Hudson River Park's River Project Wetlab Review The Hudson River Park’s River Project Wetlab is a small science center / aquarium located along the Hudson River in lower Manhattan. The wetlab focuses on local aquatic species, and as part of Hudson River Park, the place is fully funded and operated by the New York City government. The wetlab is part of a beautiful parks building, though the interior is limited to a small, gray, unfinished warehouse-like room with about a dozen tanks. This is unideal from an aesthetic perspective, but the tanks themselves at least provided naturalistic elements, substrates, and shelter for their animals. What the wetlab lacks in glitz and glamour, they make up for in the personalization of the visit experience and in their disproportionate field conservation work. When you enter the wetlab, you are immediately welcomed and offered to be given a free personalized guided tour, which I accepted and enjoyed. I was the only person in my tour "group," so I had the guide all to myself and was able to ask as many questions as I liked. Overall, I had a much more educational experience with the guide than if I had walked around on my lonesome-- I ended up spending 2 whole hours in this 12-tank facility, but without the guide’s commentary, I might have gone through the whole place in less than 30 minutes! Our tour began with one of the most intriguing tanks in the wetlab, which was home to a pair of diamondback terrapins who had been rescued from horrible conditions in the exotic pet trade. The turtles were really active, and kept swimming towards us because they associated humans with food after living in captivity for so long. Diamondback Terrapins by ZooElephantsMan posted 21 Sep 2022 at 10:07 PM The turtles stood out a lot compared to the rest of the wetlab’s collection because they happened to be the facility’s only long-term captive residents. Like some other small aquariums, the majority of the wetlab’s collection constantly rotates. Facility workers regularly release their currently held animals, and set up traps in the river to catch replacements. The wetlab only keeps their animals for short periods of time to ensure that their behaviors do not become altered by spending too long living in captivity (like how the turtles’ behaviors have). The downside of the catch-and-release system is that the facility’s species roster constantly changes depending on what animals they happen to catch, so instead of constantly updating tank signage to reflect their current species roster, the wetlab provide lists of the species which they usually (but do not always) display: Wetlab Species Collection by ZooElephantsMan posted 21 Sep 2022 at 10:15 PM Conservation and Ethics Conservation-wise, the wetlab’s collection serves an additional purpose that most zoo and aquarium collections do not. Every animal the wetlab catches is recorded into a fish ecological survey which began in the late 1980s, and has continued without interruption to this day. The goal of the survey is to measure local biodiversity and the health of fish populations in the Hudson River ecosystem, and this work has led to the identification of 45 different species of fish in the ecosystem to this date (source: Surveying Fish). In addition to the survey, the wetlab is also involved in conservation in other ways, such as their recent work introducing 12 million oysters into the Hudson River in order to promote higher water quality (source: 11 Million New Oysters in New York Harbor (but None for You to Eat)). Between these major projects, it was great to see such a small-sized facility put such a big emphasis on science and conservation. But at the same time, I couldn’t help but wonder if the wetlab’s focus on conservation work made them think a little too highly of themselves compared to more traditional zoological institutions. At the end of my tour, I returned to the turtle exhibit for feeding time, but my guide kept bemoaning how unnaturally the turtles were behaving after living in captivity for so long. I found this discontentment to be odd, because while it was unnatural for turtles to be this comfortable around people, their unnatural comfort did not appear to substantially lower their quality of life. It felt like the guide was concerned about the long-term effects of animal captivity to an irrational degree. My guide’s sentiments became more apparent as we continued to talk. While watching the turtles eat, I asked what their names were. To my surprise, they said that the wetlab conscientiously refuses to name any of their animals because they are wild and should not be thought of as pets. If they named their turtles, they feared they might be humanized and that more people might want pet turtles, which may support the very exotic pet trade that the wetlab is working against. This thought process seemed a little convoluted and rubbed me the wrong way. After all, most zoos and aquariums name many of their wild animals. Even Jane Goodall named the chimpanzees she researched in Gombe National Park in Africa, so there is definitely a lot of precedent of very esteemed individuals giving wild animals names. I mentioned this to my guide, at which point they admitted that they didn’t really like traditional zoos and aquariums in the first place. For them, it felt unnatural to go to a zoo and see a large, foreign, wild animal, like a "tiger" in the middle New York City. The guide preferred places like the wetlab, since they “are more conservation oriented, and are more ethical due to their refusal to name their animals, and because they focus on rescued animals and catch-and-release programs instead of long-term captivity”. I decided not to argue with the guide, but their comment against tigers intrigued me. The Bronx Zoo (which is only 11 miles away!) has what is generally considered one of the best tiger exhibits in the country. It felt a little odd to me that someone would think of this tiny wetlab as being better than one of the most famous zoos in the world. I wondered if my tour guide had ever actually seen Tiger Mountain, or if their comment against New York City tiger captivity was just based on a series of assumptions. Overview of several tanks by ZooElephantsMan posted 21 Sep 2022 at 10:15 PM Bronx Zoo - Tiger Mountain by snowleopard posted 5 Aug 2008 at 1:04 PM Conclusion Overall, I did enjoy my visit to the Wetlab. The facility is very small, but the private-tour-system greatly personalizes each visit. The place also has a great emphasis on conservation and education, which I could really appreciate. While my experience with the anti-zoo worker could possibly seem negative, it is not something that would keep me from returning— after all, the worker did not speak on behalf of the entire facility. I also later met another wetlab worker who agreed with me that many modern zoos and aquariums are ethical and important, which was good to hear. And even if the anti-zoo sentiments I was exposed to bothered me, I still felt that the wetlab's conservation work was of high enough quality to outshine these negatives. While I enjoyed my Wetlab experience, I would still obviously never prioritize a Wetlab visit over visiting a place like the Bronx Zoo or New York Aquarium if you are in NYC for a very short time. But if you do have a flexible schedule, I’d say the Wetlab is worth checking out, and I do have a few tips for visiting. The Wetlab has free admission, which is nice. It also has very weird hours, so make sure you check online before going. The Wetlab is also only open part of the year, and closes in the fall and winter. This year, their season ends on October 27th, on which date there is a special event where visitors can help the facility return their remaining captive fishes to the Hudson River. The event sounds fun, and I am currently planning on attending. I will be sure to make a follow-up post afterwards discussing the event, depending on if there is interest.
