A Skate Named Rodger

Hello everyone, Maeve here. As some of you may know, we get new kids at Piers Park every Monday although there are some returners. This monday at Piers Park was very eventful. One boy named Chase caught 3 crabs on a fishing rod and he had one big spider crab but he couldn’t get it on the dock fast enough. Luckily the weather has been really nice for the start of this week (unlike last week) but the dock heats up really fast. Alongside our usual crab catches we also caught a Skate for the first time since I’ve been at the site and it was weird because we caught it in the lobster trap. Since we had never had a skate before we had to act fast because they can’t be out of water for long. Luckily, we had a wheelbarrow on the dock that we quickly filled with water and put the skate in. He was a big skate and the kids decided to name him Rodger. Once Rodger got use to the barrel and he calmed down he was fine. He was very friendly actually and he let the kids touch his backside for a long time. A little girl named Sophia was having a blast just making up songs for Rodger and it was really funny.

The kids with Rodger

Happy Rodger

Sophia singing to Rodger

Another really awesome thing that happened on Tuesday was when Briana came to work with a lobster camera. We were so excited but to be honest we weren't quite sure how to use it. First we tested it to see how deep it could go by attaching it to the weight on a rod. We wanted to see a more sturdy picture so next we decided to put the camera on the lobster trap. It took a lot of time and energy because we had to keep pulling up the lobster trap which is weighed down by bricks but finally, with about 20 minutes left of camp we perfected the angle and everything! We got to see a live video of a crab right in front of the camera. When we were looking at it on the monitor we thought it was a big crab with huge legs but when we pulled the trap up it was actually a really small rock crab. Either way, it was still exciting for the staff and the kids to see and it is even better now that we perfected it. See you guys next time!

-Maeve Fittz