Charlestown Navy Yard

 Heyy everyone,

    This week my group and I got to visit Charlestown Navy Yard, where we worked on a lesson plan and learned about fisheries and regulations. We had 2 days to put it together and a lot of our energy went into the first day where we all split up to do our parts; Kamal and I put together a game where you describe the fish, like body size, color, head shape, if they are fast or slow swimmers, etc., and the kids have to try and draw it based off those characteristics. Once everyone did their part, we came together, discussed it, and put it all together and worked on the rest as a group. We heard all the groups started filming their own Full House intros so we just had to do those before the day was over, we walked around the Navy Yard and were reading all the information stands about the history as we scouted out places to do someone's intro. We decided I should chase some pigeons because I'm always running after birds on the beach :). We also visited the Bunker Hill Monument on Wednesday which was hot but nice. On Thursday we went on the Harbor Tour with all the senior staff which was really cool because I thought I knew a lot about the harbor already but I learned about so much more. Like that the Zakim Bridge was inspired by the Bunker Hill Monument behind the USS Constitution, or "Old Iron-sides". I got sunburned, but sitting on the front of the boat all day was really nice and worth a little burn. We had a really great time there and took some goofy group photos.

    The topic for this week was Fisheries, which are basically places where fishing is done commercially- they are caught in a conscious effort to be sold. Some of the most commonly caught fish around Boston is the Stripped Bass, Bluefish, and Black Sea Bass. Almost every week we've gotten to fish ourselves at each site, but of course that's just for fun, not to sell them. The Boston, McCorkle, and Fallon Fish piers are all fishing hubs in the harbor that are great to fish at. Though, fisheries are how many workers make a living and the fish caught supply a lot of food people eat in the world, about 1/3 of fisheries end up over fished and contributes to the decline in certain species like Cod and Sea Bass. I kind of thought the percent of fisheries that are overfished would be higher than 33% so I was glad to find that out, but really it should be 0%. Regulations for fisheries are based on time, like how long they can fish and the time of year. They're also based on the size of the fish, if it's too small it needs to grow, or if it's too big and is a breeding fish you aren't allowed to sell it. There is also a limit on how far out you can fish so you don't disrupt their habitat and/or breeding grounds.

                                                                       Grace & her chair :)

Sea you out there!

-Jane