Harlem Meer Centrarchid Survey

Bureau of Fisheries Technical Brief #2018013

Print this technical brief (PDF, 191 KB)

The Harlem Meer (the Meer) is a 10 acre lake in the Lower Hudson Watershed in the northeast corner of Central Park, New York County (Manhattan). Nearly 100% of its shoreline provides fishing access, and it is heavily used by local anglers (Cohen and Lee, 2017). As with other New York City (NYC) freshwater lakes and ponds, both New York State (NYS) and NYC angling regulations require catch and release of all fish. To monitor the status of the Meer's fish populations, spring boat electrofishing surveys have been performed bi-annually since 2009, with the exception of one performed during fall of 2011. This survey was performed on May 2, 2017 following the DEC Bureau of Fisheries Centrarchid Sampling Plan (Green 1989).

A total of 433 fish of seven species were captured; American eels and carp were not observed except for one grass carp at the surface prior to the survey. Catch rates for largemouth bass greater than eight (47 fish/hr), 12 (34.5 fish/hr) and 15 inches (14 fish/hr; Table 1.) in length were greater than 86%, 92% and 94%, respectively, of those from similarly-sized NYS lakes. The length frequency distribution (Figure 1) and size structure indicesi (PSD = 73, RSD15 = 29.7) were indicative of a primarily balanced population, with a high proportion of large largemouth bass. Average relative weight (88.5) indicates that largemouth bass were lean. Bluegill PSD was 25.2 and RSD15 was 0.3, both relatively low; however, the Meer has larger bluegills than other surveyed NYC lakes and ponds. The Harlem Meer has abundant largemouth bass and sunfish populations, and offers new and seasoned anglers potentially highly satisfying fishing opportunities.

Table 1. Number collected and length category catch rates for fish species captured during a boat electrofishing survey of the Harlem Meer in 2017.

				CPUE (fish/h; standard error)
Species	Total Catch	Time (h)	All sizes	Age-1	≥Stock	≥Quality	≥Preferred
Largemouth bass	45	0.8	57.7 (3)	10.3 (1)	47.4 (3)	34.6 (1)	14.1 (1)
Bluegill	370	0.8	474.4 (28)	61.5 (17)	413 (12)	104 (10)	1.3 (1)
Black crappie	12	0.8	15.4 (4)	0 (0)	16.7 (4)	11.5 (7)	6.4 (3)
Brown bullhead	2	0.8	2.6 (1)	0 (0)	2.6 (1)	2.6 (1)	2.6 (1)
Green sunfish	1	0.8	1.3 (1)	0 (0)	1.3 (1)	1.3 (1)	0 (0)
Pumpkinseed	1	0.8	4 (1)	4 (1)	0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)

ⁱ PSD (Proportional Stock Density) and RSD (Relative Stock Density) are indices that allow for standardized comparisons of size classes of fish and provide measures of fish population balance. PSD is the percent of the stock sized population that are quality size, and RSDp is the percent of the stock sized population that are preferred size. Populations of bass that are well-balanced (i.e., have good size distributions) have PSDs of 40-70 and RSDPs of 10-25.

Literature Cited