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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC and for this membership drive we are ending most of our shows with a short deep dive into the Marine life. Living right here in our listening area, we picked six unique species that you might not have expected are in our waterways in the New York area and each day we've been getting into some of the threats as well that are impacting each species in particular as part of our environmental coverage. We partnered with our friends at the Billion Oyster Project, the New York City based nonprofit that has the goal of restoring a billion live oysters to New York Harbor by the year 2035.

Tomorrow, we'll finish up our series with a closer look at the sea squirt. It looks like a blob but don't get too close to it or you might get a little damp. We'll talk about that tomorrow. For today, we'll turn to the skillet fish. Joining me now to talk about that is Rebecca Resner, hatchery manager at the Billion Oyster Project. Hi, Rebecca. Thanks for coming on.

Rebecca Resner: Hello.

Brian Lehrer: For listeners who've never even heard of skillet fish, can you explain what they look like?

Rebecca Resner: Yes. Skillet fish are really cool. They're one of my favorite local fish. They are typically different shades of brown and they do have that frying pan shape, so they're a little bit thicker by their head and they get a little narrower as the body goes on. They are flat on both sides and their eyes are actually on the top of their head, so that's a little bit different from normal fish that you may think of. They have a little suction cup at the bottom of their belly and they also, a fun fact, they do not have any scales.

Brian Lehrer: They don't have any scales. What an unusual sounding fish? I don't think I've ever seen one, and skillet fish, it's not because you fry them up, it's because their shape actually looks like a skillet as you were starting to explain, right?

Rebecca Resner: Yes.

Brian Lehrer: They prefer to live, I see, among oyster reefs. Why would that be the case and where else can they be found?

Rebecca Resner: We do typically find them around our oyster reefs. They also can be found around eel grass beds or rocks, pilings. They're typically in shallow water. When the water does get a little bit colder over the winter they can descend pretty deep. We do see them a lot in our oyster nurseries that are around the city and we actually sometimes find skillet fish eggs that are attached to our shells in the nurseries. They actually stick them to the shells. Then typically if you see that, you will see a skillet fish because the males will stick around to protect those eggs until they hatch.

Brian Lehrer: You mentioned one very cool thing about the skillet fish that it's basically got a suction cup on its belly. Can you explain what scientists know about why that evolved and how the skillet fish uses that suction cup?

Rebecca Resner: The skillets use that suction cup-- It's evolved from their two pelvic fins that have fused together and so they have this modified suction cup at the bottom of their belly and they'll use it to stick to rocks and to cling to shells. They can use that to get into small places to hide from predators.

Brian Lehrer: They're pretty tiny. I see only 1.5 to 3 inches typically. Everything we've talked about, the suction cup, the skillet shape, the eyes on top of the head, all of that is in a 1 1/2 to 3 inch creature.

Rebecca Resner: Yes, they're very, very tiny.

Brian Lehrer: What do they eat?

Rebecca Resner: They like to eat a lot of small crustaceans like isopods and amphipods and they will also eat small bristle worms as well.

Brian Lehrer: Bristle worms. What's a bristle worm?

Rebecca Resner: You've definitely seen them probably in photos of Marine life, but they're just a small worm. They can be large and they have lots of little legs around them.

Brian Lehrer: One issue that I see impacts both skillet fish and our waterways in general is a phenomenon called combined sewer overflows. That of course doesn't sound appetizing to anybody, fish or human or any species, but can you explain what CSOs or combined sewer overflows are and why these overflows occur?

Rebecca Resner: Oh, I think I lost you there.

Brian Lehrer: Oh, can you hear me now?

Rebecca Resner: Now I do. I could talk a little bit about CSOs. About 60% of New York City uses these CSOs or combined sewer overflows. Essentially, there is a large single pipe that carries both our storm water runoff and sewage from buildings to a wastewater treatment plant. During heavy rain events the system can't handle all of that water that's rushing through. This mix of the storm water and the untreated sewage is then rerouted straight into New York Harbor. This phenomenon can affect water quality as well as recreational use of the Harbor.

Brian Lehrer: Is this what the filtration plants, the sewage treatment plants do, take that water and try to clean it up?

Rebecca Resner: They do but when the storms are happening and it's just overpowering the system, they can't handle it.

Brian Lehrer: How do they affect the skillet fish and other fish?

Rebecca Resner: It really affects water quality around the area. There's a lot of testing that does go on, water sampling, to see how it does affect the water quality.

Brian Lehrer: We've been talking during this series about some big solutions to clean up and shore up, pun intended, our waterways but there's something people can do on an individual level to remediate CSOs.

Rebecca Resner: Long story short, our sewer system is an old system and it was built way back before the population of New York City really expanded. Something that individuals can do during these situations is if it's a heavy rainfall, you can avoid doing your laundry or showering, washing dishes and just limiting the water use.

Brian Lehrer: Your title, sorry, is hatchery manager at the Billion Oyster Project. What does a hatchery manager do?

Rebecca Resner: Oh, no, did I lose you there again? I'm so sorry.

Brian Lehrer: Oh, maybe. I don't know what's going on. I'm asking what does a hatchery manager do?

Rebecca Resner: In the hatchery, we do a lot of growing of oysters, that's really exciting. We do from start to finish, depending on the season, we grow microalgae to feed our oysters. We condition broodstock to get them ready to spawn. We will spawn them, raise the larvae and we can set those baby oysters onto shells that we have collected from around the city from different restaurants. We do a lot of really cool experiments sometimes in the lab as well with testing different setting materials.

Brian Lehrer: That is so cool. Why a billion oysters. I asked the first guest in this series when we started it last week but I'm going to ask you too because a lot of people didn't hear that first segment. Why is there a Billion Oyster project that is seeking to restore a billion oysters to New York waterways by 2035?

Rebecca Resner: Back in the day, oysters were a very hot commodity around New York City and a lot of people don't realize that. You could walk all around downtown, Pearl street and there would be oyster carts around. As the population has grown, the oysters have declined around New York City and oysters are such an important species. They are what is called Keystone species. They improve water quality, they increase biodiversity so a lot of different fish will use reefs as a nursery site, and they also can help as a storm barrier. Bringing a million oysters back to New York City, that would also help to clean that water about every three days.

Brian Lehrer: There we have to leave it with Rebecca Resner, hatchery manager at the Billion Oyster Project. Thanks so much for coming on, Rebecca. That was great.

Rebecca Resner: Thank you so much for having me.

Brian Lehrer: We conclude this series, what's in the water, tomorrow, with a closer look at the sea squirt, which gets its name because they're basically the water guns of the sea.

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