A little fish in the Niagara River can now make a big difference thanks to a unique passage unveiled Thursday.
The teeny 3-inch emerald shiner, a type of freshwater minnow, is an important part of the local ecosystem and recreational fishing economy. However, the speed of the river along Buffalo’s Freedom Park previously stopped it from shimmying upstream after spawning.
The new nearly 800-foot-long $13.4 million series of baffles along the park now provide a safe way for the prey species to move. Lieutenant Colonel Aaron Anderson, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Buffalo District, said this has already helped bring the common tern bird and walleye, who both eat the shiner, back into the area.
“They can now come back into this area as well, and we stabilize the ecosystem. We return it to what it was prior to some of this infrastructure being built, which is critically important," said Lt. Col. Anderson.
Lt. Col. Anderson said the speed of the river also posed a challenge for engineers, who needed a cage to be built to send workers underwater to install the baffles.
“Trying to get down into the river and install these baffles when the current's this fast is a challenge in and of itself," said Lt. Col. Anderson. "So, keeping safety in mind, they were able to develop their own cage and put somebody in that cage to protect them from the current, so that they could safety install the baffles without incident.”
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and its partners on the project say the baffles not only support an important recreational fishery economy, but will help the Niagara River move towards being delisted as a Great Lakes Area of Concern by the Environmental Protection Agency.
