The reason given was that Hudson River striped bass are reputed to have an unpleasantly oily taste, thanks to the refineries in Bayonne. Hudson River striped bass are still officially frowned upon as eating fish, because they contain harmful concentrations of PCBs. But the economic potential for striper angling in the Hudson River remained high. In any event, it was easier to offer a case defending this wellloved fish than the tomcod or hogchoker. (As it happened, striped bass stocks in the mid1970s were declining nationally, and federal legislation was passed to protect them, making for an even stronger case to protect them in New York.) So the opponents of Westway put aside their study of mass transit and went about learning the migrating patterns of the striped bass. Hudson River striped bass spawn somewhere around Peekskill. A female striped bass produces more than a million eggs, which are fertilized by dozens of thrashing males; parental care is minimal, the eggs left to their own devices. At a few weeks old, the fish are silver in color; later they sport checkerboard sides; later still, they acquire the pretty horizontal stripes of the adult. Though a few swim north, they rarely get above Troy, because they are stopped by the system of canal locks; the vast majority head south, toward the Atlantic Ocean and New York City. Striped bass dont mind urban environments; they rather like cities. What they mostly like is structure, something to latch on to. While the smooth, straight ruled bulkhead engirdling Lower Manhattan would seem less latch Worthy than the original irregular coast, the downtown piers have come to offer a satisfying substitute. The piers act like marshes, interrupting the flow of water and creating backwaters. For fish, the best parts of piers are the edges, which help bring about an ecotone," an interface where habitat types can mix. The old finger docks of Manhattan were ideal for this purpose, because they were mostly all edge, and they did not have large platforms that would plunge the water underneath them in shadow. Fish tend to stay away from large pier structures: the darkness may scare them away, or else they prefer swimming in lighter waters where they can see their food and elude predators. The socalled "interpier" area of the Hudson River, which the Westway landfill intended to occupy, was dotted with obsolete, deteriorating finger piers. The proposed Westway tunnel would be built out to the pier line, eliminating these piers. The first Westway survey ordered by the Department ofTransportation found few fish in the harbor. But a second, taken during the winter months of 1979, determined that a diverse fish community did exist in the interpier area; that the striped bass present in that area were primarily in their first year (socalled "youngofyear") and second year of life ("yearlings"); and that a combination of adequate food and structural shelter seemed to have created a suitable winter habitat for these maturing, migrating stripers.