East Boston

Hi, I'm Pat, and I lead the Harbor Explorers program in East Boston at Piers Park Sailing Center. We begin each day hauling up the lobster trap, which although may not always have a lobster, is always full of Green and Red Rock Crabs. We pass the crabs around to all twenty or so kids so that everyone can see them and tell whether they're male or female, based on the pattern on the bottom of their shells.

This week, in addition to crabbing with mussels and hot dogs for bait, we used our underwater camera. Some kids were very creative, and dropped the camera right next to one crab trap, planning to snatch up the trap at the first sign of a crab. Not only were they successful, but we also got a great view of some minnows chomping on the baited trap!

I'm also in charge of the Harbor explorers program at Constitution Beach in East Boston. Here, we work with kids from the East Boston YMCA to do walks up and down the beach, finding different shells and creatures stranded at low tide in the wrackline. It's also an incredible spot for finding steamer clams! On Tuesday, the kids put all their clams together at the end of the day and counted nearly 120!

Finally, I run the Harbor Explorers program at Winthrop beach Wednesday afternoons. There, we do wrackline rocks (where pieces of lobsters and enormous mussel shells are very common) and venture into the rocky tide pools to look for hermit crabs, green crabs, and the occasional sea worm.

For more information on the program, you should check out our Kids Page. Or, feel free to add your own stories from Piers Park, Constitution Beach, or Winthrop Beach in the comments!

-Pat