Earth Day 2010 on Boston Harbor

Earth Day 2010 -
Fishing 101 with Save the Harbor/ Save the Bay
at the Boston Children's Museum

When I was hired as a Communications Assistant back in September, I didn't expect that I'd be doing field work with Save the Harbor. I figured I'd be sitting behind my desk, sending out my press releases and updating the Facebook world on Boston Harbor happenings. But man, I am so glad that I got to experience one of these awesome outdoor youth programs.

Boston Harbor's water quality used to be so bad that we couldn't do a Fishing 101 event for a long time, but the water in the Fort Point Channel has improved so much in the last few years thanks to Save the Harbor's hard work that we were finally able to bring it back last year. So we partnered with the Boston Children's Museum again this year and ran a special Fishing 101 event yesterday in honor of Earth Day. We really lucked out with a sunny sky and warm weather, so more than a hundred kids and families were able to try fishing in the Fort Point Channel and learn all about lobsters, crabs, mussels, clams and oysters from our Touch Tank.

Since the water in Boston Harbor is still pretty chilly, it was unfortunately a little too early for fish to be jumping at the bait. So even though no one caught any fish, we did manage to catch 10 crabs in our 3 crab traps! We even caught a little baby one, which the kids were all excited about because it wasn't pinching anyone, unlike some of the bigger ones we caught. We purchased two lobsters (not Boston Harbor lobsters, we won't find any of those until summer, so we had to make do with Canadian lobsters) from Hook Lobster across the street from the Boston Children's Museum and let all the crabs join them in the Touch Tank along with some of the mussels, clams and oysters we also got from Hook Lobster. Some kids were a little hesitant to touch the lobsters and crabs, but others were climbing all over each other to get closer. Some were even trying to grab the lobsters out of my hands! I'm no marine creature expert, so when I was getting pinched by the crabs, there was no way I was going to let kids get pinched by them either.

After encouraging all these kids and families to explore the fun and educational value of the underwater world, we released our little sea friends back into the Fort Point Channel, thanked the Boston Children's Museum for their hospitality, packed up our equipment and headed back to the office to keep planning lots of exciting programs for this summer season. We will be running the Boston Harbor Explorers - Fishing 101 program 3 (count it, 3!) times a week this summer, starting in July, so make sure to check our website for more updates as the summer gets closer, or email Lindsay Welch at welch@savetheharbor.org for more information.

-Rachel