Stop by Poughkeepsie's Fall Kill Creek on any spring afternoon, and you’ll likely run into a group of excited wader-wearing students, teachers, and other community members equipped with nets, buckets, and notebooks. The scene looks something like this: a few members of the team splash into the shallow water to check a cone-shaped net for juvenile “glass eels” that swam in during the night before. Other members start carefully counting the eels, one by one, with nets and buckets, while one lucky student records all the crucial data. In an hour, their tasks are completed, the nets are reset for the next day’s team, and the little eels are released upstream.
An "Eel-ebration" of Community Science Each spring, from Staten Island to Albany, approximately 1,000 community volunteers at 12 sites (including the Fall Kill) participate in the Hudson River Eel Project. The Project is coordinated by the Department of Environmental Conservation’s (DEC) Hudson River Estuary Program, National Estuarine Research Reserve, NEIWPCC, and Cornell’s New York State Water Resource Institute, but is really fueled by the schools, not-for-profits, and other groups that passionately promote science education in local waterways. It’s an example of community science, also called citizen science, where trained volunteers assist experts in real-world research and species monitoring. “This project enriches lives, not just environments,” muses Mark Angevine, a Poughkeepsie High School teacher
For anyone not familiar with the American eel (Anguilla rostrata), it’s far more than a slimy, snakelike critter. They are not electric (so-called electric eels are only found in South America) nor dangerous (they would much rather hide under rocks and logs than interact with people). These humble eels tell one of nature’s greatest stories. They begin their lives in the salty waters of the Atlantic Ocean, hatching somewhere near the Sargasso Sea; the exact location of where these eels spawn remains a mystery. Larval eels, known as leptocephali, drift along ocean currents, like the Gulf Stream, for months.
The range of the American eel is from the Caribbean region to eastern Canada. As the larval eels approach land, they change into glass eels—transparent, small, and free-swimming—that start to head inland towards rivers and streams. Many find their way to Hudson River tributaries, like the Fall Kill. A glass eel that swims to the Fall Kill will spend the next 10–30 years there after finding a section of the creek with enough food and suitable habitat. During that time, it will grow up to three feet in length, eating small aquatic insects, fish, and other eels. When mature, it returns to the ocean to spawn and die, and the cycle begins again.
Eels are vital to our shared ecosystem. Each spring, thousands of migrating juvenile eels bring energy from the ocean to the Hudson River’s thriving food web. A long-lived adult eel may be the aquatic apex predator of its stream or wetland, helping to keep everything in balance. A thriving population of eels means that an area has healthy habitats, good water quality, and well-connected waterways.
The Eel Project contributes to DEC’s data on American eels and is part of a larger coastwide effort by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to monitor eel populations. Eels face many threats, including historic overfishing, dams and other migration barriers, pollution, and climate change. Solutions to these complex problems require caring about eels, and the Eel Project is one way that people can connect with them in their neighborhood waterways. Community science allows us to collect data in more streams than we would be able to with professional fisheries scientists alone, so we can expand our reach and understanding of the species.
A Lasting Impact "You never know what one net check can do for a student,” says former project volunteer and current DEC Fish and Wildlife Technician Amanda Simmonds, “or what the data can do for the fishery you are trying to conserve!” Read what past participants say about the Eel Project and its enduring significance in their lives.
Giancarlo Coppola
Research Scientist, DEC Division of Water
"For me, the most impactful part of the Eel Project was the interactions and relationships that I made with the staff that coordinated the program. It fostered an opportunity for me to connect with environmental professionals during my senior year of high school and learn about what academic and professional opportunities are available."
Kate Cooper
Flora Project Manager, Rockefeller State Park
"I remember the first time I held an eel, it was squirmy and slimy, but also fragile and surprisingly cute. From that moment on, I was hooked. I was introduced to eels in high school and have never lost the excitement of seeing one in the field. The eel life cycle is an inspiring and curious journey, and to be a pit-stop along that journey is an honor."
Bella Dalton-Fenkel
Writer and Artist
"The Eel Project empowered me to educate and inspire others. Creating a comic about the American eel, imbuing it with my love for them, and seeing how my work went on to touch so many members of the local community has been life-changing and made me want to continue using my art and writing to improve the world. To know that there are interesting creatures all around us that are rarely seen, left a great impression on me."
Trevorneize Green
Science Teacher, Kingston City Schools
"My college experience with the Eel Project gave me the push I needed to become a biology teacher and provide my students with their own opportunities to go eeling. It’s the perfect place to learn more about the hidden wonders of the river around us, and find the inner scientist many of us never believed existed."
Grace Ballou
Coastal Education Program Manager, New Hampshire Sea Grant
"As an AmeriCorps Student Conservation Association member, I watched how counting eels connected people to their local waterways in a way that other projects or education programs couldn’t. Today, almost 10 years later, I’m still working to connect students to their local waterways through place-based education programs. And yes, I’m still obsessed with the American eel."
Come Eeling with Us!
If you would like to be a part of the Eel Project, please email us at eelproject@dec.ny.gov. Include your location so we can match you with a nearby sampling site. The Eel Project is appropriate for ages middle school to adult.