In the present study, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery was used to derive statistics on spiral eddies in the eastern Mediterranean and Black seas. The dataset used consists of about 1700 medium resolution Envisat ASAR and ERS-2 SAR images obtained in 2009-2011. A comprehensive analysis of the eddy occurrence in SAR imagery was performed, thus providing insight into the eddies’ spatial and temporal distribution and the eddy ‘density’, i.e. the number of eddies per square unit. The analyses of the temporal variability of the derived above-mentioned statistical parameters revealed their strong seasonality, whose main reasons were suggested to be the seasonal variability of the encountered wind speed and surfactant films presenting.