Crabs, Shrimp, and Eels, Oh my!
By Jennifer Mynard | September 4, 2025
On a blustery August day, two counselors from Resilience Paddle Sports, a gaggle of grade schoolers, and I, made our way from Shipyard Park to the southeast corner of Weehawken Cove. We were there to get a better look at what lives under the murky waters of the Hudson River. Although Hoboken residents are well acquainted with the larger birds and mammals on our shore, few know about the aquatic life just below the water line.
Resilience Paddle Sports is a local leader in Hoboken’s waterfront ecology. In addition to providing recreational activities featuring kayaking tours and paddleboard guides, Resilience Paddle Sports offers experiential exploratory science workshops and camps. Their programming gives people the opportunity to hold the things they’re learning about.
One of their primary citizen science programs is glass eel population monitoring. The glass eel is a lesser known developmental stage of the American Eel in part because of their translucent bodies; they’re hard to spot!
They start as larva in the Sargasso Sea before hitching a ride on the Gulf Stream up the Eastern seaboard of North America. As they travel, they find inlets of calmer water, such as the Weehawken Cove, to rest during this stage of growth.
Their natural habitat has been reduced due to waterside development, making the efforts of Resilience Paddle Sports and other groups on the Hudson River crucial in determining the stability of Glass Eel populations.
Resilience Paddle Sports uses “Eel Mops” to track population numbers. An Eel Mop is a series of frayed nautical ropes attached to a plastic disk. These frayed fibers mimic the natural underwater grasses Glass Eels prefer to rest in.
When pulled up and rinsed into a basin, the ‘mop’ inhabitants can be clearly seen.
During our Weehawken Cove excursion, our group pulled up two Eel Mops. Once rinsed into a bucket, it was clear to see the variety of life! We saw, and had the chance to hold:
- Northern pipefish
- Glass eel
- Grass shrimp
- Blue crabs
- Sea grapes
- And more!
The children in this group were entranced by the squirmy sea life and found a special obsession with small, dark crabs. It was hard to say goodbye to our brackish bros, but alas they had to return to our waterways. As we washed our hands and set off for lunch, questions abounded: “are they always there? Can I see them again?”
The excitement for our water and its stewardship is clearly ignited in this group, thanks to the hands-on experience provided by Resilience Paddle Sports.
Jennifer Mynard is a Hoboken native who graduated from the Hudson School in 2019 and attended the College of Wooster with a degree in Environmental Studies and Art History.
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