2023 Hudson River Seining Data Report

CURB’s 2023 seining season is just about to wrap up so it’s a good time to review our data for the year. Seining is a method of sampling for fish using a 30-ft seine net. We have been collecting fish data since 2005 thanks to staff, volunteers, and participating school groups.

This year’s season began on February 10^th and will continue through the end of November, weather permitting. For the purposes of this report, the data was compiled through November 9^th, though there could be some minor additions to the numbers in the next few weeks.

In all, we have done 922 hauls of the seine net so far, which is the most ever for CURB in a single season. We average around 670 per year. Our total overall catch count is 6,049. The top 5 catches this season are moon jellies (1,288), Atlantic silversides (1,264), blue crabs (1,032), shrimp (649), mummichogs (541).

While our total catch of 6,049 would make this a top 5 season, a more accurate representation of our season can be obtained by looking at catch per unit effort. This is a calculation of the number of fish caught per seine. This year’s total is 6.56, which places the season at 9^th out of 18 years. So overall this has been an average season. This is down from some of our recent years, though a few of those years experienced extreme numbers of moon jellyfish, Atlantic silversides, and Atlantic menhaden.

As for individual species, the table below shows some of our notable catches and how they compare to long-term averages. This year has seen top 5 catches of moon jellies, blue crabs, mummichogs, herring, spot, oysters, Atlantic croakers, and lyre gobies. On the other hand, it was our lowest year for American eels, flounder, and the second lowest for Atlantic tomcods.

Here are some additional highlights from this season:

• At least 1 Atlantic silverside was caught during each month of seining.
• We caught our 1^st ever pumpkinseed, a freshwater fish.
• The EELS Team caught a channel catfish, our first at CURB, and just our 4^th catfish of any species.
• We caught our first Atlantic needlefish since 2014 and first black drum since 2015.

One of the main driving forces for this season has been the salinity, which for much of the time has run lower than what we normally see in Yonkers. Several substantial rainstorms lowered the salinity during July and August to levels we typically see in the spring. This continued into the fall and could be why counts of moon jellies, comb jellies, and other marine species haven’t quite matched up to recent years.

Here are a few additional data graphs:

Complete results may be tracked on the seining page of our website.