Shellebrating an awesome first week!

     One week of programming complete! And what a great week it was. My team is based at Black’s Creek where we are running a camp through Quincy Recreation. Starting this upcoming week we will also be running fishing programming at Curley Community Center in South Boston. At Black’s Creek, we run a camp for elementary schoolers where we play games and explore the shallow waters of the brackish water there. At the beginning of the week, some of the kids were a bit squeamish about walking into the water and touching the different creatures, but as the week progressed they became more comfortable with it. I can’t imagine how adventure-ready they will be by the end of the summer!

Some of our campers exploring the intertidal zone

     My favorite creature of the week was the horseshoe crabs, we found two this week! On Tuesday one of our campers was walking in the water, about up to her shin, and found a very large female crab. Then on Wednesday, we found another at about the same depth. This one, however, was a male and significantly smaller than the first. Many of our campers and some of the staff had never seen one. I enjoyed teaching everyone what I knew about them. My favorite thing to teach students is how to identify if they are male or female. If you flip the horseshoe crabs over and look at their front pair of legs, it looks like boxing gloves if they are male and split like a peace sign if they are female. My two favorite fun facts about horseshoe crabs are that they are more closely related to spiders than crabs and that their blood is used to detect harmful bacteria in medicines or on equipment. This dramatically impacted their population for a while, but they are being harvested less for their blood today because an alternative way to perform the same test has been discovered. The timing of this discovery is important because horseshoe crab populations have been declining due to habitat loss and overharvesting. Horseshoe crabs don’t have pinchers and if handled with care you can hold and touch them! You can read more about them on the US Fish and Wildlife website here.

Holding the smaller male horseshoe crab that we found

The awesome team I work with, holding the first horseshoe crab we found.
Left to right: Aiden, Damani, Che, and Maggie 

     We also caught many green crabs this week. We set out a crab trap daily and caught around 90 crabs Monday through Wednesday. Green crabs are a very interesting species to learn about, but it is actually a bad sign that we found so many. They are an invasive species that take resources that would otherwise be available to native crab species. Native species are defined as organisms that naturally occurred in an area before European settlement. Non-native species would be any that were accidentally or intentionally brought to an area by human influences. Invasive species are a subgroup of non-native species that specifically disrupt native species or whole ecosystems. Green crabs were unintentionally brought over to the United States, likely from ships. They are harmful for several reasons, which can be summarized by the fact that they are effective predators. Fisherfolk are particularly impacted because green crabs often eat soft-shelled clams and compete with lobster and native crabs for food. This, in turn, lowers the population of these other organisms and makes them harder for fisherfolk to find. There is research underway to study the feasibility of a green crab fishery in hopes that this could help curb the population growth. We can help to prevent the spread of green crabs and other invasive species by making sure we don't transport water, wood, or seeds from one ecosystem to another.

After catching many green crabs in our crab trap we released them and had a "crab race" to see which would make it to the water first.

     This has been a great week; I feel that I am constantly impressed with our staff, the campers, and nature all around us. The college and high school staff on my team have been wonderful, always jumping in to help and great with our campers. I have also been awed by the number of cool creatures we have found, and can’t wait for a full week out on the water!

Until next week,
Tessa

REELy excited for this summer!

Hello all!

     My name is Tessa, I’m a new Senior Harbor Educator working with the Summer Youth Programs. I’m new to Boston and so excited to spend this summer getting to know the city through my time teaching on the Harbor.

     I was born and raised in Charlottesville, Virginia and attended college at William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. After graduating, I moved up to New England to work in environmental education. As a kid, I visited New England every summer, and always loved my time near the water and seeing all the ocean stewardship that so many wonderful organizations work for in the area. I have spent the last two years working for The Ecology School in Maine, The Seacoast Science Center in New Hampshire, and substitute teaching. I’ve always had a love for nature and a passion for sharing its wonders, but have found a new level of joy through teaching students about local ecology.

Fish head, most likely tuna, that I found in a New England Salt Marsh!

     I’m very excited to continue working with students on the water this summer. Orientation was a blast and confirmed that it is going to be a great summer. I feel lucky to get to work with so many high school and college students who call Boston home and are so ready to share their knowledge with me. Throughout orientation I enjoyed the opportunity to swap expertise and passion with the students; me teaching about some marine animals and them teaching me about the history of Boston Harbor and Save the Harbor, Save the Bay. I was equally impressed by the returning staff sharing their knowledge as well as the new staff with their willingness to jump right in. I am so excited to get to not only teach young students this summer but also to work with our awesome high school staff.

     This past week I learned just a tiny fraction of the history of Boston Harbor, and yet what I learned is already so fascinating. I was particularly interested in learning about the waste treatment plant on Deer Island. Humans produce lots of waste, of many forms, and it is wonderful to hear about large initiatives to properly dispose of this waste. Hearing stories and seeing the evidence of the work that so many people have put into cleaning up Boston Harbor gives me hope for humanities’ ability to reduce our waste in many other places. I look forward to learning more about waste-reduction initiatives currently happening in Boston in order to keep our waters and land clean.

     Our fishing trip on Tuesday was especially exciting because I always love getting hands-on with salt-water creatures. Over the past few years, I’ve learned a lot about shore-dwelling creatures, so it was wonderful to get a chance to go out into the channel and bring up some animals that live offshore. I particularly loved learning about using different weights and different fishing methods for catching different types of fish. I never knew that you should have your line a few feet above the bottom with a jig in order to catch Black Sea Bass. Bruce Berman, our director of strategy & communications, was especially patient with teaching me some of the finesse it takes to hook a bass. I have only dappled with fishing when I was young and I’m so excited to get better at it this summer. It is so wonderful to bring up healthy fish that are benefiting from human’s efforts to protect and clean the harbor.

Having a blast on our orientation fishing trip with Damani, Michael, Stephanie, and Dee

     I am so excited about all of the adventures and new relationships that this summer will bring. I can’t wait to get out on the shore with our staff and the students we serve next week!

CATCH you later,
Tessa