Going to the same place every day for two weeks seemed like it was going to be bit repetitive at first. I mean, our job there was to just teach fishing to the kids. But the first half of the week was different from before. We still fished, of course, but this time we added a little twist. We first went searching on the beach with the kids. Not looking for things like shells or sea glass, but by turning over rocks and trying to find crabs. Invasive Asian Shore Crabs to be exact. A species harmful to the environment, this crab will eat anything. It feeds on lobster larvae, other smaller crabs, invertebrates like sponges and starfish and more. They also drive animals out of their habitat to make room for themselves. Not to be mistaken with the larger Green Crab, they are invasive too, but not harmful like the Shore Crabs. Anyways, to help the native animals on Long Island, we took all the Shore Crabs we could find, totalling over 400 when all counted out. We then, humanely, killed the crabs and used then as chum. By sprinkling them on the water's surface we tried to attract fish. There was no such luck.
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| Invasive Asian Shore Crab |
To make up for it though, we had an underwater camera. The camera, watertight and attached to a screen by a long wire, was able to see things pretty clearly underwater. We were able to make out rocks, crabs, algae and the sand down at least 15 feet underwater. The only bad part about it was that the screen was dark and you had to cover it with your hand in for you to see if correctly. Even with that, it was a unique experience to be able to see sea life in a different way
-Ian P.
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