CURB Counts over 2,200 Migrating Glass Eels

CURB's team of staff and volunteers recently wrapped up 15 weeks of eel sampling as part of the NYS DEC's American Eel Migration Project. This project tracks migrating glass eels on their journey from the Sargasso Sea into the Hudson River. We sample every Tuesday through Friday and our season typically runs from late February through most of May, with the peak of the season often occuring from mid-March through mid-April. 

Here are some of the data highlights from this season:

• Our first eels were caught on February 14^th, making it the earliest start to a season for us in Yonkers. We typically see our first eels during the last week of February or early March, though this can vary based on winter weather conditions.
• The early start to the season resulted in our last eel being caught about 2 weeks before the end of our “traditional sampling season.” It should be noted that the trend over the last several years has been for an earlier start to the arrival of glass eels in the Hudson. This is likely due to consecutive mild winters.

• February produced 784 glass eels which is by far the most for any February in any season. We had been averaging about 30 eels for the month of February.
• March was our best month with 1,283 eels, which is also our 4^th highest monthly total of all-time.
• Things quickly dropped off in April with just 138 eels. We average around 544 eels for the month. Typically we have good counts well into April but it was such an early start to the season that most of the eels were already north of us by the beginning of the month. May produced only 24 eels.

• This season basically came down to 2 weeks: 2/20 – 2/26 when we caught 656 eels, and 3/20 – 3/26 when we caught 1,017 eels. These 2 weeks accounted for 75% of our catch. This is a bit unusual as the higher counts tend to be spread out more across the season. But outside of these 2 weeks we had relatively low level numbers throughout the rest of the season.
• The month-long lull between the 2 peak weeks was likely due to a cold spell that moved in during the start of March. We had a few weeks of low counts before things picked up again when the warm weather returned.
• A large percentage of our catch occured at new moon, which is when we see some of our highest tides. This means that more water makes its way into our tidal marsh bringing in higher numbers of eels.

• Our overall catch of 2,229 makes this the 3^rd highest count for us in Yonkers. This was a substantial drop from last year (3,571 eels), but still an overall good number continuing the trend of higher counts over the last 5 years. Our 10-year average is 1,581. The NYSDEC typically releases results from throughout the river at some point during the summer or fall, which may be found here: https://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/72898.html.
• CURB has caught and counted 15,713 glass eels in 10 years of sampling.
• Lastly, we had over 30 weekly volunteers participate in the project this year, along with some small groups and our first eel focused school program. Thanks again to all of our volunteers for making this season possible!

Data from our 10 years of sampling may be found on the eel page of our website.