Tidepool adventures

Disclaimer: This time around, we didn't take as many photos as we would have liked. Thus this blog post will depend on your imagination to fill in the gaps from the imagery my words can produce.

The week started off with a staff day at Lovells island, where office staff, JPA's, LHE's and SHE's bonded over tide pooling, picking wild blackberries and snail hunting! After a boat ride with Charlie from the seaport district, the group consisted of 37 individuals who hiked to a spot where there was an abundance of tide pools! Split into groups, Kristen, Abel, D, Jennifer and I headed off to where the  tide pools merged with the Boston Harbor. There we found an abundance of starfish, periwinkles, hermit crabs, and Asian shore crabs! We had easily found over 10 starfish and with Kristen's observation skills, we saw even a purple periwinkle! After some time, Garett, Kristen and I shifted over to where there seemed to be an abundance of large pieces of scrap metal! It was there that we found some fist sized green and rock crabs burrowed in the sand!

Once lunch came around, Garett and I had accumulated about 10 oysters each, and we both shucked one each using rocks and sea shells we found around the island! With one slurp, Garett and I had a taste of Boston Harbor's quality of fresh raw oyster! From my taste test, it could definitely use some Tabasco sauce, horseradish and lemon juice.

The rest of the staff day was our chance to explore the island for some specie of snail! The island has a lot of spots that are very worth seeing in person.

Figure 1. Above is an amateur photographers attempt at being artistic! 

I hope you guys can experience the joy of exploring Lovells island one day since it looks like a great place to go camping!

Raymond Chai

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