Revere Beach Frenzy

Having proper PPE is important!

       For the first week of the summer, I ended up working at Revere Beach which is usually the host of events during the regular summers. However, that did not stop our team from figuring out what to do. We had decided that building a food web comprised of the local species would be the best thing to do. In order to do that we would take pictures of animals, we found along the beach and we ended up finding more than 10 different types of animals. We caught a striper and even found a washed-up lion's mane jellyfish which can grow up to 90 feet. Luckily the one we had found was nowhere as near as big as it. Being able to observe the natural habitat of all the different types of species were marvelous, being able to see how the cycle of life worked in nature was extremely beneficial to our work. Seeing ospreys dive into the water, hermit crabs looking for new shells and even baby birds looking for their first meals was an eye-opening experience into seeing how much our actions impact the world around us. However, you could not walk for a few miles without seeing washed-up trash, while it may not be as prominent as it was. This issue still exists in the Boston area.

Our team with the striper we caught!

       Much like Revere Beach, the rest of the Boston harbor use to struggle with the same issue, trash all over the place. But this all changed after the Boston clean up initiative which managed to turn the harbor from one of the dirtiest urban harbors in America to one of the cleanest in the whole country. It was said that you could walk across the harbor without getting your feet wet, the amount of trash and debris in the water could have been used as a stepping stone, while it may have sounded like a bit of an exaggeration, falling into the water for more than a few seconds would have required a tetanus shot. The creation of Deer island was one of the most crucial steps into cleaning the harbor, it allowed the filtration of human waste into a separate entity that was not the harbor. Before the eggs on Deer island, human waste for Boston and surrounding neighborhoods would fester into the water leaving a smelly place filled with more than trash. The eggs store up the waste from surrounding communities and turn them into pellets which allow them to be shipped to Florida to be used as fertilizer for oranges. But now, the harbor is nothing like its former self, it is home to many events that require falling into the water such as swimming or sailing, the days of the dirt are now gone. So it's time to go out there and enjoy what the beautiful water has to offer, until next time.

Sea you on the harbor,
Albert