Two days ago I posted pictures of a heron that had died at the Tenakill Brook, Tenafly, New Jersey, 07670. Whether it died of natural causes, attack by another creature, or pollution cannot be determined unless an autopsy is performed. Yesterday I encountered the remains of a giant gold fish/carp? proximate to the outlet of the Tenafly Commons Pond. This fish had a companion, a gold creature which it swam with for several years or at least as long as they lived in the pond. The light-colored fish died in fall 2010; now its companion. Again, the same questions: old age, disease, attack by an animal [but no sharks to my knowledge swim in Tenafly's Pond] or pollution. Although the pond was "naturalized," with a variety of plantings overseen by Rutgers University some years ago, the pond is no longer a "living" environment. Turtles, fish, and now the oldest denizens of this body of water are dead. And that includes a aged turtle whose carcass was seen in the fall too. The plants that were installed around the pond's perimeter, ostensibly to prevent geese from living in the pond and thus preventing harmful E. coli bacteria (a bacterium carried by geese, other water fowl, such as egrets) from growing in the waters, water that eventually is used by Tenafly's water supply company, United Water , has two aspects. On the one hand it appears to be a natural setting , such as one might see in rural environs, but on the other hand, access to the pond has become essentially impossible to Tenafly residents. A path once cut through the plants, but it has overgrown. Among the plants that Rutgers selected were black-eyed Susans [popular name] and a wild aster, as well as hibiscus, a myriad of delicate blooms. The latter disappeared, obviously unable to compete with the more aggressive and taller plants; and last fall it was obvious that the wild aster had won the battle. I dominated. Pretty as it is with blooms, it is impossible when it moves onto its next stage, when its pronged sharp seeds are present. Many the I found my garments covered with the nuisance and sometimes painful seeds. And then they also made it impossible to walk my dogs along the pond's perimeter. Yes, I am one of the residents who does clean up after my dogs. I do follow the law, as do most responsible Tenafly residents.
One of the results of not being able to access the pond is that the waters cannot be seen. If one looks you will find. And what is to be found? Pollution-gasoline and many other chemicals.
It is not cold weather that killed these animals but the pollutants in the water, I contend.
I have kept a photographic diary over several years of the water. And pollution has only increased. And this year was the first where seeds and other matter from the plants fell into the water, adding further matter decomposing in the pond.
As we all know, cigarettes kill, because of the chemicals that they contain. Cancer directly results from smoking. [Of course you may the lucky one whose genetic matter protects you, but sttistically there is not doubt of the impact of cigarettes and also experimentally the connection has been proven. Why introduce this issue when discussing the Tenafly Common's pond and Tenafly 's Tenakill Brook or at least the section that flows through Tenafly? For the same reason. The polllutants in the water, man-made an natural evidently kill. Just as the heron is a wake-up call, a "canary in the mine," so too is the fish that sadly came to rest alongside of the sluice.
Surely Tenafly can do better than this.
In the future I intend to post pictures from the photographic diary. Now only the remains of the extraordinary fish. Sadly it lived a companionate life --yes fish do too--but alone and vulnerable it succumbed to the polluted disease-ridden waters.
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