Week 3 in the Breeze

       Hello everyone,
         Aidan here again wih another blog about week three at Save the Harbor, Save the Bay. This week, my team and I were working out Castle island, an old coastal fortress used in the civil war. There is a pier there that people can fish off of that looks over the Logan airport runway, and a small beach next to the restaurant there, named Sullivan's, where people can swim in, the beach is filled with sharp shells and rocks, but has plenty of animal life, such as crabs, hermit crabs, rock oysters, and small fish. There is also a memorial honoring the fallen soldiers of the Korean war who lived in South Boston.

Soldier of Korean War

        On my first day at Castle island, we spent most of the day fishing off the pier. I ended up reeling up an old fishing rod that was catching my rod and Keren's. It was covered in this orange gunk and sea muck and sea grass, so it must have been there for a long time. Other than that, we didn't catch much, except for a few crabs and a small fish in the crab trap. On the second day, we didn't do much except for exploring the area. On the third day, however, we got plenty of stuff done. I got to swim in the small beach area, and we worked on painting a portrait of Castle Island.
        Climate change is becoming a serious topic of discussion today, and it poses a serious threat to life as we know it. That may sound dramatic, but it really could affect the way we live. if the climate changed in Boston from what it is today, the impacts wouldn't be good. For example, if the weather starts cooling and the land in Boston gets to cold, it impacts the summer, which impacts how long I could work at Save the Harbor for a summer. If it gets too hot, it could be too dangerous to go outside without serious protection from heat sickness and sunburns. From my standpoint, it seems like Boston is getting much warmer than usual, since most days have either been rain or intense heat. The best way for me to advocate awareness about climate change is to keep working with Save the Harbor Save the Bay. The whole point of the job is to keep awareness and maintain the health of the Boston Harbor. Weather and the way it can change is a part of that awareness that must be kept.

Fish Pier @ Castle Island

        

Anyways, that's all I have for today. I liked my site and talking about the problem of negative climate change, so until next time,

          Aidan.

Keeping Up With Current Events at Constitution Beach

After reviewing a video created by Chris Busch on Climate Resliancy, I found a few things surprising. I knew that with climate change there would be rising sea levels and hotter overall climates, but I never took into consideration how these two aspects would affect cities. Busch addresses the effects of climate change in cities, specifically Boston, and how the heat will affect these densely populated areas. For example, areas with darker surfaces, such as buildings and paved roads would absorb much more of this heat, causing certain areas to be unbearable. He also mentions rising sea levels and illustrates what exactly a three foot sea level increase would do to the city’s shorelines.  As the water expands and elevates, it would wash out much of lower level areas of Boston, specifically the areas of Boston that have been built up over time. Some of the possible solutions are flood barriers and creating elevated buildings, however these would take more time, money and resources.

This week my group went to Constitution Beach. Constitution beach is a popular spot in East Boston to host gatherings and cookouts, and there are designated spots to set up picnics. This beach is the closest swimmable beach to the airport, and the water is incredibly clean, when compared to what it once was. We talked as a group this week about climate resilancy, specifically talking about preventing the creation of more greenhouse gas emissions from plastic waste. We took part in a beach clean-up, collecting trash from the beach to prevent it from contaminating the harbor. There can be a lot of plastic waste used at cookouts, and this plastic is incredibly harmful to marine life if it gets into the harbor. One way we can protect marine life in Boston is by “Refusing” to use plastic. This way we can “Reduce” the amount of plastic that gets into the ocean, and protect our beautiful beaches. 

As rising waters are beginning to threaten neighborhoods in areas of Boston, people are wondering what is the solution? Globally, we have used about 9 billion tons of plastic since the 1950’s, yet around just 9 percent of this has been recycled. Around 79 percent is left in our environment, in our waters and neighborhoods. 50 percent of plastic is single-use or disposable plastic. As it does, sunlight and heat cause the plastic to release greenhouse gases, leading to a cycle. As our climate changes, the planet gets hotter, the plastic breaks down into more methane and ethylene, increasing the rate of climate change, and so perpetuating the cycle. We can do our best to stop this cycle by reducing, refusing, reusing, and recycling plastic, and being responsible for our environment!

SEA you next week!

Caroline

A Clean Harbor is a Happy Harbor

Good Morning Harbor Explorers, this week at Camp Harbor view was a special one. As we walk onboard the Provincetown II we hear a special announcement from the captain that we would be arriving to Long Island about an hour later than usual due to the King Tide. The King Tide was the lowest the tide has been this summer which made it difficult to dock, so we got to spend a little extra time going around the harbor. Upon arrival, we were planning to take advantage of this opportunity to go tide pooling. The water was pulled so far back it revealed the life that hides behind those waves. I convince my team of campers into a friendly competition to see who would be able to catch the most Asian Short crabs. The first one to jump with joy was a young 12-year-old named Anthony. He called himself the crab whisperer. He was very confident and took the lead in finding as many crabs as he could. Each one he found he shouted with enthusiasm, and would then race back to the bucket to place them in. I'm pretty sure he won the competition for being fearless and resourceful. Not only did he find lots of crabs but also noticed small pools of water along the rocks that held life in it. If you looked inside you could see a school of minnows swimming back and forth, as well as hermit crabs, crawling between the rocks and hiding in the nooks and crannies. It was hard to fish with

the king tide but it was a lovely view to see how much kelp was actually hidden when it was high tide.
The amount of life in the harbor is important to note because it indicates the quality of the water. Water quality is not only important to the life in the harbor but to the city and people who use this resource year-round, or just for the summer and swimming season. Water quality testing is done by DCR and surrounding cities to verify it is safe to be in or near the water. Sampling and testing are done various times to check bacteria levels, especially after the rain. Save the Harbor Save the Bay is a big help when it comes to testing water quality. Our water quality report card was released by the end of May and displayed a consistent average of the quality of the water in the harbor from within the last 6 years.
With that being said, over by long island we are happy about the water quality of the harbor for it brings us all types of marine life that we can share. For example, a young camper at fishing club caught a baby flounder from the pier on the island. It was just below 12in. but it was big enough to cause a lot of commotion as he reeled it in. The campers were in awe.
If they thought that was impressive, they would
be blown away by the big and wonderful striped bass my fellow O'Bryant girls caught at our fishing derby! The size of those stripers was jaw-dropping
because it was nothing like the baby-sized ones we catch on the pier at Camp Harbor View. I was both proud and impressed by these girls holding up these heavy fish. They were so big, at least half my size.

Stay tuned to see what we catch this week at CHV,

Best of Luck 

Kharliyah 

InSEINE Week at Black's Creek and the Curley

It’s Maggie, and I’m back to report on our second full week with Save The Harbor. We had an exciting second week out at Black’s Creek and at the Curley Community Center in South Boston. Coincidentally, I worked at the Curley almost all of my summers in high school so I am very familiar with the environment, the staff, and the kids that continuously come back every summer for fun days in the sun! 

This week at Black’s Creek was similar to last, but my fellow Save The Harbor Educators are becoming more comfortable with the kids, and we are becoming more comfortable with each other. This week at Black’s Creek we got to use the Seine net which is something that the kids were very excited about. A Seine net is a large net with two posts that two of our educators walk through the water with in hopes of finding critters that our kids may not be able to just scoop out of the water at knee depth. I used the Seine net with Che, and I must say it is a gnarly process. Because Black’s Creek is a marsh, the seafloor is not so pleasant to be walking around on. Although we wore water shoes, the murky water and the mushy floor makes using the Seine net a little bit icky! Although sinking into the marsh floor is not something that sounds appealing, the look on the kids faces and the satisfaction of catching critters they have not seen before makes it all worth it. 

Che and I doing the Seine net at Black's Creek. 

A nice view of where we teach the kids how to fish at the Curley Commmunity
Center in South Boston! 

After our short days at Black’s Creek, we head right on over to the Curley to teach the kids about fishing and clamming. The first day was a little chaotic, with fishing lines being swung around and the kids not being familiar with the techniques, so we decided to come up with a system. We took two of the fishing rods and removed the hooks, so that way we would have a test system. We would let the kids cast their lines without the hooks and prove to us that they were capable of casting their lines in a safe manner! This system worked perfectly, and being able to see the progress of the kid’s skills in just one session was great! We have only been able to catch crabs at the Curley with the rods, but we are hoping to one day catch something bigger! 

Because we are on a marsh for most of the week, I thought it would be interesting to share some knowledge of the importance of marshes in our ecosystem and what they do for humans and the animals in the salt water. Wetlands are one of the most highly productive ecosystems in the world. Wetlands provide ecosystem services such as flood control, shoreline erosion control, and water quality improvement. Wetlands are also the home for many endangered species in the United States. It is important to preserve and take care of places like Black’s Creek and educate the public, more importantly the youth, about how important it is to respect these marshes and creeks. The issue of pollution in the world, but more specifically in the United States has been out of control for decades. If you haven’t heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch-- go take a look! It might make you think a little bit differently about what you are throwing away on a daily basis, what you aren’t recycling, and even what you are purchasing at the grocery store. So much of what we consume on an everyday basis ends up in landfills and in our oceans. If we can make an effort to recycle more of the plastics we buy, use reusable water bottle, buy a reusable straw, bring a mug to a coffee shop in the morning instead of using the plastic ones they give out, bringing reusable bags with you food shopping, or even looking more closely to the items you are buying in the grocery store to make sure you are buying compostable or recyclable plastic, you could make a huge difference. The average American takes home almost 1500 plastic shopping bags a year, and only 1% of those plastic bags are returned for recycling. All of this trash and pollution ends up somewhere else, and it takes at least 500 years for each one of those plastic bags to decompose. Our oceans and marshes are highly important to our ecosystem and the way the world’s environment works. The ecosystem services the water provides for us humans are crucial to our lifestyles. You could make a small difference and encourage your friends to do so, and that will be a big change in the direction our planet is headed! 

See you next week!

Maggie