McDonough Sailing Center

Kat shows an Explorer how to tie a lure

Hi, my name is Kat, I lead the Harbor Explorers program at the Harry McDonough Sailing Center in South Boston and the All Access program at the Bank of America Pavillon. I take the sailing students out on a variety of excursions in and around Pleasure Bay. The Bay is a very diverse site with so much to do and home to some of the largest spider crabs around.

We begin each day by taking the motor boat out to check our lobster trap. This week we caught three lobsters and 5 red rock crabs in the trap. All the animals we find throughout the day go into our touch tank, where we can identify and watch them interact. Yesterday we saw two green crabs fighting over a mussel. At the end of each day we record what we find and return them to the bay.

The Harbor Explorers had a chance this week to test the water quality of the bay using a variety of methods. We tested the dissolved oxygen in our touch tank, which told us how much oxygen the animals used by the end of the day.

For more information on the program, you should check out our Kids Page. Or, feel free to add your own stories from Harry McDonough Sailing Center in the comments!