Bottom Dwellers

Blue Crab
Callinectes sapidus

The blue crab’s scientific name translates to “tasty swimmer”. Their last pair of legs has paddle-like appendages that enable them to swim. Blue crabs are prevalent underneath the piers, and are often caught during the Big City Fishing program.

Mud Snail
lyanassa obsoleta
This common mollusk has a shell the size of a coffee bean when full-grown.  Snails are gastropods, which literally means stomach-footed.  These mollusks graze as they crawl, using their tongues to scrape bits of algae, detritus, and whatever else they find in the benthos.  Snails play a vital role as scavengers in the Estuarine Sanctuary food chain.

Oyster
Crassostrea virginica
Before it was the Big Apple, New York City was known as the Big Oyster! The lower West Side waterfront was once home to many two-story oyster barges where dealers bought and sold bushels of this abundant mollusk. Many oysters have largely disappeared from the Hudson River Estuary due to overfishing, pollution, and development. Efforts to rejuvenate the oyster population, including in the park, are underway. 

Several types of fish have adaptations that allow them to thrive in the benthos:

Sea Robin
Prionotus carolinus
This fish looks like it could fly, but its fins are actually very well-suited to life on the bottom. The “feelers” are actually modified rays from the pectoral fins.These allow sea robins to feel along the bottom for food, and their large mouths make it easy to eat just about anything they come across.

Flounder
Several species of flatfishes inhabit Hudson River Park’s bottom waters, including winter flounder, summer flounder, hogchoker and windowpane. These distinctly shaped fish don’t always look up. At birth their eyes are placed at either side of their head and they swim like most other fish. As they grow, one eye moves across the skull and they settle to the river bottom. Flounder lie on the bottom to ambush their prey- smaller fish or crustaceans- and avoid being eaten themselves.

Lined Seahorse
Hippocampus erectus
Seahorses, although beautiful, are very weak swimmers. The lined seahorse uses its tail to anchor itself to bottom vegetation, then slurps in floating bits of food with its straw-shaped mouth.