative age. At the end of the day we got to analyze the water and complete the water quality analysis activity sheet to find out things like what the water temperature was, the ph, amount of nitrates in the water and many other things.

visit the official RiverProject website

E.L
E.C

Aerial View of Hudson River Valley

2005-05-11T07:07:00.000-07:00

Provided by:
Gary Agranat,

The photograph shows the Hudson Highlands as it crosses the Hudson River Valley near West Point, about miles(84 km) north of New York City.