{"id":787276,"date":"2026-05-10T20:37:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T20:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/787276\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T20:37:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T20:37:20","slug":"nycs-cold-winter-affects-eel-migration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/787276\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC’s cold winter affects eel migration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Staten Island\u2019s eel population is in a cold plunge.<\/p>\n

The year\u2019s icier-than-normal winter<\/a> has put a partial freeze on the city\u2019s American eel migration, with nearly half of the wriggly and nearly-invisible critters making their annual pilgrimage from the ocean into Richmond Creek this season.<\/p>\n

Just about 4,000 juvenile eels \u2014 referred to as \u201cglass eels\u201d at this point because they are almost see-through \u2014 have been collected at the estuary as part of the state\u2019s annual eel count, <\/a>which invites students to wade in the waters, count the fish by hand and learn about the lesser-known city slickers.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s annual eel count is under way at Richmond Creek on Staten Island \u2014 helped along by local schoolkids. stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n

(From left) Donovan Lee, Jordy Minchala and Oginga Thompson visit the creek every week with 61 classmates to aid in the count. stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cI learn about the eels\u2019 life span and how they move around, and it\u2019s pretty fun looking at the eels, but sometimes it makes me want to throw up!\u201d admitted Oginga Thompson, 12, a sixth-grader at William A. Morris Intermediate School 61, saying the eels look \u201cdisgusting.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy favorite part is having fun and stuff and not being in school,\u201d the kid said.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the boy and his fellow students plucked just seven glass eels from their net, which is the lowest total they\u2019ve tallied since they started their weekly outside-class sessions last month.<\/p>\n

Richmond Creek is one of the last stops the eels make on their 2,000-mile journey from their birthplace in the Sargasso Sea just south of the Bahamas, and their populations are considered \u201cdepleted\u201d<\/a>\u00a0by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.<\/p>\n

American eels are not endangered but are considered depleted. Stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n

Earlier expeditions in the migration season \u2014 which ranges from January through May \u2014 yielded as many as 165 eels in a single visit.<\/p>\n

Ecologists said the drop was expected as the season draws to a close.<\/p>\n

Still, the overall count is on track to be a far cry from the nearly 11,000 American eels that were tallied in Richmond Creek last year.<\/p>\n

But Megan Edic, a city research scientist at the city\u2019s Department of Environmental Protection, noted that the tallies vary from year-to-year but are generally robust overall.<\/p>\n

The students catch the eels in a large net, count them in a smaller bucket and then release them back into the creek. stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n

Nearly 11,000 American eels were tallied in Richmond Creek last year. stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a cause for concern!\u201d she insisted of this year\u2019s seemingly paltry count.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerican eels are doing pretty good. Since the program started in 2008, the [state Department of Conservation] has counted over a million eels across the state, so it\u2019s pretty amazing,\u201d Edic said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe get thousands of eels every year. The population is not in the clear \u2014 they\u2019ve lost a lot of habitat \u2014 but we\u2019re happy we\u2019re seeing as many as we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although this year\u2019s count is lower than last, there is no cause for concern that the overall population is suffering, said conservationist scientist Megan Edic. stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s colder-than-average winter \u2014 and the monster snow dump that landed on the Big Apple<\/a> \u2014 could have plunged thousands of the eels into a state of torpor, or dormancy, where the fish slow down their metabolic systems and bury themselves in the mud.<\/p>\n

It would take multiple years of lower tallies for ecologists to be concerned about the glass eel population, Edic said.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, plenty are still passing through Richmond Creek for students to catch, tally and release.<\/p>\n

The sun was shining strongly enough Thursday for the students to see some of the eels swimming around their waders.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just walking, the water was clear, and I saw something swimming by!\u201d exclaimed Jordy Minchala, 11, who loves the program because \u201cI get to learn about more things that are in water and how they live.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donovan Lee, 11, said that spotting a glass eel is easy if you know where to look.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s exciting!\u201d the child said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Staten Island\u2019s eel population is in a cold plunge. The year\u2019s icier-than-normal winter has put a partial freeze…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":787277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,9562,9251,7052,5248,405,403,7619,5226,5225,5228,5227,9294,6214,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-787276","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-endangered-species","10":"tag-fish","11":"tag-marine-life","12":"tag-metro","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-new-york-city-life","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkcity","18":"tag-ny","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-staten-island","21":"tag-students","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-united-states-of-america","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-us-news","28":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116552207434701812","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=787276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}