Second Week Shenanigans!

Hello Everybody!

The second week has gone by, surprisingly quick, and a lot has happened so let's get started with what happened on Monday. Monday was not the best day for me because I missed the boat to Camp Harbor View. "So where did you go for the day?" you may be asking. Well, I went to the Children's Museum and it was my first time so I didn't know how things worked over there. The day was more chill and relaxed than I thought it would be with kids and their parents stopping by and checking out what we had. With the minor hiccups like the tent not fully working, which resulted in us just taking it down and dealing with the hot sun, it went by quickly and great.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I was on All Access, with us going to Georges Island. Like last year, I was getting a little tired of going to Spectacle and was excited to go to Georges for the first time. Once again, I have these same feelings, but now toward Georges. However, that doesn't mean that I'm sick of Georges. Tuesday was a typical All Access day with us going to Georges. On Wednesday, it was in the mid 70s so it was very cool which made things very easy. Fishing and going on tours was a lot easier without the sun's heat on my back. Even going into the dark tunnel made me get goose bumps because it was too cold.

One of the shows referenced on the wall (Gravity Falls)

On Thursday, I did a lot more exploring through the fort. After leaving the dark tunnel, I went up a hidden staircase that lead up to the top of the fort. The top of the fort is the best place to have a great view of the most of the Boston Harbor. You could've seen Downtown Boston in the distance, Long and Spectacle island. I decided to explore more on top of the fort. I came across a shed and decided to go in to check it out. Inside you could see that there was the typical writing on the walls. But there was a surprising amount of geeky stuff written on the walls referencing TV shows and a podcast that I never thought would ever be written on the walls of an abandoned shed. Although I wanted to keep on exploring, I had to head back to the dark tunnel.

The shed of top of the fort

On Friday, I headed, once again, to attend the MLK Scholars meeting. This year they decided to make the event a little more exciting. They started out with us (the scholars) getting into five big groups. With our groups, we had to keep a beach ball up in the air and count every time we hit the ball. If the ball hit the ground, we would have to restart everything. There wasn't a prize; it was very energetic and was really fun. Then we had a lot of speakers. Last year, there would be one speaker per meeting, which would mean that there were four speakers through the whole summer. There were at least five speakers in this meeting alone. There was the vice president of John Hancock, the executive director of Camp Harbor View and even Mayor Marty Walsh for speakers at the meeting. This week went by very quick but it was very eventful and I glad that I saw more in what Save the Harbor has to offer and hopefully and this will continue through the summer.

Mayor Marty Walsh at the MLK Scholars Meeting

See you guys on the Harbor!

-Imani Dorsey

The Epic Catch at Children's!

Measuring the Striped Bass!

After having caught about a total of 10 cunner in these past weeks, today wasn't just like any other ordinary day at the Children's Museum. As a little boy named Danny and his dad approached us, they were extremely excited to fish. While we waited for the fish bite, he told us all the stories about him and his dad fishing and the almost-whale they caught but their line snapped and all these other amazing stories. I had never seen a kid so excited about fishing. 

After waiting about 20 minutes Danny seemed a bit discouraged but his dad encouraged him and told him that fishing was a sport of great patience. I'm not going to lie, I was a bit in doubt too, since we had only caught one fish that whole morning, but I really admired his patience and determination. Then, right when they were almost about to leave Danny yells "I feel something! It's tugging!" Everyone rushed over to see and some even thought (including myself) that the hook might've just gotten stuck on a rock or another line down there. However, we all thought wrong! As he was railing his line up it was still moving, so it was definitely a fish. 

We all expected another cunner of course, but instead we railed it up and saw the very unexpected...... a STRIPED BASS! I was really surprised because the only other time I had seen someone catch a striped bass was on the fishing tournament last year when my group caught one. It was 13 inches long and its the biggest we've caught this summer at the Children's Museum. It barely fit into our tank! All the kids gathered around to see the fish and were asking all sorts of questions about it. We ended up learning so many new things about striped bass including things like their favorite food, which are clams! Today was a very memorable day and is definitely one of the highlights of this summer as it nearly draws to an end. I can't wait to see what other amazing things we will catch in the harbor next week during our last week of programing! This summer has truly been an epic one so far. 

See you soon! 
Rusenny

What is a Cunner?

Hey guys what a good week to go fishing right? 

This week at the Boston Children Museum even though we didn’t catch any more striped bass fish we manage to catch other fish which I’m not too aware of what type of fish it is. I enjoy teaching new kids who never fished before how to fish for the first time.

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The best part of all this is seeing how happy the kids get while in the process of fishing or even pulling up the crab traps. We often catch European green crabs more then  we catch spider crabs or any other living sea creature. At first what we were using as bait was flounder and scup which they fish didn’t really like much. Ever since we did a change of bait the sea creatures at the Boston Children Museum seem to like it better. I think it’s the change of bait that is bringing the new sea creatures we catch.

Later that day the fishes that our team caught were actually called a cunner. The cunner is also known as bergall fish and a chogset as well. Often you may see the Cunner fish with different skin patterns that you usually don’t see other fish with. But if you look closely you’ll be able to see that this fish has tiny teeth that would sting if you got bitten. There were times where we would try to use cunner to catch crabs and other fish. People often get a cunner fish confused with a perch fish due to the little similarities you may see if both compared. The way we caught the cunner fish wasn’t with a rod it was actually caught with a crab trap. Throughout the day everyone’s confidence increase due to not ever actually catching a fish in the crab trap.

Sincerely,
 Edward calderon 

What is a Striper?

I made a friend?

Hey there everyone how’s it going, this week at the Boston Children Museum we caught our very first striped bass that was about the same size as our  touch tank. Should’ve seen the look in every staff member’s face that was present that day we had caught the striper, it was very speechless. The day immediately shift around giving everyone a good energy of confidence this summer. We all knew we were going to catch a fish we just never knew it was going to be sooner than what we expected to be. Our group was able to catch the striper by using mackerel on the rods which I assumed they loved.

Striped bass fish are valued and caught as sporting fish. Striper fish can often be picky eaters when it comes to the type of bait you use to catch them. They usually go for clams, eels, anchovies, bloodworms and chicken liver which they enjoy the best.

People who aren’t from Boston and come to visit the Boston Children Museum are amazed to experience the program that the Save the Harbor/Save the Bay has to offer them. Some say that the way we fish is completely different compared to the way others fish out in far countries. Some families would wonder why we wouldn’t keep the fish we caught that instead we would release it back into the bay. In order to keep any fish that is caught it would have to be a certain size or else you would have to toss back into the ocean. You’ll be surprised on how many big fish are really out there in the ocean.  

Sincerely,

Edward Calderon

SPIDER CRAB

Hey there everyone, wonderful day isn’t it?

Today at the Boston Children’s Museum for the very first time this summer we caught a spider crab. The spider crab was a female crab getting ready to deliver her babies. The spider crab that we caught off the bay had bright orange eggs that seem like they playable but aren’t. Some of the children from the Boston Children’s Museum were afraid to touch the spider crab so decided to only touch green crabs. People often don’t know what types of sea creatures the Boston Harbor holds.

A couple hours into the day one of the kids have caught our very first strip bass of this summer. You could feel how excited the kid was as he struggles to pull the rod up. After putting the bass into the touch tank we then took of picture of it with the kid holding it.

Lovely isn't she?

Earlier that day we had caught fishes in the crab traps as well. We also had two moon jellies that we had caught with the giant net. I found it super exciting that we had caught those things all in the same day after a couple of days of not catching anything but crabs. What we used for bait so far would be fish and sometimes green crabs whenever we ran out of fresh bait. Hoping we would catch something new with crab bait every time we tried it we often wouldn’t. Every day at the Boston Children Museum there’s always something new to learn whether its fish related or people related.                                                      Sincerely Edward Calderon

Don't always expect crabs in the crab trap!

New crab friends

I made my return to the Children's Museum on Monday, and it was definitely a day of surprise. It was a hot, sunny Monday, and as expected the tide was low in the morning. We set out the crab traps, baited the rods, set up some other activities for the kids, and got ready for the day. A few families came to fish while waiting for the long line to become smaller, and we caught some crabs! The kids loved to pet and hold the crabs, most of them not scared, but they did have fun. A lot of families were coming to visit Boston, from Florida, Virginia, Maine etc, and lot of them said the Children's Museum is one of their favorite places!

Touch tanks!

Considering the fact that the kids loved the crabs, we lifted up the crab traps every 20 so minutes until we got so much. Throughout the whole day we caught about 85 crabs, most of them through the crab traps, but crabs were not the only thing we caught in them. The tides are usually low, and we have never caught a fish, but we found a perch in the crab trap! TWICE! Garret was so shocked, and so happy because we haven't caught a fish since the start of the summer, and two perches were caught at different times, and it was such an accomplishment for us. Unfortunately, we set it out instead of keeping it, but after lunch the second one was caught so it did not make a difference.

The professional!

It is funny how we did not catch a fish with a rod, but someone else did! A young boy, about 8 years of age was shown how to cast, and he instantly became a pro. He caught some crabs, a little bit of seaweed, but that was not the highlight of his day, and this was in the beginning of his first time fishing. He caught a large striped bass! The bass was big enough that it did not fit in the bigger touch tank, so we had to let it go, but he had his moment for sure! Hopefully one of us at Save The Harbor Save The Bay can catch a fish too! Until then!

Signing off
Qalid Hassan

The Day I Met Darth Vader

Have you ever met a celebrity before? The other day I had the pleasure of meeting the one and only Darth Vader! At first you could tell he was nervous to touch the crabs or get involved but after some coaxing I got him to fish with me and touch some crabs. Elliot and I had been fishing together for a while when he whispered in his grandmother's ear. I thought maybe I was annoying him but instead he wanted to clue me into his true identity; Darth Vader! He told me all about how he loved to hike and how he never wanted to cut his hair. He told me about how his Nana was one of his best friends which was awesome because my Nana is my best friend too! We talked about our dogs and what fish lived in the Harbor. Elliot showed me his Darth Vader outfit which consisted of goggles, a snorkel, and his Nana's jacket as a cape. When he found out I had never seen Star Wars he insisted I come to his house, all the way in Colorado, and watch the movies with him. Though I politely declined the invitation I did promise him I would watch them on my own when I got home.

Darth Vader posed for a photo op!

   The next day, the Children's Museum was kind enough to bring us out some fake fish to let the kids look at. Somebody had thrown one in and I had to fish it out with the net. It was some great target practice for later when somebody said they saw something floating in the water. It turned out to be a jellyfish! With some well aimed net casting we managed to get the jelly fish and pull it up. We put it in our touch tank, one without any crabs, and gave the kids a chance to see what a real jellyfish looks like in person. The moon jelly was a bit tough to identify at first because it had some odd characteristics but it was well worth it. It was great to catch something a bit different than usual.
   Two days after my first encounter with Darth Vader it was rainy and cold at the Children's Museum but I still got the surprise of the week. Elliot (AKA Darth Vader) came back to visit me! Him and his Nana ate lunch outside so Eliot and I could hang out! He told me all about Colorado where he is from and was so excited to be hanging out with me my heart melted just a tiny bit! His Nana insisted we take a picture together. It was great to make a new friend.

May the Force be With You!
  Sam

Fishing at the Children's Museum!

Being born and raised in Boston, one of my favorite places as a kid was the Boston Children's Museum, and I am sure this applies to an even greater amount of teens like me. Getting the chance to go back there, but as a more mature person was a wonderful experience. Walking through those steps I was overcome with nostalgia, and I was very happy looking back at what I used to do here, climbing their mini obstacle course being my favorite, but bubbles and science lessons as well. However, it was time to start a new chapter and work there for the kids that came with their families and do my part teaching them how to fish and giving them lessons about the harbor.

My first ever crab race.

I would not have thought that the kids would be so intrigued by crabs and fishing, but I was clearly wrong. Kids rushed over to see the crab traps, and loved petting them. Some held the crabs, others loved to do crab races, and it was shocking that everyone of them loved setting them back into the water. The kids we work with are very smart, and picked up on the lessons really quickly. One demonstration was all it took for them to learn how to fish, and catch some crabs, though the waiting part did not catch on so well. They loved lifting up the crab traps, and learning about the difference between male and female crabs, and how to identify the different types of crabs. 

Results of a little kid lifting up the crab trap.

Here at Save the Harbor, a daily goal is to do something you had never done before. Most of the kids had not gone fishing before, touched or held a crab, or have ever been to the Children's Museum. Something that I had never done before was using a crab as fishing bait. Though the process of baiting the crab was kind of hard to get used to, it was fun to learn how it is done, and how to do it properly. The kids hated having to leave us, but one of the kids said to me "I like to strive for greatness, can I fish myself?", and I was able to learn from someone younger than me, which does not happen often for a teenager like me-- it sure stuck with me. I will be looking forward to my next time back at the Children's Museum.

See you next time!

Qalid Hassan

Update from the Children's Museum

Hey how’s it going,

Today at the Boston Children's Museum we started the day off by setting up our sight stations. A few minutes later kids started to arrive with their parents. Some of them wanted to fish instantly while others wanted to touch and view the green crabs in our touch tank.

This week at the Boston Children's Museum we lost both of our crab traps into the harbor.. We tried getting the crab traps back with the fishing rods, but no matter how hard we would try it seemed to never work.

Later that day we weren't able to catch as many green crabs as we did in the morning. In the past couple days including today we haven't caught one single fish but the group but I won't give up just yet.

Green Crabs love to hug?

Today we learned that green crabs are known for being an invasive species that was first spotted in southern Massachusetts in 1817. They seem to do well in environments where they can hide from any of their predators. The adult green crabs usually grow from 2.5 to 4 inches.

Some of the things that the kids from Boston Children's Museum loved doing most of the time when they are not fishing is coloring the dock with color chalks. Teaching kids who don't know much about fishing or about Boston  Harbor can be exciting. The kids love giving each green crab a unique name that fits the crab they are holding or that they catch. People find the program Save the Harbor Save the Bay to a great source of learning for them and their kids.

Sincerely,

Edward Calderon