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

Quick Update

Prepping the ceviche.

To kick off the summer, all the staff attended a mandatory two day orientation, where we learned and reviewed expectations, tasks, more information about the job, and so on. Things got a little more exciting the second day. After we gathered and learned about pirates, we got on a boat and started to fish. We caught some black sea bass, and some scupps. Not only that, but a chef taught us how to filet, and cook ceviche and sashimi with lime juice. The ceviche was surprisingly good, because it did not have the distinct salty, seafood taste that fish usually has. After orientation closed, we were assigned our sites, and I was given Camp Harbor View (CHV).

CHV is a large camp located on Long Island, and I teach kids in the fishing club how to fish, the biology of crabs, and how to take care of the harbor. These kids are very great to work with, because they have enough experience and knowledge to achieve things, such as holding a crab, or even catching one! The kids that signed up for fishing club love this, and Save the Harbor at CHV added a new activity: fish printing! Fish printing is a way Japanese sailors kept their great catches to show to their wives and friends, but through art. Kids love to fish print because it is a hands on task, and some like it because they get to touch the fish!

Some days start off slow at CHV, but when it comes to fishing, you just need to be patient. Patience is key because if you constantly reel up the rod, your chances of catching something become slim to none. The kids at fishing club understand this, and so their chances became larger and larger. They practiced jigging their rods, and spotting birds for more marine life to catch. Fortunately, we caught a few skates, one in the crab trap, and three on a rod! The biggest surprise was when we lifted up the lobster traps. There was a skate, but we seen those before so no biggie...that was until we found a pretty big sized flounder! The kids loved it, but unfortunately we had to toss it in the water because that was the group's decision. That is just the tale at CHV.

July 10, 2018, I made my grand return to All Access Boston Harbor. I primarily worked at this site all of last summer, and I really enjoyed it. From the swimming at Spectacle Island, to the horrific screams at the dark tunnel, every moment was a memorable one at All Access. I made a few friends from different community centers as I told about all the fascinating things they could do at the island. Some were afraid to go through the dark tunnel, which is completely reasonable, but they were brave enough to touch, or even hold a crab! They made the best out of their time there and loved their time there. They accepted these challenges, and the BASE kids brought a challenge to a few of us on the team.

Dex and I with a few amazing BASE kids teamed up to face Damani and Kamal's team "The Explosions". They were an intense team with a lot of heart and determination to take us down. Kick ball however is a game that can take a drastic turn if you play it right. We were down 0-2, but the Blue Dogs can fight back fast. We scored to grand slams, and one runner to end the game 9-2. This one kids would not accept the fact that we did not cheat, and kept screaming " CHEATORRRR", but he said that was the funnest game of kick ball he ever played. The question now is, can anyone take down the Blue Dogs? Guess we'll find out later.

The New Team!

Signing out,
Qalid Hassan

CHV or All Access

On Monday I went to CHV, a site I have been to once before. I went on the boat and the kids on the boat were very energetic and loud, and sounded as if they were ready for the day. We got on the Island and set up for fishing club. As groups went by, one group member caught a skate. I have never seen a skate before, and I was shocked because it kind of looked like a sting ray. Nevertheless, we ate food at CHV, and it was not too bad, but I did think the "eggplant" was a cookie. After fishing club was over, we looked at the eclipse (with glasses), and I played some basketball with Ray. It was a pretty eventful day.

Fishing at CHV

Bye Patrice!

On Wednes-day, it was Patrice's last day of work. She is a soccer captain and fall sports start on Thursday, so she had to go to tryouts. This was a bummer for most people, because Patrice is a favorite for a lot of people. We split the team so we could do sports and soccer. I was at sports playing kickball with the BASE kids, and there were definitely a lot of them, about 17 a team. We lost by one, but the game was very intense. After we swam in the ice cold water, and once we got it out it was time to go. Time flies, it is already the last day of All Access.

Peace out!

Qalid Hassan :)

Jen The Mermaid

Hi everyone!

This week at Spectacle Island, I fished every day. Mind you, the most common creatures we catch are typically crabs, whether its from the trap or the kids fishing. Two out of the three days I went fishing were with our senior harbor educator Max. He's great with all the kids and can fix any problem with the rods. But he's no Jenn. Jenn is one with the ocean. Somehow, whenever she's in charge at fishing, we always catch cool things! For example, we caught a SKATE and all the kids went crazy. It took Kharliyah and I a long time to pick it up because it has a really spiky back. But it's belly is just like that of a snail...slimy.

The skate, me, and Kharliyah.

Now the skate was pretty cool, but then Jenn brought out her super powers. There was one boy who was having trouble reeling in his rod so I walked over to assist him. The rod appeared to be stuck on something. Probably some seaweed or a rock I presumed. I kept reeling and pulling, reeling and pulling. "Man he cast this line far," I thought. I was shocked once the hook began to surface. This kid had reeled in an entire crab trap!

Our ancient crab trap. 

I brought the trap over to Kharliyah so that she could help me untie and open it because there were so many creatures inside. As we were untying the rope, we noticed that the trap must have been down there for years because of how decayed that rope was. Once we got it open, we found two baby spider crabs, a couple green crabs and some baby flounder.

A tough day for this baby flounder.

The best part of the day for me was the catch that I made. When fishing started to slow down I decided to cast out a rod of my own. It went pretty far, so I was proud of myself. When I started to reel it in, I noticed it was pretty heavy. As it came closer and closer, I saw a bunch of seaweed on it and assumed that I just got it caught. But the closer it came, the clearer it became that I had a big crab on the end of it. As I was holding the crab I noticed it was in the process of giving birth. I felt so bad so I put her back in the ocean right away. 

My catch of the day!

Catch you next time

-Patrice

Finally Fish!

Our first skate and the lucky fisherman

After a crab-filled summer at Spectacle Island, this week finally broke our fishless curse! I was in charge of managing fishing on Thursday when our luck changed. The first group to fish was filled with energetic kids ready for anything to bite the hooks. After just a few minutes, one young man started shouting that he thought he caught something. I ran over to help him reel up a skate! We got the skate up and onto the pier where Kharliyah and Patrice carefully removed the hook from the spiky skate's mouth. A lot of the children did not know what type of fish this was or confused it with a stingray. After everyone had a chance to see our pokey pal, we sent him back into the ocean. 

When the next group arrived to fish, I told them they had some big shoes to fill after the previous group's achievements. Within a matter of moments, a camper from Tricklin Falls Camp claimed that he had caught something as well. We expected another fish, but instead we discovered that he caught an old and forgotten crab trap. The trap was filled with a few small green crabs, a tiny spider crab, and even a few little fish! One crab had a baby flounder clutched in his claws. When we removed this crab from the trap, he waived his baby flounder around proudly as if he was showing off his own catch. I managed to free the founder from the crab's grasp and gently plopped it back into the water. We let the other little fish go and kept the small crabs in the touch tank for other kids to enjoy. 

Catching crab traps

Baby spider crab

After our first two eventful groups, we continued to catch plenty of crabs left and right. At one point, Patrice pulled up a line to reveal that she had snagged a pregnant crab in the process of giving birth! As she was in the middle of releasing her eggs, we quickly let her return to sea to ensure that her babies had a safe delivery. 

A crab and his flounder friend

I think this has been my most successful day of fishing ever! We encountered so many interesting creatures and it really boosted the kids spirits to see that they could find such cool things in the ocean. I hope this is just the beginning of a bountiful summer.

Sea you out there,

Jennifer Leiendecker