The Nantucket Eel Project
Last year, NCF launched the Nantucket Eel Project, a community science project intended to help us gain a better understanding of the migration patterns of the American eel (Anguilla rostrata). Eels are a fascinating species of fish that we know relatively little about. The Nantucket Eel Project focuses on tracking eels through Nantucket estuaries at their glass eel life stage. The glass eels work their way upstream in rivers and estuaries, creating the perfect opportunity to study their migration behavior.
Started by NCF’s Coastal Ecology Research Technician Jisun Reiner and NCF’s Environmental Educator Isaac Hersh, the Nantucket Eel Project seeks to learn more about the life of American eels by catching and counting glass eels during their migration out of the ocean and into the island’s freshwater system. In addition to collecting useful data on eel migration, the project is open to community volunteers interested in getting hands-on experience with a field research project.
To catch and count the glass eels we built eel mops – contraptions made from unfurled rope attached to plant saucers which mimic an eel’s natural habitat of algae or seaweed. The eels hide in the fibers of the rope on their journey upstream, so when we pull the mop out of the water the eels come with it. Once we move all the eels from the mop into a bucket we can begin counting them. On one day last year we counted over 100 eels in a single mop! Along with the eel counts, we also keep track of the tide and time of sampling, and environmental factors such as water and air temperature, weather conditions, and water speed. Collecting these variables helps us determine what impacts the eels on their migration journey.
In 2024, we engaged 16 community members and personnel from 5 island environmental nonprofit organizations. The community members collected water and air temperature, weather conditions, water velocity data, and helped to count almost 1,000 eels over 19 sample days! With this promising community involvement and initial data collection, the Nantucket Eel Project is looking to expand. This year we hope to have more volunteers, involve more island conservation organizations, and offer field trips to school groups. If you’re interested in volunteering or just coming out to see what it’s all about, click below to sign up!
Forest Health Management Work off Milestone Road Completed
NCF is excited to report the completion of an initial 8 acres of forest health management work off the south side of Milestone Road (between New South/Bunker Road and Russell’s Way). The completed area comprises the northern section of a unit totaling approximately 38 acres, the remainder of which will be targeted for similar management within the next 1-2 years. Over the coming growing season, we will assess how the vegetation responds and the achievement of our ecological and stewardship goals, which include increasing resilience to future southern pine beetle infestations, reducing wildfire risk, and improving the overall health of this disturbance-dependent forest community.
We are very happy with the outcome of the work recently completed by our contractor, KJP Land and Environment. The forest’s understory was selectively brush cut and selected pitch pine trees were removed, chipped, and taken off-site, with great care taken not to damage the trunks of the remaining trees. Valuable bare ground habitat has been created in patches across the forest, which will provide sites for pitch pine seedling germination and allow for the establishment of native grasses in the understory. This work is the first step in a multi-year project to undertake similar management within NCF’s pitch pine forests across the island and is complementary to similar management being done by the Nantucket Land Bank and Massachusetts Audubon on their respective properties on the island.
