Eel Trips to the Zoo

Members of LISS’s Habitat Restoration Work Group took a tour of the new 182nd St Dam fish passageway at the entrance of the Bronx Zoo in May where they watched staff from the Wildlife Conservation Society monitor for the migrataion of young eels to the Bronx River. Here, Jake LaBelle of WCS counts two eels that were collected with an eel mop before putting them back into the river. The American Eel spawns in the Sargasso Sea in the North Antlantic Ocean. They migrate to freshwater rivers and estuaries such as the Bronx River and Long Island Sound where they mature. They are called “glass eels”  when they are young.