Knot your typical week

Hello! Thanks for taking the time to read my blog.

Playing a camp game!

This week was a very interesting one! All of the camps at Quincy Recreation ended this week, including our Harbor Explorers Program at Blacks Creek. Monday and Tuesday were our last “regular” camp days with the kids we’ve been working with all summer, so we tried to make it a special one. We brought out all of the various water exploration tools we’ve used throughout the summer: minnow nets, a touch tank, a crab trap, a seine net, a refractometer, and a soil corer. We also brought several fishing rods to allow our kids to try fishing. Unlike most of the Save The Harbor sites, we do not often fish at Blacks Creek. This is for several reasons. Firstly, we need to overcast at this site which can be difficult and potentially dangerous with the age of our campers as well as the many boats that are in the surrounding waters. We also don’t tend to fish because there is much more to catch in the shallows with a net than in the center of the creek with our rods. In fact, all of Monday and Tuesday we caught nothing on the rods but plenty with our nets and crab trap. We had fewer campers than usual this week, likely they were at other camps or on vacation, and because of that, we were able to make Monday and Tuesday very driven by each camper's interests. When they arrived we asked them what games they wanted to play and during the water time we allowed them to choose which activity they each did. Most of the campers were very excited to try the fishing rods and to spend time with our touch tank.

Wednesday of this week was our annual staff fishing derby. We arrived at Fan Pier early in the morning, were divided into teams according to numbers that could fit on each boat, and took off. I was with Kaya and Brianna on Basil Freddura’s boat, Basil is one of the owners of The Daily Catch and Calimari Fisheries. Basil was an awesome captain and was very patient with teaching us all he could and allowing us to use his personal gear. We cruised around, testing out a few of Basil’s favorite fishing spots, before finding a great area. We ended up finding a boil (where several big fish are chasing little fish and causing movement on the surface) with many birds flying around it. Just as Brianna cast her line we saw some big spots on our fish finder. Almost immediately after, the line shot out on her rod, and she had hooked a big one! Basil helped coach Brianna through landing a big fish and helped teach us all along the way. They eventually got the fish on the boat, and it was a 34.5-inch Striped Bass. Everyone celebrated, so excited that we caught such a big fish, and quite early in the day! The rest of the day was less eventful, we caught some Pogy (Menhaden) and several smaller stripers. I loved learning techniques for catching different fish and overall had a blast. Our whole boat was very excited and proud that we caught one big striper! We didn’t win, as two other boats had headed far out and found a ton of large striper, but we were very excited to get on the board. I also got to take one of the fillets home and had a delicious seafood dinner the next day!

Thursday we returned to Blacks Creek for their end of the summer celebration, called Nautical Day. The families of any camper at our Harbor Explorers camp or the boating and sailing camps were invited to attend. My staff and I set up several stations for families to enjoy, such as fish printing, touch tank learning, minnow net exploring, and beach trash clean-up.  The fish printing was a big hit, as it almost always is. Fish printing is a very cool activity that Save the Harbor does at many of our public events. We have a frozen (real) fish that kids cover in paint. After you have a thin layer of paint covering the fish you put a sheet of rice paper on top of the whole fish. When you slowly peel the paper back you are left with a painting that shows all of the scales, fins, and major body parts of the fish. My favorite fish to print with is a flounder, they are so interesting looking and kids are always fascinated by their unique shape and their eyes. Overall, Nautical Day was a lot of fun and a great way to end the portion of my summer spent at Blacks Creek.

Our final team that worked at Blacks Creek, including the Quincy Rec Staff we got to co-counsel with all summer!
L to R: Veronica, me, Flo, Jasmine, Colby, Maggie, Eileen, Aidan

On Friday I ventured out with the Camp Harbor View team to learn about their site, where I will be for the rest of the summer.

This was an awesome week, filled with special activities and tons of fishing. I am sad to say goodbye to the wonderful staff and campers I have had at Blacks Creek, but excited to get to work at a new site and learn more about fishing there.

Until next week,
Tessa Diehl

Chefin' it Up!

Grace with the winning fish!

            It feels good to be back on the harbor this week! Being on vacation is great, but you really do miss the smell of salt in the air after some time. This week was fun to be back for, a new session at CHV started, and we had the annual Save the Harbor Save the Bay fishing derby! Shout out to Grace! She represented Camp Harbor View really well by winning the derby with a 45.5” striped bass! Congrats to all the fisherwomen who caught keepers in the derby, some really impressive fish were brought in. 

            Even though I didn’t catch any fish during the derby it’s always nice to be out on the water. Luckily, I was fortunate enough to take home a striper fillet. Thank you to the angler who caught the fish I ate! It was delicious.

Ingredients used!

I used a recipe for garlic and herb baked striper fillets from the cookbook Cooking the Catch, by Dave “Pops” Masch. I turned the oven on to 415, and while waiting for it to preheat I chopped some Italian parsley and minced several cloves of garlic. The recipe called for specific amounts of these ingredients, but since I had a different amount of fish, I just eyeballed what I needed. 

Once the oven was preheated, I put the fillet in a glass baking dish with some olive oil, flipping the fish to coat it. While doing this I sprinkled the fillet with some kosher salt, freshly ground pepper, the parsley, and the garlic. 

Finished product!

            I put the dish in the center rack of the oven and fifteen to 20 minutes later the fish was done! I served it with green bean salad straight from my garden and rice. I used the leftover fish for fish cakes, striper hash, and as an addition to salad. 

I think the success of the derby is evident of how water quality has improved greatly in the harbor and in other coastal places in the United States. When my dad was younger, striped bass were not nearly as populous. He recalls very few stripers being caught then and the majority of the fish he brought in were bluefish. 

The Chesapeake Bay provides striped bass with ample spawning grounds. However, in the 70’s and 80’s subpar water quality due to low dissolved oxygen levels, increased acidity, increased chemical levels, runoff, and poor sewage treatment coupled with overfishing led to huge drops in striped bass population. The water quality during those times did not help the stripers that did survive since they would move from one polluted area to another. 

Striped bass populations recovered when places such as the Chesapeake and Boston cracked down on what was released into the ecosystem. Improved fishing regulation also helped the striper population rebound. 

Boston Harbor is now one of the cleanest urban harbors in the United States and provides ample recreational opportunities. Despite this, there are some current challenges to maintain the superb water quality we’ve worked so hard to get. Even though Deer Island Wastewater Treatment facility is state of the art, it is not equipped to treat for pharmaceuticals and micro-plastics that enter the system. New legislation is necessary to control the release of these into our wastewater and new water treatment processes need to be implemented in order to intercept these pollutants. 

            Lastly, I’d like to say thank you and goodbye to Xavier, the Senior Harbor Educator at CHV for the summer. It was awesome working with you, and we had a lot of fun! Good luck in Vermont, we’ll miss you! Please enjoy some cool pictures of our fearless leader.

Tight Lines!

-Michael

My Second Fishing Derby

I came back to All Access this Monday for Share the Harbor, and we had 544 people from camps, families, and friend groups come out to Spectacle Island. I dressed as a pirate and passed out the broadsheets to a majority of the people. This was all to give them a little bit of an introduction to Pirate history and our sea shanty "Haul Away Joe". We gathered a group of people to sing Haul Away Joe, and there was a dance group from Trinidad that really liked the song. After we taught, and sang a few verses from the song, they continued to sing it with a beat, and maracas. They were having a lot of fun and sang other songs like Little Einsteins, Who let the dogs out, and more.

On Tuesday, we came to Fan Pier at 7:00 for the annual fishing derby. During the fishing derby, people split into groups to see who can catch the biggest fish, and the greatest amount of fish. Kamal, Jordon, Abel, and I got onto the nicest boat in the whole tournament. It looked like a small dorm. It had a kitchen, a bedroom, a social area and more. Unfortunately, for the four hours we  fished we as a team caught one mackerel, while other teams caught an abundance of mackerel, and some caught large striped bass, up to 24 inches!

my Second fishing derby

After the fishing derby, we ate some food, talked amongst each other and eventually went home. It was a fun fishing derby and I am excited for the fishing derby next year! On the following Thursday, we were able to meet Nick Martin, a high ranked worker at Coca Cola and we were able to hear his story. He told us about how he moved up from the south to live in Lexington, eventually living by himself and how he made it into Dartmouth, an IVY league college. He told us about his ups and downs and how he made it to where he is today, and it was a motivational and inspiring story. I learned that I need to take advantages of all of my opportunities, and be surrounded by people that will help me better myself.

gathering to hear a motivational story

I came to MLK the next day, and it was kind of a roller-coaster half day if I say so myself. I started the day eating a lot of the free breakfast they had: cereal, orange juice or cranberry juice, muffins and more. Besides my coworkers, I also saw some people that live near me and some people that I go to school with. I caught up with them, and then we went to the main room where we heard a very emotional story from a kind man. It was about how he got to where he is today from an abusive, heroine addict father, gang violence, and the death of his brother. It was really sad, yet motivational because he showed us it is not too late to achieve our goals and dreams. After that we played some fun games with the founder of BrandMe, and we learned about the importance of a brand, logo, slogan, and how it presents you as a person. I finished the day off with some Raising Canes with a few coworkers, and reflected on how amazing this week.

Until Next Time
Qalid :)

My First Fishing Derby/Tournament!

Tuesday.

August 7^th.

6am.

Time to get up.

As I slowly pealed my body off my bed, I thought about what I needed to do this morning: feed and walk my dog Bosco, pack my work shirt for the fishing derby, and get breakfast. Early morning.

As I was walking Bosco around the building for his morning walk, I started getting excited for the fishing derby. It was a beautiful day so far. Sunny and warm, although I was prepared for strong heat later in the day. I had heard it was a fun event for the Save the Harbor/Save the Bay staff. The staff would be divided into groups and set out on different boats, all of us competing for one of two prizes: catching the most fish or catching the biggest fish. I was aiming for one of those prizes.

For much of the summer I have been outside of the Boston Children’s Museum. At that location, we work with kids of all ages and teach them how to fish; however, we only drop cast and never move locations. I was looking forward to fishing in a new location with deeper waters. As I returned to my apartment after my walk with Bosco I went through my check list to make sure I had everything I needed for that day: sunglasses, hat, sunscreen, water bottle, phone, keys, wallet, work shirt, and raincoat. Time to head out.

7am.

I arrived at the Courthouse T Stop, our meeting location at 7am on the dot. Kristen, a recent Senior Harbor Educator, was there to direct us to the docks. As I walked to the docks, I was getting really excited. A big highlight of my job is that I like my coworkers. We all always have a good time and can make stressful situations fun. So I was excited to do something new with them and hopefully spend time with some of the coworkers I do not work with often. 

8am.

After munching on some grapes and mini-muffins, it was time to start diving people up into their groups and start heading out. We got a very nice captain whose boat had air conditioning, a big plus once it started to get really toasty out. Our first mission: bait! We went to several locations in the harbor but were not having much luck. Eventually, we finally caught a mackerel! We used the bait live, which I did not know was even a thing. This means we hooked the fish to the rod and let the fish swim around as to catch bigger fish. Unfortunately, we were not having much luck and to make things more difficult, we lost our fish out near Deer Island. We came back completely empty handed but it was still a very fun experience. There’s nothing like being outside and enjoying the harbor.

Our view from the top of the boat!

Sea you later for my last week,
Ellen :)

Some Fun Events

Hey everyone! This blog is all about the two awesome events I went to this week aside from my regular everyday programing. This past Tuesday was the Fan Pier Fishing Derby! We had so much fun on Captain Charlie's boat, the Belle, fishing on the harbor. It was fun to have a day with just our staff doing some competitive fishing. I caught three fish which is the most I have caught in one day in my three summers with Save the Harbor! The weather was perfect for a day on a boat because the sun was shining but there was a nice breeze that kept us cool. Unfortunately, I did not win the biggest catch of the day but I was still happy to have beaten my own record.

We had to be there bright and early

On Friday I attended my third Beach Bash and Splash at Carson Beach. This one was a Mini Beach Bash but there was still a good crowd. I was once again running the fishing station with Briana and we taught a lot of kids how to fish and how to hold crabs. Kids love catching crabs because oftentimes a child catches multiple crabs on one line! One boy named Jj was fascinated by the crabs but he also wanted to make sure they made it home to be with their families so he let them go on the shore one at a time. We got our usual lunch of hot dogs,  veggie straws and baby carrots while we took a break from being out in the sun. The coolest part of this Beach Bash was that we were on the front page of the Saturday morning Boston Globe with a picture of kids playing with our giant beach ball!

This is Jj taking care of all the crabs

They made a huge splash

Those were all the fun events I went to this week but I will be sure to update all of you readers on my events for next week! Talk to you then!

-Maeve Fittz

Family Fishing Derby

Hello everyone! Have you ever been on a fishing trip? Ever seen someone catch a bass in under five minutes? Ever got the chance to go out boating with your favorite family member? After Tuesday I was able to say yes to all of these questions. Now I've been on boats before, in fact I go out every day to the islands on a boat. But I rarely get the chance to go out to the harbor on a boat and just "have fun" with my friends. Don't get me wrong, I love my job and I wouldn't volunteer to change it for the world. After Tuesday I can truthfully say that give me a beautiful day, a nice boat and my best friends, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

We started the day off bright and early. I rolled out of bed at 5 am then walked upstairs to wake Aidan, my younger brother up. He was my guest for the day because if there's anything he loves more than watching video games, it's fishing on a boat. We got to Fan Pier at 7 on the dot. Perfect timing to see my best friends Kharliyah and Damani. Aidan was excited as soon as he saw all of the boats loaded with rods and bait for the day ahead. We boarded Charlie's boat, The Belle, at 8 and took off into the harbor.

Baiting a line with a sea worm

Our first stop was just off of Camp Harbor View, otherwise known as Long Island. I remembered back to orientation about how many flounder we caught learning to fish in that area. As soon as Charlie gave the "okay" to cast out our lines, the wait began. I always tell the kids on All Access that fishing is a waiting game. It may not be the most heart racing activity of them all, but when you do catch something it sure is exciting. Within the next 5 minutes, Aleena was leaning over the side of the boat, with her fishing rod styling a deep arch at the top. She was putting a lot of strength into reeling her catch in. Sam, Charlie's deckhand, was over in a flash with a net trying to scoop the hooked bass out of the water. After some struggle, he got the fish up onto the boat. Sadly, it was only 24 inches, so we had to toss it back.

An hour or so passed without much luck but many laughs, and Charlie decided it was time to take a ride to a new spot. We ended up right near Quincy. On the way there, we spotted fish leaping out of the water. It was clear that we were going to have more luck over here. Looking over the side of the boat, you could easily see the entire school of fish beneath us. There were so many it seemed that if i were to stick one foot out and reach down i could walk across them. Sam kept throwing cast after cast out into the school hoping to grab something. At one point he even let me reel in a fish that got hooked.


We returned to the pier both tired and happy. Despite waking up at the crack of dawn, it had been a great day.

Until next time,
Patrice

Fishing Derby Fun!

Gearing up for a day fishing out on the harbor!

Hey guys welcome back! For those of you that don't know my name is Jaiden. This week I went to Save the Harbor Save the Bay's annual fishing derby for the first time! Although I didn't catch as much as I'd have liked,  it was still a ton of fun being on the boat with my friends trying to catch a fish. I spent the day on the Belle with Captain Mike and a few other Save the Harbor staff. Even though the day was longer than a usual work day, I didn't mind because of the fact that I was out there having fun and catching fish!

Me on the Belle with the Save the Harbor crew!

Today turned out to be one of the best days of the summer because of how much fun it was. Me myself, I'm not really the fishing type but Wednesday made me rethink that because of how much fun I had. I had so much fun kicking back chilling with friends, in nice weather listening to music while we fished. This was by far one of my top 5 days of the summer and I can't wait to do it again next year!

From ya boy,
Jaiden Coren

Touring the Harbor

Hello Boston!

This week was filled with variety and excitement. On Monday, I spent the day fishing at Camp Harbor View. Our first pull of the crab trap produced a small, algae-covered spider crab and two hermit crabs. The kids loved playing with the hermit crabs on the table; encouraging hermit races. Some of the more courageous children held the small, fluffy spider crab. Our little friend was content nestling down into the children's palms and staying put. As far as fishing went, we lost a good amount to bait to some strong nibbles, but were not able to catch a fish fully.

Vince teaching these young girls about crabs

On Tuesday, we returned to George's Island. I was in charge of fishing on the island, but was once again overrun with crabs! Every time we pulled up the crab trap, we caught another handful of multi-sized crabs. There were large red rock crabs and snappy, small green crabs. The kids kept catching crabs on their lines as well. It was entertaining to watch them reel in a crab, bring it over the dock, and then scream whilst chasing it all over the floor. Once the kids felt comfortable holding the crabs, they would not put them down. It was almost a struggle to get the kids to release the crabs back into the ocean. They all wanted to know why they couldn't take them home in their bags.

An all girl team on the fishing derby

On Wednesday, we had the wonderful opportunity to take part in a fishing derby. Our staff was split among a multitude of fishing vessels and were able to partake in some serious tournament fishing. Myself, Kharliyah, Kimberly, Patrice, and Marly were on a boat together with Captain Tim. The captain and his assistant taught us how to bait a line that would be used to catch blue fish and striped bass. We released the lines and watched as they trailed behind our moving boat. We passed through schools of fish flopping at the surface of the water. This, it was explained to us, was a sign that larger fish were below the surface causing these small fish to panic where we could see them. Although we did not catch any fish, we did get to see a harbor seal and have an excellent tour of the harbor from the back of a beautiful boat. I learned a lot about fishing and the Boston Harbor and I can't wait to return to the islands to test out my new fishing skills.

Front row view of the beautiful harbor

Sea you out there,

Jennifer Leiendecker