Record Early Start to CURB's Eel Migration Sampling

The first glass eels of the season caught on 1/31

CURB recently kicked off its 11th year of sampling for migrating glass eels using a stationary fyke net. In that time we have counted nearly 18,000 glass eels on their journey from the Sargasso Sea up the Hudson River.

This year's season got off to an unexpectedly early start, with our first eel being caught on January 31st. This is two weeks earlier than our previous record of February 14th, which occurred last year. Due to a string of mild winters, the eels have been arriving earlier and earlier each year. Historically our first catches have occurred at the end of February or early March.

In addition to the early start, we have seen very good eel counts this year. Through March 19th we have caught 2,190 glass eels, which is well above our seasonal average. In fact, this nearly equals our entire total from last season.

The graph below shows the totals for each of our sampling seasons:

The peak of the migration in Yonkers has historically occurred from mid-March through the beginning of April. Due to the early arrival of eels this year, this has been shifted by a couple of weeks. It will be interesting to see if the migration wraps up early this year.

We are still accepting volunteers for our Wednesday and Thursday sampling. For more information please contact Jason Muller at jmuller@sarahlawrence.edu.