IV-456 



fish habitat. 



Average annual losses from significant pollution effects on 101,000 

 acres of flnfish habitat and 42,000 acres of shellfish habitat amount 

 to $1,861,000 and $1,090,000, respectively, or a total fishery loss 

 of $2,951,000, No losses were assigned to 331,000 acres of neglibly 

 polluted flnfish habitat. Projected demand for both sport and com- 

 mercial fishery harvest presently, or in the near future, will ex- 

 ceed the average annual sustained harvest capability from most in- 

 dividual habitat classes under existing pollution levels. 



Table 23 of the report (Table IV 6.1) shown on the next page, gives 

 the loss broken down by drainage basins. Finfish resource plus shell- 

 fish resources equals fishery resource. 



Hudson River (Wappinger Creek) 



The materials for this case study was obtained from the New York 

 State Conservation Department, Fish and Game Division, Albany, New 

 York. They graciously provided a legal case from their records. The 

 case study quoted here is one of less than a half dozen situations 

 during the past 40 years in which legal evidence, sufficient to be 

 assured of a successful court case, could be obtained. Faced with 

 the evidence an out-of-court settlement was reached. 



The fact that in forty years less than six legal cases could be ob- 

 tained along a river-estuary system as well developed as the Hudson 



