THE FORT POINT CHANNEL THEN AND NOW Colonial Times Modern Times The Fort Point Channel is a Today, the channel is natural feature that home to both the separated the Shawmut Boston Tea Party and Peninsula (Boston) from Children's Museums. the Dorchester Neck. The Many office buildings channel was surrounded by mudflats and salt now tower over Fort marshes.1 Point Channel. The Channel was named after the Fort that protected Boston Harbor. Ships would often be found sailing through the channel. These ships could have been schooners, like The Roseway, which is currently docked in the channel, on their way to fish In 1836, development of the 2 coastal waters. channel began to create more space for industry. This required filling in tidal areas, creating the "artificial" land that now surrounds the channel. 1 Currently, Atlantic sturgeon When settlers arrived in are endangered or Boston, Atlantic sturgeon, threatened in all of their river herring, and cod were range. River herring plentiful. populations are low due to habitat disruptions, such as dams4. , 5 These fish were culturally and economically important — Cod stocks in the Gulf of Especially cod, which was the Maine are heavily overfished, focus of America's first industry, commercial ground fishing. 3, 4, 5 merely a shadow of their past glory.3 Many accounts from the Despite what has been lost due to Massachusetts Bay Colony development, work is being done to describe there being so improve the habitat in Boston Harbor. The many fish, one could "walk Boston Harbor clean-up made the water on their backs" without healthy for marine life. Many species, like getting wet. 6 river herring, are benefiting from improved fish passages to allow them to bypass dams and reach vital spawning grounds.7 1: http://www.fortpoint.org/fphistory.php Infographic by Michael Dello Russo, Qalid Hassan, S 2: https://www.friendsoffortpoint.org/history Albert Deblas, Arianna Perez, T'Nysha Peete, and E 3: https://nefsc.noaa.gov/history/stories/groundfish/grndfsh1.html C 4: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/atlantic-sturgeon Madi Theriault as part of Save the Harbor/Save the R 5: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/river-herring#overview Bay's 2020 Summer Youth Environmental U 6: https://www.clf.org/blog/give-atlantic-cod-a-break-flawed-data/ Education Program Staff. O S 7: https://www.cctvcambridge.org/node/2938.