6/30 – Hudson River Estuary: In one of the most successful Community Science projects anywhere, DEC's Hudson River Estuary Staff and Partners collected a record number of glass eels (American eels) during a migration season that began in March and finished at the end of May. The 400,000 glass eels captured were more than any other year since the project began in 2008. During those 13 years, scientists and volunteers have counted more than one million glass eels. This year's sampling season was very different as volunteers were unable to participate due to COVID-19. DEC staff and environmental partners followed robust safety and social distancing protocols to monitor four stream sites for a full season. (Tom McDowell photo)
- DEC's Hudson River Estuary Staff and Partners
[The life history of the American eel (Anguilla rostrata) is cloaked in mystery, from beginning to end. Glass eels are one of their juvenile life stages. They arrive in the estuary by the millions each spring following a six-month to year-long journey from the greater Sargasso Sea area of the North Atlantic where we think they are born. Glass eel is a colloquial name, owing to their lack of pigment and near transparency. In anywhere from 12-30 years, depending upon their sex, they will leave the Hudson River watershed for the sea where they will spawn once and then die, or so we think.
Glass eels are collected using specialized nets and traps (fyke nets and eel mops), counted, weighed, and released into their upstream habitat, often above dams. The Hudson River Eel Project, managed by DEC’s Hudson River Estuary Program and Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve, gathers these data to help guide management plans for eel conservation and to engage communities in researching their local stream environments. Chris Bowser, Sarah Mount]
