Volunteers Spend 5 Days Rescuing Wildlife From Huntington Sump

HUNTINGTON STATION, NY —When Long Island animal rescuer groups and volunteers heard that a Huntington Station sump was due to be drained by the South Huntington School District last week, and that it was filled with relinquished koi fish, they jumped into action.

A rescue effort headed by John Di Leonardo from Long Island Orchestrating for Nature (LION) was organized, working with the school district and Long Island animal rescue groups.

Nancy Schwartz Goldstein was one of the volunteers. She rolled up her sleeves, literally, and spent five days helping to pull wildlife out of the murky water at the Pigeon Hill Rd. site, behind the South Huntington Library.

She tells Patch that the long days netted "hundreds of tadpoles and goldfish. Apparently the neighborhood has been throwing goldfish in the sump for decades."

Sweet Briar Nature Center in Smithtown took the fish, and rescued turtles went to Turtle Rescue of the Hamptons.

The entire rescue effort took five days.

Although there didn't end up being any koi fish, Goldstein says the efforts were worth it.

"Everyone was very cooperative, even the men working on the site. They love animals too. No koi, just 40 years of goldfish dumping, minnows, tadpoles and bullfrogs—1,000s of lives saved."