Like the swallows to Capistrano, the eels have returned to the Quassaick
May 10, 2011
Newburgh, NY -
(L-R): Paul Overton of Pine Bush, NY, Melissa Molyneux of
Bayonne, NY, and Kaeley Miller of Newburgh, NY
Mount Saint Mary College biology students recently counted more
than 200 eels as part of their fieldwork service for the New York
State Department of Environmental Conservation’s (DEC) Hudson River
Estuary Program. Professor Suparna Bhalla’s freshmen students
visited nearby Quassaick Creek where they checked a 10-foot
cone-shaped “fyke net” designed to catch toothpick size, nearly
transparent glass eels. The students counted and released the eels
and also recorded environmental data on temperature and tides.
Mount students and faculty were the first to scientifically assess
juvenile eel migrations on the Quassaick Creek, which was new to
the DEC pilot study this year.
The eels are born in the Sargasso Sea, north of Puerto Rico, and
arrive every spring in estuaries like the Hudson River. They will
live in freshwater streams and lakes for up to twenty years before
returning to the sea to spawn and die.