2025 River Herring & American Eel Survey Goes Swimmingly Thanks to Dedicated Volunteers

In Queens and the North Shore of Long Island, a region covering Long Island Sound, as well as the Sound Shore in Westchester, this work is done in collaboration with the Long Island Sound Partnership, where survey data informs habitat restoration efforts, identifies connectivity needs, and evaluates fish passage performance.

The survey is essential to understanding where river herring still return to spawn, often in fragmented or degraded habitats, if they are colonizing new streams, and the scale of their spawning migration. Volunteers are the heart of this project, providing the on-the-ground observations needed that help prioritize restoration sites and support initiatives like the River Revival Project, which aims to reconnect our rivers and restore fish abundance.

Thanks to targeted outreach and coordination by LIS Partnership staff (Jimena Perez-Viscasillas and Lillit Genovesi from NY Sea Grant and Sara Cernadas-Martín from NYSDEC/NEIWPCC), the North Shore stations, once overlooked rose to the top this year in both volunteer participation and number of observation events. This is a major milestone, especially considering that these sites continue to report few or no river herring sightings. The dedication of our volunteers, who return week after week even without fish in view, is what makes long-term recovery possible.