A closer look at a rare fish making a comeback near a major US dam

Ver A closer look at a rare fish making a comeback near a major US dam - Wild Times at the San Diego Zoo en Dailymotion

Transcript

00:04American Eels Return

00:05After Maryland Dam Removal Restores River Habitat

00:08On the Patapsco River, rushing water, rocky banks, park trails, and broken concrete opened a path toward Chesapeake Bay.

00:15Crews removed blowed dam in 2018, freeing river current inside Patapsco Valley State Park near Baltimore.

00:21The old dam once blocked migrating fish from reaching upstream habitat, trapping movement behind a concrete wall.

00:26After removal, juvenile American eels moved past the former dam site in record numbers, climbing back into old river routes.

00:34Biologists counted eels upstream of the old barrier, showing how quickly a river can respawn when concrete comes down.

00:40The project also opened more than 65 miles of spawning habitat for blueback herring, alewife, American shad, and hickory shad.

00:47In 2021, Maryland officials documented herring above the former dam site for the first time in more than a century.

00:54The Patapsco River now carries fish, sediment, and fast water through a stretch once slowed by the dam.

01:00Park visitors can see boulders, rapids, trails, and open water where the old structure once stood.

01:06The lesson is simple. Remove one barrier, and a river can give fish their old road back.

01:10When a tiny eel swims past a vanished dam, an entire river starts looking alive again.

01:15Alexi