Interview Project

The Hudson River Biological Monitoring Program (HRBMP) is a project at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University. The HRBMP was a long-term monitoring program tracking early life history stages of fish in the Hudson River from 1974 to 2017. The aim of the interview project was to hear directly from the community of scientists, lawyers, and activists involved in the early stages of the survey all the way through its completion in 2017. Shared are a series of shorts from those conversations that highlight the need and value of long-term monitoring. All videos are part of an interview project conducted by staff and students working on the historic HRBMP.

Larry Barnthouse

is currently the President and Principal scientist for LWB Environmental Services. He worked on the survey in the 1970s and was also scientific counsel for the litigation involved in the historic HRBMP.

Fran Dunwell

is now retired but served as the Hudson River Estuary Coordinator of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC). She has extensive knowledge of the Hudson River Estuary as well as the historic HRBMP. Fran is an advocate for supporting long term monitoring to better understand and protect natural systems.

Karin E. Limburg

is a Professor of Fisheries and Ecosystem Science, at the State University New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. She has extensive knowledge of the Hudson River Estuary and the historic HRBMP.

John Lipscomb

is currently a Captain for Clearwater, an environmental NGO advocating for the health of the Hudson River Estuary.

Kim McKown

is now retired but served as the Marine Invertebrate and Protected Resources Unit Leader for NYSDEC. Kim previously worked in the Hudson River Estuary for NYSDEC and was involved with review of the monitoring surveys and draft Environmental Impact Statement.

Bob Schmidt

is the Associate Director and ichthyologist at Hudsonia. In addition, Bob has worked at the NY State Museum as an Adjunct Curator of Fishes cataloging fish samples that resulted from the historic HRBMP that are a part of the state’s collection.

Eric Schultz

is a professor of ichthyology at the University of Connecticut. Eric has done several research projects in the Hudson system and conducted research projects using the fish samples that resulted from the historic HRBMP.

John Young

is the Vice President and Principal Scientist at ASA Analysis & Communication, Inc. John worked on the historic HRBMP performing statistical analysis for most of the survey program. He has extensive experience of how the historic HRBMP worked.

Elise N. Zoli

is a partner in the Energy and Climate Solutions practice at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Elise was the lead attorney in the 1990s litigation between Entergy, owner of Indian Point Power Plant, and NYSDEC for the survey.