Mount Saint Mary College students once again joined in the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC)’s ongoing eel-monitoring project in Newburgh’s Quassaick Creek.
The group, consisting of Natural Sciences majors, was led by associate Biology professors Suparna Bhalla and Doug Robinson, as well as Chemistry professor Lynn Maelia.
The project entailed students heading to the creek and counting eels that have been caught in nets. The tiny, nearly transparent American eels are born in the ocean and migrate upstream to live, eventually returning to the ocean to spawn. According to the DEC, the species is in decline.
Helping with the DEC’s eel study has become a tradition for the Mount, with students and professors aiding the project since at least the early 2010s.