Keeping it “eel”
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- April
- 23
About 60 students, teachers, college interns, and community volunteers from the Hudson Valley are helping research how young eels migrate through local tributaries.
The volunteers are checking nets at sites such as the Indian Brook in Cold Spring, Furnace Brook in Cortlandt and Minnisceongo Creek in West Haverstraw from now through late May.
The research is being conducted under the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s Hudson River Estuary Program and the Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve.
The American eel has one of the most unusual life cycles of any fish. Its young are born in the Sargasso Sea, over 1,000 miles from the Hudson River, and arrive here as nearly transparent, two-inch long “glass eels.”
On a daily basis, the students check a ten-foot cone-shaped “fyke net” designed to catch these tiny fish, counting and releasing the glass eels back into the water and recording environmental data on temperature and tides.
As part of their work, the students also look for and count river herring that migrate into tributaries at this time of year. The Cortlandt site is in its second year and already is showing significantly greater numbers of migrating eels.
The goals of program include involving citizens in hands-on exploration of their local ecosystems.
This type of fish has existed for millions of years, yet eel numbers have declined at many East Coast sites without a
clear reason. Student-level research can help answer some basic questions about this very mysterious animal and the habitats the eels use throughout their far-reaching lives.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 6:36 pm by Greg Clary.
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Journal News staff writer Greg Clary writes Earth Watch, reporting on environmental issues in the lower Hudson region. Clary has been a reporter, editor and columnist at the Journal News since 1988 and has covered police and courts, transportation, municipal government, development and the environment in the Lower Hudson Valley, among other topics. 
Laura Incalcaterra covers the environment, open space and zoning and planning issues for The Journal News. A Boston College graduate, Laura grew up in Rockland, attended East Ramapo schools and has worked for The Journal News since 1993. Laura has written features and covered North Rockland, crime, government and a host of other issues.
Mike Risinit covers Patterson and Kent in Putnam County, as well as environmental topics touching on the Hudson River and the Great Swamp. Risinit has been a reporter at The Journal News since 1998.
