You’ll find the American eel (Anguilla rostrata) in all rivers and estuaries around New York City, from the creeks of Jamaica Bay in Brooklyn to the streams at Clay Pit Ponds State Park Preserve on Staten Island.
Unlike most migratory fish, it hatches in the ocean and travels hundreds of miles to reach freshwater, arriving to the Hudson River estuary as a tiny transparent glass eel. As it matures, it turns dark green or gray. An adult eel can grow up to four feet in length and live more than 25 years.
Eel populations are declining up and down the east coast because of overfishing, pollution, and the damming of waterways. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) coordinates the Hudson River Eel Project, a community science initiative, to monitor glass eel migration. You can volunteer at the project’s NYC site at Richmond Creek on Staten Island to see glass eels for yourself.
For a chance to see an adult eel, check out the free catch-and-release fishing clinics at Gantry Plaza State Park and Shirley Chisholm State Park. In addition to the occasional American eel, you might encounter other native fishes of New York’s waterways like the oyster toadfish, the black sea bass, the northern puffer, and the summer flounder.
Read more about New York’s eels here.
Photo: Glass eels, elvers, and a small adult being counted at Richmond Creek on Staten Island (DEC photo).
Flannery James is a NYC Region NYS Parks Student Conservation Association Intern at New York State Parks. This essay first appeared at the State Parks & Historic Sites Blog.
There needs to be education against not only fishing but also catch and release – this is NOT harmless for aquatic creatures. It is stressful for these animals and often tears their mouths and many end up dying after being released. Learn to enjoy nature without killing its nonhuman inhabitants.
https://sentientmedia.org/do-fish-feel-pain/
Is there a similar study on the Delaware River? I grew up in Deposit on the west branch and delighted in “swimming” above Mr Baudendistle’s eel rack in the late’40s – early’50s. He harvested migrating eels on there way to the Sargasso Sea. I wish I had a photo of the stone walls channeling the water to the rack and shack.