[audio:http://wamcradio.org/EarthWise/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/EW-05-04-12-Eels.mp3|titles=EW 05-04-12 Eels]
American eels are born way out in the Atlantic Ocean, between Bermuda and Puerto Rico. Juveniles, known as “glass eels,” migrate to freshwater habitats like the Hudson River when they are just a couple of inches long. There, they can spend up to twenty years maturing. They return to the ocean only to spawn.
Like many other fish today, eels aren’t doing swimmingly.
“We have been seeing big declines in American eels in the past few decades.”
Chris Bowser is an educator with the Hudson River Estuary Program and Research Reserve, at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Because American eels rely on so many different habitats, Bowser says they’re a good indicator of the health of our nation’s waterways…
“The eel is the perfect spokesperson, or spoke-fish I guess, for holistic habitat protection.”
In order to learn more about their habitats, Bowser, along with other scientists, has enlisted volunteers to help monitor eels, and learn more about what’s endangering them.
Every spring, more than 200 citizen scientists track eel populations in nine Hudson River tributaries. Dressed in hip-waders, they go into the streams every day to count eels and to collect data on water conditions. Many of the volunteers are school-kids. To Bowser, the project is a perfect combination of science and education…
“It’s just wonderful to see people become and embrace science firsthand and with a real purpose.”
Citizen scientists are obviously a boon for science. For the volunteers, it’s an opportunity to get outdoors, learn about nature… and get wet.
Web Extra
Full interview with Chris Bowser, educator with the Hudson River Estuary Program and Research Reserve at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation…
[audio:http://wamcradio.org/EarthWise/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Bowser_full_edited.mp3|titles=Bowser_full_edited]Photo, photo was taken on August 20, 2002, courtesy if Andre Mouraux via Flickr.