The Hudson River Eel Project: A Community Science Framework for Management and Education

Christopher Bowser (NYS Department of Environmental Conservation and NYS Water Resources Institute) and Dr. Kenji Doering (Cornell University, WRI)

Thursday, January 23 | 2:30PM ET | Online and Open to the Public

Community science, or citizen science, engages trained volunteers with professional researchers to answer a range of environmental questions. When buttressed with strong protocols and robust training, community science can be particularly useful in studying migratory fish by expanding the spatial and temporal scale of research. The Hudson River Eel Project is a community science program in which volunteers collect data on juvenile American Eel Anguilla rostrata numbers as the fish enter estuarine tributaries from the ocean. The Eel Project has been designed to (1) assist fishery agency managers in collecting robust data on young-of-year glass eel ingress, and (2) engage diverse audiences in relevant field science that leads to greater ecological stewardship and education. In this talk, Bowser and Doering will describe the initial findings of 12 years of eel monitoring at six sites along the Hudson River estuary, explore how community science efforts can be applied to the needs of fishery agencies, and demonstrate the impact of community science in career development through short testimonials.

This event is part of 2025 Spring Seminar Series: Applied Water Research in New York State hosted by the New York State Water Resources Institute. The series runs on Thursdays from 2:30 - 3:30PM ET from January 23 - March 6, 2025.

The work presented was prepared for the NYS Water Resources Institute at Cornell University and the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, with support from the NYS Environmental Protection Fund.