Caught A WHAT???

Hey guys! Carrie here again with another update on what we got to catch at the Boston Children's museum. This week it was a pretty slow and the usual, showing kids the crabs and small fish we have caught. Except for on Tuesday, we caught a very interesting and snake looking fish! It was so long and weird looking though it frightened me a little bit. We later looked up what we caught and it turns out to be a European Eel! European eels generally inhabits the Atlantic Ocean from Europe to North America. This eel is native to the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Europe and migrates to North Africa, and North America during spawning events. We've never seen anything like it and we were very proud of the kid who caught it. Also thank goodness to his dad for cutting the line and setting the eel free because I certainly did not want to touch that.

European Eel!!!

So this week we are researching about the importance of water quality and how it might affect our everyday lives.  The water ecosystem is vital for our everyday living because it provide food, flood mitigation, water for agriculture, transportation and recreation, and because they can temper or alter local climates, water quality is also inseparable from human economies. In Boston, water quality is an important issue and the too much use of it can greatly affect our resources. The loss of water essentially reduces available streamflow, and threatens in-stream uses such as aquatic life, habitat quality and quantity and recreational uses.
Water leaving our homes generally goes either into a septic tank in the back yard where it seeps back into the ground, or is sent to a sewage-treatment plant through a sewer system. Some water quality tests include measuring the temperature and the pH levels in addition to the bacteria and toxic substances in them.
Soils, particularly well-draining sandy soils, filter water naturally, trapping particles as water percolates down through the soil layers. Filtration mechanically removes large pieces of debris. Bacteria and soil micro-organisms further purify water naturally by breaking down nutrients and contaminants.

The world works in so many interesting ways! Thank you for tuning in,

Love,
Carrie Monge