High School Students Complete the 14-Week EELS Team Internship

Written by Pearl Gauthier

EELS Team Mentor

Last month concluded CURB’s Evaluating Estuarine Lateral Species (EELS) Team’s spring semester of research. The 9 students involved, from local Yonkers high schools, completed 6 weeks of research this spring, monitoring the current American Eel migration through the Hudson river. Students collected these young “glass” eels from CURB’s fyke net on the bank of the river, counted, and weighed them. The team caught their highest number of 336 eels on March 19. They also collected data on various water parameters and atmospheric conditions. This data has been added to CURB’s general American Eel data, which has been ongoing for the past 12 years. 

In addition to eel sampling, the students participated in a series of workshops, including a lecture on American Eel conservation by NYS DEC’s Tom Lake, Excel graphing practice at the Yonkers Public Library, and a public speaking workshop led by CURB’s Director of Education Christina Edsall. To wrap up their research, the students worked on the filtration of eDNA samples taken from various locations in the Hudson river.  

Finally, on April 5, CURB hosted a community event where the EELS Team presented their data from seining research conducted last fall. Topics included comb versus moon jellyfish abundance, the impact of dissolved oxygen levels on blue crabs, and the impact of salinity levels on multiple frequently caught species. 

The EELS Team is a paid internship which has been ongoing at CURB for the past two years, and has recently gotten funding to continue for another two years.