E.S W-5/ Blacks Creek & Atlantic Wharf

Hey everyone. Y'all already know, I'm back with another blog!

Lots of love ❤

Aren't they the cutest?! ❤

This week I was so excited to see my babies again. Yes, I called them “my babies” because really and truly I’m getting way too attached to them, since we get to see them so many times.  ◠‿◠ It’s crazy the way I think of them on the weekends. Imagining their laugh OMG! They are the cutest for real. Their innocence is what I love the most. They’ll make you smile in the worst/hottest day of work.

Also, this week we had new co-workers (Deonte, Lea & Able) at this site. So, us who were there before had to introduced them to the kids and kinda give them an overview of what Blacks Creek is all about. Everything worked out well, we interact to each other a lot which I think is very important in any type of job.

Pulling up the Crab Trap! ❤

The Crab's new "Car Seat" ❤

We all went to the dock to get the crabs. Alex (the youngest kid at that moment) was the most excited out of all the kids, since he was the one who pulled up the Crab Trap and who also carry the Crabs to the Touch Tank.

Short Story: As the kids were playing with the crabs, there was this girl who was obviously scared to hold them but still wanted to. So, I was trying to convince her by telling her that if she doesn't hold the crab, then she won't be able to take it home afterwards. Long story short; 5 minutes pass and I see her with this little rake in her hand and the Crab resting on top like nobody's business. I asked her " Why do you have the Crab there?" The girl say "Oh, that's the Crab's new "Car Seat." I dropped dead alright. It was the way she sound all happy and excited lol. I won't lie she made my day right there!

          

Making the Soup

Ready to eat!

Among the kids there is a group of chef who decided to cook for us. The specialty of the day was "Swamp Soup" made by Jimmy and his assistants. The ingredients were Chicken (rocks), Salt & Pepper (sand), Jalapenos (Grass) and for the extra fancy touch they used Flowers. According to the chef, the soup is good for stress relief and gain strength. Yes, they'll make up anything just to see you eat that Swap Soup. The funny part about it is that also according to them, if you drink too much salt water you can die. (but that only applies to them when eating the Soup they made.

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤ Atlantic Wharf ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤ 

Fish Printing! ❤

Printings! ❤

      Friday was my very first time at Atlantic Wharf. Like always, I was very excited and everything specially because I heard from my coworkers that it was one of the nicest site, that just make feel 10 times more excited than I was. & let me tell you, they were right. Everything was great, the kids specially the cold water. The only thing that had everyone bother specially for those who were fishing was the heat & humidity. Uugh! It's the worst for real. But enough with the complains. 

You believe me now uh?! 

          Now, I'll tell you the amazing things that I got to do there. As very " not lucky but blessed" that I am, I had the opportunity to work with one of the nicest coworkers Kharliyah Ortiz at the Fish Printing section. So, you know what that means right "SHAAADEEE" lol. I was the happiest girl alive, I'm not gonna' even fake it. We started to set things up for the kids. We started off with the robber Flounder Fish but then the kids wanted to fish print with the real one. So, yes! we had options for those who wanted to try it. 
          But that's not the only cool that happened that day. As we were wrapping up, one of my coworkers who was working at the fishing site, came running towards us saying that they caught a Lobster. since it was so hot, my coworkers and I who were sitting in the shade, just give her the support from there, thinking it was a small Lobster. But Nooo, it was Hugeeeeeee! Wait hold up! I don't think you understand. It was gigantic Lobster.  & that's how we ended up the day with that huge surprise.

Like I always say, stay tuned for my next blog!! See you later.

~ Esther ❤

Pirates Sail Through Fog

Hello Ladies and Gentleman,

On Sunday the 18th of September, Save the Harbor/ Save the Bay(S.T.H./S.T.B.) was hosting a free trip to Spectacle Island! The fog that was present that day was absolutely abnormal. If I wasn't so excited to see the fog, the atmosphere could've been seen as an eerie. We had  sign up list that indicated that roughly a thousand folks would join us that day, but due to the fog and weather conditions, a lot of folks got deterred. On our journey to Spectacle Island, the fog was so thick out in the harbor that anything beyond fifty feet was not visible. The usual Boston skyline was not present, nor was there the usual vast blue sky.

Figure 1. After several hours, a lot of the fog had cleared up, however one could still see how much fog was present in the horizon.

With a majority of the S.T.H. staff geared up in pirate wear, we cruised to the island and started our sections of fishing, fish printing, kite flying and hiking! 

 Figure 2. Shown in the picture above is the Hula-hoop section, where folks gathered around to show their exquisite talents.

After fish printing with Schup, Mackerel, and Flounder for about three hours I can say I saw a lot of interesting things that day. At around 10:30 AM, I saw a mom attempt to fly a kite. She went for a chaotic run to try and fly the kite high enough to get it up in the air. After a failed attempt, I tried to get the kite going.  I retired my short lived kite flying career after my attempt and offered it to the kids that were eager to follow my foot steps by running with the kite. Visitors left and right came up to view if the fish we were using were real. People shared their stories like where they are from and what they do as a profession. I had the chance to meet this one guy from the Philippines who was a professional photographer. He ended up taking photos for folks who had children fish printing. This professional photographer worked with Times Magazine. Once Times Magazine was mentioned, folks were voluntarily offering to be in the photos taken by the Professional photographer!

Figure 3. One of the kids that enjoyed fish printing volunteered for a photo opportunity! 

Figure 4. A view from the top of the boat of some of the lovely visitors that we had that day aboard with us to and back from Spectacle Island.

Thank you guys for reading another blog post from myself, I hope you'll catch my next post whenever that will be.

Raymond Chai

See ya Spectacle!

 For one last time, Hello Boston!

Max giving a final crab talk

Jaiden teaching proper fishing technique

It is with a heavy heart that I write about my last week on Spectacle Island! Thursday we made one final trip out to the island for the summer. Max and I orchestrated fishing and welcomed families that were joining us for the day. We met so many lovely people who were extremely grateful for the opportunity to fish and try things they had never done before. In true Spectacle Island fashion, we caught a good amount of crabs. One luck boy caught 3 in a row! The kids and adults had a fantastic time hanging out on the pier with us, playing with crabs, and perfecting their side casts. Once fishing came to an end, we took one last plunge into the cold water. Even though the water seemed colder than usual, we welcomed the chill and appreciated our final swim all together.

Qalid and Vince at the Dorchester Beach Festival

This Saturday was also my last event through Save The Harbor/Save the Bay. I attended the Dorchester Beach Festival to complete one more round of fish printing. We set up next to a shark sand sculpture and greeted children as they arrived with their families. Although we faced a few reluctant people, we talked everyone who passed us into printing a fish. We had some pretty creative outcomes including polka dots and rainbow fish.

This summer has been an incredible one to say the least. I have learned so much about Boston and the harbor, I have tried new things almost daily, and I have met some very wonderful people. Save the Harbor/Save the Bay is an amazing program and I am grateful to have been a part of it. 

A great summer team!

I will be on George's Island for the last week of the summer so stop on by!

I really do hope I sea you out there,

Jennifer Leiendecker

L Street Night

Hello Boston!

Ray, Preston, and Daynaja waiting for kids to arrive

Yesterday, I got to represent Save the Harbor/Save the Bay at the L Street Night event at the Curley Community Center. The L Street Night event was put in place to raise money for a playground that will be built in the area. This event was catered to families and children, which made it a perfect place to fish print! When we arrived, there was a band playing and fresh popcorn being popped for all of the guests. Our table was located in the sand so we slipped off our shoes and began to set up.

The sun sunk lower in the sky as families began to arrive. As our table was in the middle of the event, it was hard to miss. Soon enough, we had children running up to our table to learn more about fish printing. Younger siblings would make a print and then dart around to collect their older siblings to make one as well. A few kids were too excited to just stop at one fish print. Because we had a flounder and a fake flounder, we had quite a few kids who chose to do one of each. I don't think I will ever get over the shock in people's faces when they see that we have a real fish on the table.

Hanging the fish prints out to dry

 Many adults at the event were very interested in learning more about Save the Harbor/Save the Bay and all the work that we do for the community. I invited them all to join us for our free days at George's Island next week! I saw one family from the event on Spectacle Island today. This event was a great way for kids to make some amazing art, learn about flounder, and learn more about Save the Harbor/Save the Bay.

Don't forget to sign up for our free days on George's Island!

Sea you out there,

Jennifer Leiendecker

The Seafood Festival!

Becoming lobsters and lemon!

This past Sunday I got the chance to work one of the shifts at the seafood festival and it was so much fun! Last year was my first time coming to the seafood festival and it was a ton of fun so I already knew what to expect. This year however, there were a bunch of more stands of food and other stations to visit and especially many new things to learn about. To start of, where we were stationed at, we had fish printing and shell painting. Also I got a really cool shirt from a company that was stationed right next to us named Lobster Box and we took a bunch of funny pictures. Aside from the fun pictures and awesome free shirts, one of my most favorite things to do at the seafood festival ever since last year, is shell painting! There were over 200 sea shells spread out on the table all for the kids to come and pick a shell of their choosing and let their imagination run through the tips of their paintbrushes! We had all types of paint colors and glitters to put on the shells. One of the little girls bedazzled her shell with glitter and purple hearts everywhere! Although it got a bit messy, it was still nice seeing the smile on the kids faces when looking at their shell-sized master pieces. Not only did the kids paint shells, I also got to paint a few myself and we got a bit creative. Last year Nieomi and I painted Nemo, Dory, Spongebob and Patrick. This year we decided to keep the trend going by painting Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy on the sea shells which came out better than I had expected! This Seafood Festival is definitely one of the highlights of my summer so far. Not to mention I also got some cute dolphin and turtle temporary tattoos at one of the stations too! 

In preparation for painting shells!

I really can't wait till the next seafood festival because I had a blast at this one. 

Til next time! - Rusenny

Festivals and Tidepools

Hello Boston!

Holding the bass at the Seafood Festival, no fish kisses mom!

This weekend was one I had been waiting for for a long time! On Sunday, August 13th, the Fish Pier served as the location for the Boston Seafood Festival. My mother was visiting from California and I knew this was an excellent opportunity for her to see Save the Harbor in action and enjoy some amazing seafood. Once we entered the festival, our first stop was the Save the Harbor tent. Our tent was filled with everything needed for fish printing! My coworkers were hard at work helping children paint a flounder as well as a large bass. Colorful prints hung from the top of the tent showing just how popular this activity had been throughout the day. My mother and I worked together on a print of the flounder as I explained to her all of the cool flounder fact I learned while working here. My mom was even able to meet Tony the pirate and here a few harrowing tales from the sea. Of course, we did not miss out on the delicious food at the festival. I enjoyed a sushi burrito while my mom ate a few shrimp tacos. This event superseded my expectations and I was proud to show off all the neat things Save the Harbor is a part of.

Lots of life living beneath this rock

On Monday, all of the staff at Save the Harbor enjoyed staff day on Lovell's Island. I had never been to this island before and was eager to cross another one of my list. Unlike Spectacle Island, Lovell's Island was thickly forested and the walking paths were lined with delicious blackberry bushes. As we walked across the island, we all plucked a few berries to snack on. We started our day by tidepooling; one of my favorite activities! As an avid tidepooler in California, I was very interested to see what I would find in these East Coast tidepools. Once we all scattered around the large rocky shore, we began to find interesting critters. Patrice flipped over a large rock and revealed a plethora of life beneath it. There were bryozoa, tunicates, crabs, barnacles, and sponges. We found crabs of all shapes, sizes, and stages of molting. At one point, I found a tube made of small pieces of sand and shells and I knew it must have belonged to some sort of sea worm. I referred to my guide book and discovered that it in fact belonged to an Ice Cream Cone Worm, one I have never encountered before.

After we completed our tidepool adventures, we learned about types of snails on the island and hypothesized about the fate of some snails that had been found under a tree. We scoured the island in search of possible tree snails and clues that would enlighten us on a snails life on the island.

Lovell's Island was interesting indeed was a great new experience to add to my time here in Boston.
Hopefully I will get to check out at least one more island while I am here.

Sea you out there,

Jennifer Leiendecker

The Harbor Illumination Festival

So Saturday Me, Jaden, Garrett, Zack, and Briana went to the Harbor Illumination Festival all the way in Hull, Massachusetts. Once again I came a bit too early, we were supposed to be there at 3:30 PM and I came at 3 o'clock. But hey it's good to be early right? So after getting all the supplies ready we all got in the car and set on a journey to the festival. I say journey because the ride took about a good hour to get there, but when're finally got to the place we got all our fish printing supplies out and got ready. First we put up the table that we would use of fish printing, then got some plastic to put over the table to make sure the table doesn't get fishy nor smell to much like such. We ended up making a lot of printing paper, about twenty-five papers in all I believe, but we really did not use that much of it, in all we used six out of the twenty-five papers. But while we were waiting for new people to come by and try out fish painting, there was a band playing the whole time so we never were bored just standing around doing nothing. But the three hours that we were there, at least for me, were great. I enjoyed learning how to fish print, because believe it or not before Saturday I didn't even know that fish printing was a thing!

Our little set up for Fish Printing!

Maybe I'll learn some new things here...
~Eric Joseph

Beach bash and splash!

Singing haul away Joe!

 Hi everyone! Today was a really exciting day not only for us at save the harbor but also for about 500 other kids too! We were all at Carson beach in South Boston today for the annual Beach Bash and Splash and it definitely has been one of the highlights of my summer. This year we had a ton of different stations for the kids to visit such as fish printing, sand raking, fishing, sand castles, face painting, crabbing, sports and many more! I was assigned at fish printing which I had a lot of fun in even though it got a little messy. The kid's reactions at seeing the dead fish on the table were priceless! They either screamed, stared in wonder/disgust, or asked "can I touch it?!" In the end, all the kids that visited the station ended up touching the fish and making a fish print. We were only half way through the day and we had over 60 fish prints which we started hanging up under the tent which made it look really cool. The kids would see the fish prints that were hung up and immediately came over wanting to make their own! It was a morning full of red, blue, yellow, pink, and all the rainbow colors  on the flounders!

Aside from fish printing, I also helped out with some face painting because it was a really popular station. All the kids wanted to become their favorite character whether it was Spiderman, or Batman, Pikachu, Hello Kitty or many other things! Since I'm not the best artist, I stuck to just drawing flowers and hearts for the kids that wanted those and they actually came out better than I expected. Not only did I get to paint on other kids, I also got some paintings myself! I got some henna inspired flowers on my leg and of course Spongebob on my arm! My friend got Patrick too so it was really cute and awesome!

Spongebob and Patrick paintings!

Not only did I have a lot of fun at the beach bash and splash, but I could tell all of the kids also had a lot of fun and many tried new things they had never tried before. When it was time to splash into the water, everyone stood together and counted which gave a strong feeling of community and made me feel like this is what summer was all about. This beach bash was a memorable one and I honestly can't wait til the next one!

- Rusenny

   

Fish printing and football!

A little bit of crab talk with the kids

Well I do not generally put one foot forward to things I have never done before, but something was different about how I felt when I went to Courageous for the second time. I really had the urge to go fish printing. Then again, I had no idea what fish printing was or what I was putting myself into. Turns out fish printing was painting a fish and then blending all of your colors and patterns together, to paste it on paper to get, well a print of the fish, hence the name fish printing. But when it comes to kids it is a lot easier said than done. I remember my last group perfectly, because the difficulty escalated tremendously after two of them went. There were groups of four, and the first two just wanted solid colors. I put the colors on and they did there part, and the print came out nice. Then came a little girl who wanted to go above and beyond. She wanted a unique stripe pattern that does not blend in. It still came out beautiful. The final kid's print was the most difficult. The boy was vegetarian so he had no interest in touching the fish, but wanted the fish print on a real fish. He wanted different patterns at different places; stripes, dots, x's and colorways. However he could not really spot it on the real fish, and he wanted some spots blended some spots not. It was fun trying to get everything he said down perfectly, but I tried my best, and he walked off with a piece of art that put a huge smile on his face.

Game day!

Now I am back at Spectacle Island, and it's time for sports. One of my coworkers is a football fanatic, and Tuesday was just his lucky day. The kids that got on the boat who came to sports really wanted to play football, and on top of that a really nice ranger named Tyson set up a football playing area, and even joined them. I played some, and I also learned how to throw a Frisbee from Jenn, and like I said before it is way easier said than done. Does not mean you don't give it your best!

Talk to you later! :)
Qalid Hassan

Hull Illumination Night

Hey everyone!
This weekend I was fortunate enough to work an event at the Hull Illumination night, which is a really cool event that culminates in a lighting of the Boston Harbor with road flares spaced evenly along the Hull shoreline, which is extremely beautiful. Having many friends in Hull, I've gone to this event as a member of the public many times, but this is the first time that I've ever worked it. I was actually not supposed to even work this event, but due to high winds the event I was meant to work was cancelled, so I was lucky enough to go to Illumination Night. I was very excited to be able to work this event, as it is near and dear to my heart, and though the weather was less than ideal, and we may have had fewer guests than we would have liked, I fully enjoyed the experience.

Our setup for fish printing, featuring a
genuine flounder!

As usual, our team comprised of myself, Briana, Garrett, Eric, and Jaiden, found ourselves doing some fish printing for the great people of Hull. As usual, I found myself silently delighting every time people realized it was, in fact, a real fish that we were using. The reactions always range from disgust, to fascination, to fear, and more. It was funny watching one young girl timidly poking the fish with her bare finger and then jumping back as if it would react in some way. Of course, we made sure to teach everyone about the life cycle of a flounder, and how it begins with eyes on both sides of its head in its larval stage. Once it metamorphoses into its juvenile stage, one eye migrates to the other side, and the flounder goes from being bilaterally symmetrical, to asymmetrical and swimming with one side on the bottom of the ocean floor. If you already knew this, chances are you're a marine biologist or have attended one of our fish printing sessions. If you did not already know this, then congratulations on your new fun fact!

The fish print by my mother, proudly displayed
on our mantle!

As I mentioned previously, our guest count was lower than I would have liked, likely since it was cold and a bit overcast. However, we still had many quality visits, but two in particular stood out to me. The first was a visit from my parents, where my mom was able to do a fish print. It was nice to be able to share the work I've been doing this summer in a way with them that is not simply a story, but the real deal!

The other was a young girl who came by and asked how much it cost to do a fish print. When we told her it was free, and she could do one, she excitedly ran back to her mother, and while I couldn't hear what she was saying, you could tell she was over the moon with the idea. And I am over the moon with the idea that we were able to in some way engage this girls excitement over the meshing of art and science, which of course is the entire point of our work here at Save the Harbor.




Until next time, when there's a slight chance one of my eyes will have migrated!
-Zach

Sea Stars and Tunicates and Mussels, Oh My!

Our first sea star at Georg's Island

Wednesday and Thursday were another great few days spent on George’s Island. I was still on sports duty and spent the days gathering kids to play with us near the fort. On Wednesday, Kharliyah and Vince started a game of kickball while Patrice played football with a group of campers. Even adults were lured in by a friendly game of football leading to groups of campers playing island visitors. It was fun for everyone! After we were worn down from sports, we made our way back to the boat to find that our fishing group had come across a beautiful purple sea star! The kids on the dock gathered around as I taught them about echinoderms and how a sea star can grow an arm back if it loses one. “Just like a crab!” one child replied and told me that he had learned all about crabs while fishing with Save the Harbor that day.

Qalid helping a young sailor with fish printing

On Friday, I attended Courageous Sailing Center with Ana, Qalid, and Vince. We were teaching all new sailors today so we gave them a brief history of the health of the Harbor. We discussed Deer Island and played From Your Sink to the Boston Harbor which is an interactive lesson on the water treatment plant and all of its components. The kids couldn’t stop laughing at each other as they pretended to be a flushing toilet or a chlorine squirt gun. Next, we moved on to fish printing and fishing. All of the children loved poking and petting the flounder we were printing. They just could not believe we were painting a real fish! At the end of our lesson, we all walked onto the dock and pulled up our crab traps. One trap was tangled in seaweed and it took all four of us to pull it up onto the dock. It was the perfect opportunity for a sea shanty! Our traps were mostly full of feisty green crabs, though a mussel bed did start to form on the outside of one trap. I showed the children the byssal threads that were created by the mussels and showed the kids just how strong a mussel can be. We also caught a group of tunicates and the children enjoyed squishing those sea squirts. 

Overall, it was another successful week with Save the Harbor, Save the Bay! I can’t wait to do it all

again next week.

Sea you out there,

Jennifer Leiendecker