Crabs by the 80's

For the first time at McDonough Sailing Center, we along with the campers caught not ten, not twenty, not thirty, not even forty... but 80 crabs!

This week we participated in the MIT study concerning the species of crabs and the amount of crabs living in a specific aquatic environment around the Boston Harbor, aka, the crab count. Since this was the first time we were doing it at McDonough, it was hard explaining it to the kids why we were doing this. We try to resort to saying that, "You guys get to be scientists for a day! How cool is that?" One kid turned to me and said innocently, "What if I don't want to be a scientist when I get older?" After some skepticism, the children decided to split up into teams (we first had to explain that everyone can not be on my team and call it a team) and we explored pleasure bay for any potential crabs.

My team, Team Awesome, started off pretty strong and we found a few crabs. Then, once one of the other teams started catching crabs by the dozens, we started to really kick into gear. We looked under rocks, through forests of seaweed, and by the end of the session, we caught 80 crabs!!! However, through much trial and hardship, my team came in last... yet each kid in my team was not dismayed by our place we came in; they were just proud to have caught 80 crabs in less than thirty minutes!Who knows what we will do next week! But I know this week was definitely a success.
- David