LIFE returns to the Gowanus Canal!

"I don't indulge in hyperbole a hell of a lot, but this is astounding. A complete and complex ecosystem has established itself when two months ago there was none."
     -John Muir, Executive Director, Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment on July 28, 1999.

Tatyana Apalboym, an intern with BCUE, examines a blue crab captured beneath the Union Street Bridge. Susan Hinz, a biologist with BCUE, discovered life teeming in the sediment even though it still smells of oil. "There were diatoms, two species of microscopic worms, and a dinoflagellate. It's really wonderful."

     The appearance of the canal life comes just three months after the opening of the flushing tunnel on May 3, 1999.

     On Saturday, June 19th, the Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment and the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation joined together for a symbolic reopening of the canal featuring events that took place at the original opening of the tunnel. Jeanne DiLascio, director of GCCDC, poured a pitcher of water carried from Buttermilk Channel into the canal, merging the waters back together. Ms. Lorraine Canoe led a Native American blessing ceremony which was followed by children tossing flower petals into the canal as a symbolic gesture of respect.

     With the appearance of the blue crabs, Media attention has soared with stories in the New York Times, New York Post, and most recently, an international story on the Associated Press.

     On Wednesday, August 4, BCUE biologist Susan Hinz, with the help of Bernard Harrigan and employees at Amtronics (located on the canal), successfully netted and trapped several of the species living in the canal water.

The rebirth of the Gowanus Canal is underway.

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