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

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 :)

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

Crabs, Moon jellies, and Striped Bass! Oh my!

This is my fourth week at the Boston Children's Museum and this Tuesday we caught our second striped bass!! Oftentimes our most exciting catches come from the crab trap. We will get green crabs, spider crabs, cunner fish and baby flounder fish. The only thing we really catch on our fishing rods are crabs. Parents, or the adults responsible for the kids, often ask us what we are fishing for and we say anything that will bite but realistically we almost exclusively catch crabs, but this makes it even more exciting when we catch something other than crabs.

It was a regular Tuesday day at the Boston Children's Museum. It was a toasty day with the temperature wavering between high 80's to low 90's with a high percentage of humidity. Luckily we had a tent to protect our touch tank from the sweltering sun, as well as ourselves! The first half of our shift (10am-1pm) was a bit slow, with less than 60 visitors. The second half was very busy. We had several camp groups come through, all eager to fish and test their luck. There were kids at each pole but then, one young girl, just nine years old, started to feel a particularly strong tug. We saw the pole started to bob up and down. Imani quickly rushed to assist the girl reel up the rod but it still seemed too strong for both of them. I decided to try and steady the line by grabbing it so Imani could reel it in. Even that was difficult! This fish was a fighter. Eventually we were able to lift the fish from the water and into the touch tank. It was 25 inches long!! Our tank was not big enough so we had to let it go soon after we caught it but not before dozens of people ran over to check out our latest catch.

I hope to catch more fish soon! It truly is an exciting time for the people at the BCM.

Sea you later,
Ellen

The Return of Eric Joseph

It has been a while since I have written for you! Remember me?  There are a lot of you who are new, so I shall be introducing myself again. Well to start it off, my name is Eric Joseph I am from Dorchester, where I have lived for my entire life. I have attended  Madison Park Technical Vocational High School for two years. I am an avid lover of doing things outside, exploring, and fishing. And all three of those things are included in working here, so no wonder I like working here so much!

My prized 30 inch bass caught at Fan Pier

This year, just like last year I will be working as a JPA (Junior Program Assistant) and last year a lot of things happened such as my many many eventful days as at Blacks Creek and the Children's Museum and the fishing derby at fan pier where I caught a 30 inch Striped Bass, the biggest one caught that day.

Pirate Eric striking a pose with a fan.

I also did a lot of bonus work on breaks that were really fun, For example on April 21 I went to the Marine Mammal Safaris, where me and a few other people boarded a cruise ship and all looked for seals and porpoises but little did the people boarding the boat know that I would be dressed up as a pirate! So Pirate Eric would walk around the ship talking to the passengers while I also encouraged them to look for the sea animals. The people were amused by my performance and I had a lot of fun!                                                                                                                                                                







Here's to another great summer!

 ~Eric Joseph

The Epic Catch at Children's!

Measuring the Striped Bass!

After having caught about a total of 10 cunner in these past weeks, today wasn't just like any other ordinary day at the Children's Museum. As a little boy named Danny and his dad approached us, they were extremely excited to fish. While we waited for the fish bite, he told us all the stories about him and his dad fishing and the almost-whale they caught but their line snapped and all these other amazing stories. I had never seen a kid so excited about fishing. 

After waiting about 20 minutes Danny seemed a bit discouraged but his dad encouraged him and told him that fishing was a sport of great patience. I'm not going to lie, I was a bit in doubt too, since we had only caught one fish that whole morning, but I really admired his patience and determination. Then, right when they were almost about to leave Danny yells "I feel something! It's tugging!" Everyone rushed over to see and some even thought (including myself) that the hook might've just gotten stuck on a rock or another line down there. However, we all thought wrong! As he was railing his line up it was still moving, so it was definitely a fish. 

We all expected another cunner of course, but instead we railed it up and saw the very unexpected...... a STRIPED BASS! I was really surprised because the only other time I had seen someone catch a striped bass was on the fishing tournament last year when my group caught one. It was 13 inches long and its the biggest we've caught this summer at the Children's Museum. It barely fit into our tank! All the kids gathered around to see the fish and were asking all sorts of questions about it. We ended up learning so many new things about striped bass including things like their favorite food, which are clams! Today was a very memorable day and is definitely one of the highlights of this summer as it nearly draws to an end. I can't wait to see what other amazing things we will catch in the harbor next week during our last week of programing! This summer has truly been an epic one so far. 

See you soon! 
Rusenny

My Big Bass Beast Bessie

Okay let me simply start this one saying this: WEDNESDAY HAS BEEN AN AWESOME DAY! Okay let me start from the beginning, so I came a bit before 8:00 because I was a bit confused on where to go. I ended up going to the Barking Crab by accident, I ended up getting to Fan Pier at around 7:43. When I got there I helped out by setting up the Save the Harbor/Save the Bay flag. And after a good hour of waiting for some kids to come fishing with us, we got started. Everyone got fishing partners and were put on boats. I ended up choosing Imani Dorsey as my fishing companion, and we ended up on a boat just for the two of us and our captain Basil Freddura. Basil's boat's name was the "Daze Off" but from how that day went on that boat I did, in no way, daze off. On the boat we learned that Basil is the head chef of a restaurant called The Daily Catch so he already had a lot of squid chum for getting mackerels. Basil even gave me a five hooked fishing rod, so we ended up catching at least 30 mackerels. I even unhooked some of the mackerels! After that we drove around a bit to a new location and went fishing using the live mackerels as bait to catch bass so I put on my clicker and got comfortable. A good 10 to 15 minutes in and my clicker going crazy so Basil runs over and instructs me to go and pull up to make sure the hook goes into the fishes mouth and reel in. after a good minute or so I caught a striped bass! But this one was 24 inches so I had throw it back in the water. After that we moved a bit to a new spot, and after a good 45 my rod went mad! So I did what Basil told me before and tugged the rod up to hook the bass and reeled in, in a pattern and after a long fight with that fish Basil and I pulled up Bessie!

Me with my fish named Bessie!

Bessie is a 30 inch striped bass that gave me some cuts on my left hand. Bessie was also the only striped bass to make it back to the dock. Bessie was a star on the dock too so many people were petting the fish, congratulating me and wanting to take pictures with Bessie. And even a journalist came and asked me some questions and Bessie and I got on to the news in the Boston globe! At the end I was given an option: let Bessie be filleted or let her be frozen for fish printing. And because I wanted to be able to see Bessie again I chose for her to be frozen for fish printing.

That was the biggest catch I've had ever!
~Eric Joseph

What is a Striper?

I made a friend?

Hey there everyone how’s it going, this week at the Boston Children Museum we caught our very first striped bass that was about the same size as our  touch tank. Should’ve seen the look in every staff member’s face that was present that day we had caught the striper, it was very speechless. The day immediately shift around giving everyone a good energy of confidence this summer. We all knew we were going to catch a fish we just never knew it was going to be sooner than what we expected to be. Our group was able to catch the striper by using mackerel on the rods which I assumed they loved.

Striped bass fish are valued and caught as sporting fish. Striper fish can often be picky eaters when it comes to the type of bait you use to catch them. They usually go for clams, eels, anchovies, bloodworms and chicken liver which they enjoy the best.

People who aren’t from Boston and come to visit the Boston Children Museum are amazed to experience the program that the Save the Harbor/Save the Bay has to offer them. Some say that the way we fish is completely different compared to the way others fish out in far countries. Some families would wonder why we wouldn’t keep the fish we caught that instead we would release it back into the bay. In order to keep any fish that is caught it would have to be a certain size or else you would have to toss back into the ocean. You’ll be surprised on how many big fish are really out there in the ocean.  

Sincerely,

Edward Calderon

Don't always expect crabs in the crab trap!

New crab friends

I made my return to the Children's Museum on Monday, and it was definitely a day of surprise. It was a hot, sunny Monday, and as expected the tide was low in the morning. We set out the crab traps, baited the rods, set up some other activities for the kids, and got ready for the day. A few families came to fish while waiting for the long line to become smaller, and we caught some crabs! The kids loved to pet and hold the crabs, most of them not scared, but they did have fun. A lot of families were coming to visit Boston, from Florida, Virginia, Maine etc, and lot of them said the Children's Museum is one of their favorite places!

Touch tanks!

Considering the fact that the kids loved the crabs, we lifted up the crab traps every 20 so minutes until we got so much. Throughout the whole day we caught about 85 crabs, most of them through the crab traps, but crabs were not the only thing we caught in them. The tides are usually low, and we have never caught a fish, but we found a perch in the crab trap! TWICE! Garret was so shocked, and so happy because we haven't caught a fish since the start of the summer, and two perches were caught at different times, and it was such an accomplishment for us. Unfortunately, we set it out instead of keeping it, but after lunch the second one was caught so it did not make a difference.

The professional!

It is funny how we did not catch a fish with a rod, but someone else did! A young boy, about 8 years of age was shown how to cast, and he instantly became a pro. He caught some crabs, a little bit of seaweed, but that was not the highlight of his day, and this was in the beginning of his first time fishing. He caught a large striped bass! The bass was big enough that it did not fit in the bigger touch tank, so we had to let it go, but he had his moment for sure! Hopefully one of us at Save The Harbor Save The Bay can catch a fish too! Until then!

Signing off
Qalid Hassan