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CURB Counts 3,571 Migrating Glass Eels

CURB recently finished up it's 9th year of participation in the NYS DEC's American Eel Migration Project. This program has volunteers up and down the Hudson River Estuary checking fyke nets for migrating glass eels.

At CURB, our season generally runs for around 14 weeks, from late February - late May. This year's migration produced record counts for our site, and the general trend has been for increasing eel numbers over the last several years. Here are some of the key takeaways from this season:


3,571 Glass Eels - Staff and volunteers from the Center for the Urban River at Beczak caught and released 3,571 migrating glass eels using a stationary fyke net placed in our tidal marsh on the Yonkers Waterfront. CURB is 1 of about 15 DEC project sites, and the only site located in the main stem of the Hudson River.

 

Daily Catches

 

756 Eels in One Day - A Yonkers single-day record of 756 glass eels was set on 3/22/22. A total of 1,809 glass eels were caught from 3/20 - 3/26, marking the peak week of this year's migration season. A second wave of eels arrived during the second half of April, with 523 eels from 4/17 - 4/23.

 

Weekly Catches

 

Record Season in Yonkers - This year's total of 3,571 glass eels smashed our previous seasonal record of 2,782 glass eels set in 2019. In fact, this total was nearly double our catch from last year. We average about 1,500 eels per season.

 

Running Total

 

Yearly Counts Increase - From 2014 - 2018 our site in Yonkers averaged a total of 763 eels per season. This average increased to 2,417 eels from 2019 - 2022.

 

Yearly Totals

 

Dozens of Volunteers - Throughout the project, over two dozen volunteers assisted with eel sampling. This includes about 20 students from Sarah Lawrence College, students from Yonkers High School, and members of the community. In addition to eel sampling, volunteers also assisted with daily river seines.


Thanks to all of the volunteers who helped make this a successful season! Complete data are available on our website at https://www.centerfortheurbanriver.org/research/eels.html. The DEC will also be releasing results from all sites on their website at https://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/49580.html.