A lot of them start in the Delaware River north of Center City, from Fishtown all the way up to Trenton. The Delaware is a spawning ground and nursery for striped bass.
The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission was conducting a census Thursday. To do that, they go ElectroFishing. Thousands of watts of power blast through electrodes, zapping and stunning the bass. Staffers race to scoop them up.
And what a haul! Pollution is down, and those who watch the river say that has made a big difference.
"Today the Delaware River supports more wildlife and fish than it has in living memory," Pennsylvania State Representative Michael McGeehan told Action News.
McGeehan arranged to bring a group of environmental science students to the dock to help measure and tag the still-stunned fish. Biologist Mike Kaufmann explained fish born in the Delaware get around.
"We tagged a fish at the Philadelphia Navy Yard and 17 days later it was caught in Massachusetts off of Cape Cod," said Kauffmann.
With that, students released Thursday's catch. The woozy critters quickly departed, no doubt to tell their friends of their alien abduction.
One student voiced what a lot of folks think:
"It's crazy," said Anne Marie Morgan of Franklintown Charter School. "I didn't even know fish live in the Delaware, actually."
That doesn't surprise Erin Czech of the Fish and Boat Commission, who says some fishermen don't realize the role of the Delaware River.
"They'll catch a striped bass and release it," she said. "And they'll say 'I'm not eating any fish I catch from here.' And they don't realize it's the same fish. Two weeks from now when they go to the Jersey Shore to catch fish they'll eat - it's the same fish."
