Selective analysis of power plant operation on the Hudson River with emphasis on the Bowline Point Generating Station. Volume 2

Because of the location of the Bowline, Roseton, and Indian Point power generating facilities in the low-salinity zone of the Hudson estuary, operation of these plants with the present once-through cooling systems will adversely influence the fish populations that use the area for spawning and initial periods of growth and development. Recruitment rates and standing crops of several fish species may be lowered in response to the increased mortality caused by entrainment of nonscreenable eggs and larvae and by impingement of screenable young of the year. Entrainment and impingement data are particularly relevant for assessing which fish species have the greatest potential for being adversely affected by operation of Bowline, Roseton, and Indian Point with once-through cooling. These data from each of these three plants suggest that the six species that merit the greatest consideration are striped bass, white perch, tomcod, alewife, blueback herring, and bay anchovy. Two points of view are available for assessing the relative importance of the fish species in the Hudson River. From the fisheries point of view, the only two species of major importance are striped bass and shad. From the fish-community and ecosystem point of view, the dominant species, as determined by seasonal and regional standing crops (in numbers and biomass per hectare), are the six species most commonly entrained and impinged, namely, striped bass, white perch, tomcod, alewife, blueback herring, and anchovy