Second Summer on the Harbor

Hey y'all!

I'm McRae (she/her pronouns), a member of team Jason, and this is my second summer as a JPA at Save the Harbor. I was also a winter intern during the 2020-21 school year. I just recently graduated from the O'Bryant School in Roxbury and will be attending Penn State - University Park in the fall as a student in the Schreyer Honors College with an intended major in Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences. If it wasn't obvious from my major, I'm hoping to become a veterinarian (small animal, to be specific). Save the Harbor, with its biological and ecological focuses, has been a great summer job and learning opportunity for me and I'm looking forward to another great summer out on the Harbor.

Me and Ari (teammates for two years in a row) in front of Rumney Marsh

For our first week, team Jason went to Revere to visit Short Beach, Revere Beach, and Rumney Marsh. Short Beach was our first stop of the week; it was small and empty, covered in rocks and kelp, scattered with trash, and rather strange-smelling. In short, it wasn't exactly a pleasant beach and we left after a few hours to meet a representative from the National Parks Service at the edge of Revere Beach. The parks rep led us through two surveys of the shoreline: one for bivalves (mussels and clams and such), one for invasive species (mostly bryozoans and tunicates). On our second day, we went back to Revere Beach (much nicer than Short Beach) and spent the whole day there, bonding as a team and coming up with ideas for our deliverable. Then, on our last day in Revere, we went to visit Rumney Marsh, a large salt marsh a little ways away from Wonderland, where we got eaten up by mosquitos. We weren't able to observe too much in the marsh other than a hawk and a very unfortunate squirrel because, in looking for a better place to enter the marsh, every person we asked told us not to enter the marsh (apparently there are coyotes in there). So we headed back to Revere Beach to finish off our week and get a couple of team pictures before moving on to a new site next week.

Team Jason at Revere Beach

Peace out y'all :)

McRae

Four Out of Five Times this Week!

Hello Everyone!

Another week has passed at Save the Harbor. It was a typical week here with the different sites except one. This week All Access added an extra day on to its weekly trips to the Boston Harbor Islands. Instead of it being only on Tuesdays, Wednesday and Thursday, we also hold occasional Share the Harbor cruises on Mondays--a program that allows the general public to visit Georges and/or Spectacle with us. This would mean that the All Access team is going out to the islands more often.

On Monday it was kind of weird going to the harbor islands. The whole day, I thought it was Tuesday, but then reality hit me with the fact that it was Monday from time to time. Monday was also the last time we went to Georges Island for the week. Even though I love Georges Island, I was really excited to go to Spectacle Island. Even though Spectacle doesn't have a scary tunnel to stay cool in, people are allowed to swim there which is, in my opinion, better.

On Tuesday, I woke up in the morning waiting ready for my day at Spectacle. I packed my swim suit and a towel and headed out the house. I was so excited and was ready to jump into the water. Once I got to the Save the Harbor work space, I walked into the conference room with my coworkers in it  saying "Are you guys ready to swim today?" They looked confused. Kaya, the SHE for All Access then said that the All Access trip was canceled because of the incoming storms. At that moment all the excitement that I had for the trip was gone. For the rest of the day, we helped out one the camp groups that didn't know that the trip was canceled and taught them how to fish. There wasn't that much going on there until the last couple of minutes of their session. I was helping one of the kids reel up her rod and I notice that something was biting on it. It was hard reeling it up and I thought it got stuck. I take one look over the fence and I saw an eel on the end of the line. The little girl yelled "We got something!!" and some kids ran over asking what I caught. Right when I got it just beyond the surface level of the water, it took the bait and hook off the line...

Wednesday was officially the first day of going to Spectacle Island and it was amazing. First of all, it was really hot and humid so taking a dip into the water felt so nice after standing in the hot sun. Second of all we caught a lot of crabs using the fishing rods. This is awesome because the people using the rods could feel the excitement of reeling something up instead just standing on the dock and not really catching anything. All in all, Wednesday was the most exciting day out of the whole week. Thursday was the same thing routine, but more cold. So taking that nice dip into the water wasn't so nice.

Friday was the day that most of the All Access crew was at Atlantic Wharf. There was a similar event that happened earlier this year with Atlantic Wharf with a few groups of kids coming down. The only difference between that event and this was that this one was outside and in the warm sun and the other one happened indoors. This event had crab traps, fishing, fish printing and stories told by Tony the Pirate. The event was great with the Save the Harbor staff over at the Children's Museum lending us a Striped Bass for the campers and staff to look at. At the end of the day, we had lunch from Boloco, and called it a day. This week was different with us planning to go to the islands four times a week and me experiencing All Access being canceled for the first time. However, I think I will be experiencing more changes through the summer and when they come, I think I'll be more prepared for them.

See you guys on the harbor!
Imani

A Secret Ingredient of the Charles River

Participants of the environmental science class
deep in the dough-making process.

I'm still getting used to freshwater fishing on the Charles with Community Boating's environmental science class. This last week my team and I decided to introduce a new type of bait to the kids in hopes of seeing more success reeling in fresh water fishies. I had received a good tip from an onlooking passerby with experience in fishing; he told us that dough balls were great bait to use when fishing in freshwater, especially for catching carp, a fish known to reside in the river. We brought bread, flour, and the special ingredient, garlic powder and taught the children how to mix their very own dough balls. The kids were very excited at the mention of creating their own bait, in no time at all their hands were completely covered in dough. At first the balls kept sliding off their hooks in the water so they had to go back and re-tweak their recipe, but making the bait made the fishing experience all the more interactive for them and they made sure to express their appreciation! We got a whole bunch of bites but unfortunately we didn't reel anything onto the dock; the fish were experts in liberating the dough from the hooks, all the while evading capture. For next week, we have to think of new type of bait to use that will successfully get those fish on the line-- it's back to the drawing board!

The Save the Harbor team
hard at it!

A participant showing off
her masterpiece!

This weekend I had the pleasure of working the Revere Sand Sculpting Festival! We had our own Save the Harbor table nestled in among the numerous food vendors, obstacle courses, and of course, sand sculptures. There we offered free flatfish printing to the public allowing them to get hands on with a real life flounder. The crowd was in total disbelief of the fish being real, and it wasn't until being challenged to touch it that they realized we were not kidding! The kids always love inking the fish and making their very own colorful prints, but it's always a joy to see the parents enjoying learning about the history behind Gyotaku fish printing, as well as seeing the excitement of their children as they print the fish and certainly the look on their face as they display their new works of art!