[Dino]

Waldman, whose book, Heartbeats in the Muck, traces the history of the New York Harbor, said historical documents indicate that sheepshead were incredibly common in Sheepshead Bay in the early nineteenth century. So plentiful were the fish, farmers surrounding the bay supplemented their incomes by becoming commercial sheepshead fishermen while waiting to harvest their crops.

But somewhere around the late 1800s, the sheepshead started to disappear. Marine biology experts note the disappearance of oyster reefs — either smothered by sewage dumped in the harbor or wiped out by overfishing — around the same time, a connection that is more than coincidental. With one of its main sources of sustenance on the road to extinction, the sheepshead may have gone looking elsewhere for food.