Illustrious Harbor Illuminations

Hello again fellow explorers!

This past weekend I had the opportunity to work with some of my fellow Save the Harbor staff members at Hull's Harbor Illuminations ceremony. The late afternoon festivities included live music, free food, arts & crafts, and our Save the Harbor crew supplying fish painting and coloring. Although a dead skate can be disconcerting to some, once it is covered in multi-colored paint, just about everyone was interested in creating their very own fish print. With designs as simple as a single color, to superman and minion designs, I had my hands literally full of paint. At the end of the night we had over twenty different fish prints, and I had enough paint on me to create a print of my own! Thanks to our expert photographer, the picture below found its way to Save the Harbor's Facebook page, where my expert fish printing skills are on display for anyone who visits it!

Look Mom, I'm famous!

Around 8:00, the festivities came to an end, and everyone made their way to the edge of the Harbor, where hundreds of flares lined the shores waiting patiently to illuminate the water in a glorious red ring. After a signal flare was released from a fire boat in the center of the Harbor, the flares were lit in synchrony. The result was a magnificent display of lighting, as the entire harbor was illuminated from end to end. The pictures can't even do justice to how large-scale this ceremony was. Hundreds of people looked in awe at the beauty unfolding in front of them. 

Ring of Fire!

Harbor Illuminations a beautiful sight to see. The whole community coming together to produce such a spectacle was amazing. I was lucky to be a small part of what happened this past weekend, and hopefully I get to return next summer to see it all over again.

Until next time, keep on exploring!
-Luke

Patience is a Virtue

Hello again fellow explorers!

For anyone that has been fishing before, you know that over everything you need to be PATIENT! For some of the young harbor explorers in our programs, the concept of patience is nonexistent. As a result, they are always looking for other ways to stimulate their energetic minds while they're waiting for that fishing rod to land a monster fish!

#1 on the race track and #1 in your heart

With little to no yield in fishing off the dock at Courageous in past weeks, we came prepared with a wide variety of activities and games to preoccupy the campers. Everyone's favorite event so far has been the crab races. After collecting crabs from our multiple lobster traps on the Courageous dock, everyone (counselors included) picks their favorite crab in hopes that he will be the first to reach the water. Once the race begins, it's pure chaos on the docks. Everyone cheering on their crab until every last one has reached the ocean. This week I was fortunate to pick the winning crab, and of course I took a few moments to bask in the glory of winning the race.

Overseeing a close game of Ninja

Another crowd favorite this week has been Ninja! While it can get slightly violent, Ninja is a great game to keep everyone active and entertained. Everyone playing stands in a circle, and strikes a ninja pose to begin the game. Then going in clockwise order, each person makes one fluent "ninja" move at someone else in the circle, attempting to land a hit on an arm. When someone is hit in the arm, they then "lose" that arm and must continue playing with only one arm. When both of your arms are lost, you are out. The campers would be totally content with playing Ninja for the entire day if we let them, but we have to continue to explore the wonderful waterways that surround our beautiful city.

In addition to games, artwork has become a key component to every day life at courageous. From fish printing to drawing imaginary sea creatures, we've seen some future Van Goh's materializing before our eyes. Overall Courageous has been a site teeming with ocean life, excitement, and creativity. I look forward to coming back every week and learning something new just like the campers!

Until next time, keep on exploring!
-Luke

New things are fun !

invasive crabs

marsh carb

On the left side we have a picture of  invasive crabs but on the right side we have a marsh crab. Now this catch was pretty odd because we did not catch it in the crab trap, instead we caught it on a rod! Let me tell you how it was caught! It was monday afternoon and the crew was re-baiting the fishing rods and a young curious boy came over to ask if he could fish. So Marco and Ana helped to guide him on the right path. As I was picking up the crabs and showing the children the differences between a female and a male, there was an interruption saying " Look ma i caught a crab, I CAUGHT A CRAB, look look" and of course he was so proud that he caught a crab. But it wasn't just any crab it was ..... A MARSH CRAB!!!

It was so pretty, it had these leopard like spots on its legs and arms and the back of the crab was sort of striped and spotted. It was extremely smooth and flat, but on its pincers it had excess meat in the middle of the pincer shaped like a bubble.

This is the Boston Children's Museum crew. We work hard everyday making sure that every child has the opportunity to fish and explore the crabs with us. Although our days can get long and hot we make it through the day with new knowledge every day that we are here. We're here to explore the harbor, trying to find new things and it is fun. When we find something new sometimes we don't remember to take a photo for the blog since we're so caught up in the moment trying to analyze the organism, but maybe next time you'll be able to get the inside scoop from our findings!