Other rivers are showing similar improvement, he said. Neither MacNeill nor Kraft would answer that question directly. It means Mother Nature is doing something that is now costing us a lot of money to do. Team members include scientists from Cornell, Syracuse University, the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, the state Department of Environmental Conservation, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources in Canada. With the help of anglers, the scientists have collected newly hatched fish for study.
Scientists chemically analyze the fish's otoliths - also known as earstones.
The small bones reveal details such as the fish's growth rate, what it ate, and the temperature of its environment throughout its lifetime. Final results are expected sometime after the team completes its work in early 2002. There are more than 750,000 licensed anglers in New York.