2025 Eel Migration Project - Seasonal Summary
CURB's 2025 eel migration sampling season began on February 4th and wrapped up on May 30th. With the fyke net now pulled, we wanted to summarize the data for this season. It was a very good year for the migration, at least at our location. We had our 2nd highest overall count with a final total of 4,018 glass eels. This is well short of last year’s record total of 5,777, but much higher than our seasonal average 2,126. Here are some of the key data points from this season:
- During our first 5 years of sampling (2014 – 2018) we averaged 763 glass eels. Over our last 7 years of sampling (2019 – 2025) we have averaged 3,099 glass eels. The positive trends are continuing with regards to overall counts.
- Our first catch of the season occurred on 2/6 which is our 2nd earliest start to a season. We also had our latest catch of any season on 5/29.
- The month of April produced 2,698 glass eels which was the most ever caught during a single month of sampling.
- We had a single day catch record of 1,311 glass eels on 4/1/25. The previous daily record was 756 on 3/22/22.
- A weekly sampling record of 1,852 glass eels was set from 3/27/25 – 4/2/25. The previous record was 1,809 from 3/20/22 – 3/26/22.
- Unlike last season when we caught at least 100 eels/week over 10 weeks, we had just 6 weeks with at least 100 eels caught.
- Most of this year’s catch occurred from 3/13 – 4/9 when we caught 3,561 glass eels. This made up 89% of our catch.
- In addition to glass eels, we also caught 8 other species of animals in the fyke net. This was led by 143 amphipods, 63 grass shrimp, and 33 mummichogs. Perhaps the strangest catch was a rat-tailed maggot.
- CURB is one of about 15 sites participating in this project. If you are interested in data from the other locations, the NYS DEC usually releases a report sometime in the summer or fall: https://hrnerr.org/eel-monitoring/.
Please see below for some additional charts and graphs from this season:
We would also like to thank the dozens of volunteers who made this season a success, including students from Sarah Lawrence College, Yonkers Public Schools, and other community members.