Students on Staten Island count eels to measure city’s water quality and environmental health

WABC

By Dani Beckstrom

Click here for updates on this story

    STATEN ISLAND, New York (WABC) — Can you feel it? Spring is in the air. Birds are chirping, trees are in bloom, New Yorkers are lying in Central Park, and the eels are migrating.

“So every year, thousands of baby migrating American eels, called glass eels, make a 2,000-mile journey all the way to Staten Island to come up into this location and spend their lives,” said Robert Brauman, New York City Department of Environmental Protection.

They’re born in the Sargasso Sea just south of the Bahamas and ride the Gulf Stream all the way up here.

Think “Crush” from “Finding Nemo” riding the east Australian current.

But why do the eels riding the Gulf Stream get off in New York? And how do they come to settle in Staten Island waterways?

“Well, since the city has undertaken so many restoration projects in this waterway, it’s now much cleaner. There’s a lot better habitat,” Brauman said.

Eel populations are actually seeing a resurgence in our area as water quality gets better.

They’re considered an “indicator species”: the more efforts the city takes to clean waterways, the more eels show up.

But how do we know? And who’s counting?

The eels traveled all the way from the Bahamas to Staten Island, where students scoop them up, count them, and send them on their way.

“We need to keep our environment alive because it’s what we’ve been gifted. And in such a beautiful environment here on Staten Island, so I think we should do everything we can in our power to keep it as clean as possible,” said Mark, a student.

“You have to bring them outdoors. It’s now spring. They can get in the water, they can splash around, they can really see, take those lessons from the classroom and kind of take them into the field and really think them through,” Brauman said.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.