Belle and the Castle (A Very Fishy Tale!)

     This week my group was stationed at Castle Island in South Boston. Between the constant roaring of planes taking off from nearby Logan Airport and the clanks of metal shipping containers coming from the shipping facility next door our group was able to discuss our topic of the week, fisheries! I myself, starting out this week asked the question, what in the world is a fishery? However, I have learned that a  fishery is the area in which fish are caught or processed and sold consumer markets.  When I heard this week’s theme my first thought was “Michael must be really excited to talk about fishing” as Michael, our staff expert on fishing, and I have had many conversations about fishing in New England. 

Our team hard at work preparing and baiting the hooks, we used Flounder and Sea Bass Hooks with Squid as bait! 

        As someone who is by no means an expert at fishing, I was excited this week to learn as much as possible about fishing, as it is something that I want to do more in my spare time. This week I was able to learn about the types of fish in Boston. The most common fish caught around Boston Harbor are Black Sea Bass, Skates, Flukes, Flounder, and Stripers. I did also learn that Flukes or Summer Flounder often eat other fish like the Black Sea Bass, which I thought it would be the other way around!

First catch of the day! I caught a Black Sea Bass, watch out for that razor sharp spine!

    We were pretty lucky to have our fishing trip scheduled for this past week! We got to take a few hours to take a tour on Charlie’s fishing boat “The Belle”. Charlie and I got the chance to talk about the parts of the fishing rod (who knew there were so many parts?). He also showed me a technique to catch Black Sea Bass by moving the rod up and down once the weight hits bottom, and I ended up with the first catch of the day! All in all we had a great week catching fish (and some rays) as a team! 

The team catching some rays on the way back to shore! We had to take a silly picture on the bow of The Belle!

Our group is excited for our final week of the season next week so stay tuned (or tuna-ed!) 

Stay salty, 

Caroline

Starting the Summer Strong!

fishing club

Well, we are a few weeks into our summer program, and I am having a lot of fun. This week I continued to do a  few of the same things, but also do somethings I have never done before. I started my week off at Camp Harbor View, and also spent a few days there over this course of time. On my other days, I continued to work at All Access Boston Harbor, at both Georges Island, and ending the week off at Spectacle Island. I even started to do a program on Fridays called MLK Scholars that I have never done before. It has been a pretty packed week so allow me to talk about my time at CHV.

At CHV, we did a variety of things. We mostly did the basic routine of three fishing groups, and lunch. We caught crabs, skates, and from time to time we caught some fish in the lobster trap! The kids at CHV love to fish, especially those that participate in fishing club. A young kid named Extouin told me about how he used to fish with his dad and his brother, and how he used to catch large bass and flounders and eat them for dinner. I was happy to hear that because at Save the Harbor we encourage people to enjoy the seafood they can obtain from the Harbor.

Scavenger hunt

On another we had a scavenger hunt where we told the kids to look for five mussels as a group. They quickly found them, and we ended up having a lot of mussel shells by the end of it. I learned how to throw a football without hurting my arm, and I schooled Dexter and Abel in basketball. Just kidding--we had a lot of fun, and Dexter was a lot better than I'd thought he would be.

For the rest of the week I did All Access, and toured the dark tunnel for the visitors, showed them the coffin, played some kickball or catch, and fished with all the families and camps that came. On Monday, we had a family day, and the families loved it so much. We sang Haul-Away Joe (led by Chris), and a young girl even made and told me her own verse! They loved it so much they donated to Save the Harbor and all of them said they would definitely come back.

Besides All Access and CHV, I got introduced to a biweekly, Friday event called MLK scholars at BU. They had their introduction with the CHV founder, a young MLK Scholar that sang and did spoken word, and a touching story from Mayor Marty Walsh. I even tried Raising Canes for the first time and it is absolutely amazing, if you have not tried it, I say try it ASAP; it is actually God's work. I will continue to go to Spectacle Island, and swim with David and the team. I'll let you guys know what's up next week, until then!

See ya, Qalid Hassan