Urban Eels: Cheesecake Brook - Newton, Massachusetts...

***Three wild native catadromous American eels and two juvenile nonnative common carp from urban Cheesecake Brook in Newton, Massachusetts…***

The Massachusetts chapter of NFC has been working on Cheesecake Brook in Newton, Massachusetts, for more than a year. As streams go, Cheesecake Brook has been notably altered. The stream has been straightened, dug down, walled, and buried. There is a sloped cement slab just upstream of the Charles River that impedes, but not completely blocks fish passage.

With support from MassWildlife, MA NFC performed a second round of e-fishing in Cheesecake brook to see what we could find. While prior efforts have focused on the section of stream in Albemarle Park, this time we sampled the stream upstream of the park as well as at McGrath Park further upstream.

The section of Cheesecake Brook between the downstream Watertown Street crossing and Eddy Street yielded 16 American eels of varying sizes and 2 juvenile nonnative common carp. Unlike prior efforts downstream, no native white suckers were encountered for reasons we do not understand.

Interestingly, no fish were encountered in McGrath Park. While eels have been confirmed in Dolan Pond, a tributary to Cheesecake Brook upstream of the upper Watertown Street crossing, there is almost a mile of buried stream between there and McGrath Park. This could indicate that there is some subsurface blockage to fish passage.