Boston Seafood Festival

This past weekend was Boston seafood festival held at the Fish Peir and it was cool!!! When I arrived I saw lots of people, food, performances and activities. There was face painting, learning how to write in Japanese, making origami, and more! We did fish prints. I think we nearly did 100 fish prints and the kids loved it and they were making some amazing prints with the skate. Most of the kids made more than two prints, and some took them home.  Others let us keep it for the mural we are making out of the fish prints. There was an outstanding dance performance and an acrobatic performance and it got everyone pumped up and excited.

See you next time!
Andy

One of our visitors with their fish print!

Last day at Spectacle.

Hello again!

Thursday was an amazing day with the All Access group and we had blast on Spectacle Island with the kids! In the morning we all meet at the pavilion where David, our islands leader, gives instruction and had a surprise for Bridget, our head teacher. He had all the kids sing happy birthday to her. David told the kids "every time you see Bridget go say happy birthday," and that's what exactly what they did for the whole day! It was so cool to see how he got the kids going, and a great way to start the day! On the island I played my first kickball game in a long time, with the kids and the game quickly got competitive. My team beat Lindsay and Ahmed's team by numerous points. The kids were upset we had to end so the others can go swimming so I stayed up on the field with the kids who didn't want to swim and we played wiffle ball. I will remember today mostly for the best kickball game EVER!!! Can't wait for the next one.

-Andy  

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Back at Piers Park

Being at Piers Park was a Blast!!! We started the morning with a game of capture the flag and it was amazing seeing how much energy the kids have early in the morning. I have seen a few kids from when I was working at Piers Park last year again this year. We went down to the dock later on and caught a bunch of crabs with the crab trap. It was about 30 or so crabs we had in the touch tank. I took a few kids out on a kayak around the pier for a little. After being on the dock for a while we all went to the park and they turned the slides into water slides by taking some water from the sprinklers with their bottles and pouring the water onto the slides. A few of the kid wanted me to go up and see them go down their water slide but the whole time, it was a trap! They wanted me to go down the slide, they blocked the stairs so  the only to go down was to go down the slide. So they pushed me down the slide and they all laughed. We had a couple rely races, wheel barrow race, crab crawl race and foot races, and the kids loved it. I went sailing for the first time with a couple of kids and it was a lot of fun. It was blast being back at Piers Park!

Until next time,
Andy

Crab Crawl Race

Wheel-barrow race!

Sailing on the Harbor! 

First time at Peddocks Island

What an amazing day at Peddocks Island!! It was my first time at Peddocks and it was a lot of fun. We started off the day with a really good game of kickball and a lot of kids came to play, it's a 10 vs 10 game and each and everyone of the kids had fun. It was really hot out so we ended the game early so everyone could go get in the water. It was my first time this summer getting in the water and it was really cold I ended up getting thrown in by David for taking too long while getting in. We all had  had a lot of fun in the water with the kids, and even started a splash war!

 

-Andy

 

Picking teams for kickball

Great Day at Carson

Friday was a lot of fun at Carson Beach! We started off the day with a little volleyball game while we waited for the children to arrive. It was very exciting playing volleyball, it was my first time and it was a lot of fun! It was very competitive with Dex and Preston on my team vs Lindsay, Richard, Antonio and D. We lost some games and won a few but I think my team can take on anybody in a volleyball match because of how competitive we played. It's always good trying something different and learning something new. We all went kayaking and had a blast on the water. We splashed and we raced each other,  and my arms were dead when we got back to the beach. I didn't know how much of a workout kayaking was!

-Andy

Today at Courageous sailing center and Community boating

Dancing to "Ride that Pony" with Ruth and the explorers!

Really exciting  day at Courageous Sailing Center! We started off the day by teaching the kids Save the Harbor's new fisherman song, and the "Ride that Pony" song. Some of the harbor explorers loved it, and this got their energy going during an early morning.

Down at the dock, we pulled up the crab traps and collected the different types of crabs. We always catch rock crabs and green crabs, but this week we caught an Asian shore crab, and we told the explorers that the invasive Asian shore crabs are harmful to the animals and their habitat in the harbor. It is best for us to get rid of this species. We also found a little tiny fish in one of the crab traps and put it in the in the touch tank with the other rock and green crabs. After a while being in there, one of the crabs pinched the fish with one claw and the other ripped off his head and started eating it!

Savage the crab during his feast!

All of the harbor explorers were really amazed and named the crab, Savage Crab. Up on the pier there was no luck on catching anything, the kids got really board and didn't want to fish anymore, so they played a fun game of "Ninja" with Luke. In the meantime, I was out trying to catch a fish to bring everyone's faith back, but there was no luck on that. 

On our second site, Community Boating we caught a big mouth bass in the eel trap! We kept it in the touch tank for a while to let the kids look at it, and then put it back because it was too small to keep. Out on the fishing dock we didn't have much luck until the end when two explorers each caught a sunfish. They were proud of themselves for catching them and didn't want to leave when time was up. Hopefully, soon we will catch a fish at Courageous and get the kids' faith back and hopefully catch more than two sunfish, or different kinds of fish at Community Boating.

-Andy

Back with Save The Habor

Hi everyone my name is Andy Gomez and this is my second year here with Save the Harbor. First day of orientation we met all of the senior educators, college students and high school students that are working with STH/STB. We went to George's island, it was my first time being there and I learned a lot about the island. I learned that it was a prison for soldiers in the Civil War and leaned that the place was haunted by the Woman in Black, who tried to help her husband escape and got caught and was executed on that island. Day two of the orientation a professional story teller came in and taught us how to tell stories to the kids. I'm excited to be back for my second year and I can't wait for this summer to begin!

-Andy

Me teaching fishing on the Charles

Quiet day at Courageous

Once again it was a quiet day at Courageous! We did not catch any fish, but the kids are always excited to see the crabs- the crabs never get old with them. They love picking up the crabs to figure out if it's a boy or girl and trying to figure out what kind of crab it is. Today, we caught a really big rock crab, the campers were amazed by how big it was! We also caught a crab that was pregnant and we released it as soon as we found out.

Holding the rock crab, we called him "Crabzilla"

A pregnant green crab

Even though the kids already know that the traps will be filled with crabs, they continue to get excited about seeing them every week. This is one of the reasons why I like working with kids- the are always interested in what we find!

Until next time!

-Andy

A day at courageous and community boating

Today, I stepped away from all access and went to Courageous Sailing Center and Community Boating. At Courageous, Kelly showed the ropes to the kids about how to fish and how to do it safely.

Even though it was quiet fishing at Courageous, we all went down to the dock and pulled up a couple of crab traps. We found a lot of green crabs, a couple of rock crabs and two asian shore crabs. The kids were so excited to see all of the different crabs and wanted to play with them! One of the campers picked up a rock crab and started yelling that the crab had rabies because of all the bubbles that was coming out of the crabs mouth. He threw it back in the water because he was scared, but we explained to him that it was normal. At the end we had a crab race and see who has the fastest crab to crawl and dive in the water first.

At Community Boating we didn't catch anything until the very end when a camper caught a white perch! We put it in the touch tank for everyone to see and all of the kids agreed to name the white perch Freckles.

Andy Gomez

Summer with Save the Habor

This summer has been a great time for me here at Save the Harbor. This was my first job I'd ever had and I loved it. I learned a lot here. I learned how to fish and how to put a hook on correctly. Everyone there are great and fun. All the events were fun and everybody always had a good time. The sites I've been working at are awesome; the kids are great, respectful and fun. This summer I caught so many fish and crabs and I got a chance to bring home three lobsters to eat for dinner. Overall, it was a great summer here at Save the Harbor. Everyone was great and I hope I can come back next year.

                                                                                 -Andy Gomez

Where did the fish go?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             At Community Boating, I don't know what happened but we haven't bee catching as many sunfish as usual. Only a couple have been caught. We still use the same bait which is corn and I think they love corn because I caught seven sunfish with corn and caught one or two eels in the trap for the kids to look at. The kids still cast out their line and hope to catch a fish and when they do catch one they all get excited and gather around to look at it. The other day we let one of the fish go because it was acting weird. I watched the fish swim off but it was swimming on top of the water. After a while a seagull came down and snatched it from the water, I was the only one who saw it.

                                                                                                     -Andy Gomez

 

 

Different Baits

At Courageous Sailing center we use squid as bait. I've never seen a squid before. We use shiners fish as well. We hooked the shiners fish alive; it was cool how it was still alive. We didn't catch anything but we did in the traps we have. We caught a lot of crabs as always and lots of sea stars. Some of us played four square with the  kids and they take the game very seriously. The sea stars we catch love to stick to the crabs or mussels. It's very cool how they stick on things with their millions of tiny legs.

-Andy Gomez

Beach Bash Splash

Friday was my first time working at the Beach Bash Splash event. It was really awesome and fun. There were a lot of kids there and they were having fun. I never thought how much fun it was going to be. All the kids were being active; they were playing sports or in the water, not one kid was sitting. People who didn't go in the water got thrown in- it was really funny. The kids got involved too, throwing buckets of water at us. It was a great time and good experience.

-Andy

The Hidden Trap

At Courageous Sailing Center we got two new lobster traps. There were two broken lobster traps and finally pulled up a lobster trap that we never pulled up. Finally we decided to pull it up and look at it. When we did pull it up there were three lobsters in it. We wasn't for sure how long they were in there but they were alive. One of them was stuck in the bait bag and we thought it was dead because we haven't pick up this trap. But it wasn't.

 

                                                                                                                                                                 
We caught some sea stars in the lobster trap. It was my first time ever seeing the sea stars with my own eyes. It was really cool. I learned that sea stars are their real name and not star fish.

                             -Andy Gomez

The Fish School

We usually get a small group of kids at Community Boating because most of them have sailing classes and no time to fish. But today, one of the kids came ready to fish with his own fishing pole and tackle box.  As soon as he put the bait on and release the line he caught a sunfish. He was really surprised and proud he caught a fish in less than five seconds. After classes were over more kids came and they started catching sunfish out of no where and they were excited. After ten minutes they had a total of about thirteen sunfish. When the day was almost over they were still fishing but not catching anything but they were still satisfied with how much sunfish they caught.

                                                                                                               -Andy Gomez

Different Sites, New Start

First day back at work from the long weekend, and I got a chance to go to a new site, and my morning at Community Boating Incorporated turned out to be great. I caught four sunfish in the first few minutes on the job. I caught the sunfish by using corn as bait and I guess they loved it. We also caught two eels in the eel trap. This is the first time I have ever seen an eel up so close. They were really slimy and their color turned from brown to yellow after being in the touch tank for a while. We took both eels and two fish that we caught and use them for bait for our second site at Courageous Sailing Center in Charlestown. I got to to use the eels as live bait. I didn't catch anything, but it was cool using live bait.
                                        
                      
-Andy Gomez

Hot day at Piers Park

This week at Piers Park we caught the most crabs we have ever caught before. The kids were so amazed in how many crabs we caught. There were over twenty crabs, two rock crabs and the rest were green crabs.
In the past few weeks we weren't getting any crabs, so we decided to leave the crab trap over night to see if we could catch more and it worked. The kids love to play with and pick up the crabs, they also love doing crab races but sometimes the kids play to much with the crabs that they're to tired for the race. They also love the game drip, drip, drench -we played it before we went out to the docks. They have so much fun, they never stop laughing and their energy never gives out.

kids pulling up the crab trap

-Andy Gomez

Lobster for dinner

This week at McDonough we caught more lobsters in the lobster trap. I got a chance to take three lobsters to my aunt's house for dinner on her birthday. At first no one wanted to take the lobsters home, but then Sam suggested to take them home because I told him it was my aunt's birthday. She had me cook the lobsters for the family and they were easy to cook. I grabbed a big pot and boiled water in it, then put butter in the pot. After a while I put one lobster in and let it sit for twenty minutes to cook. Then, I did the same with the second and third lobsters. The lobsters fed five people in our house out of nine- the other four didn't want to try them. This all happened last minute, I didn't expect to bring back dinner for my aunt and my family but the day ended well and the meal was great.

-Andy Gomez

The rain can't stop us!

This week has been a good week so far, but the weather has been crazy. We had a whole new group of kids at Piers Park and they were so excited to fish. We caught our first fish of the summer at Piers on Monday and the kids were going wild and were exited to see the sea robin.

Today, the kids would not let the rain stop them from fishing. Before the rain started the kids came to the park and we hurried our way to the dock to get a good fishing time in. After 30 minutes the rain came down hard and we heard thunder. After the rain slowed, we went out to the dock to fish with the kids. We only caught crabs but the kids were still happy to be out there. After a while we ran out of bait so the kids and some of the JPAs made two teams and we had a contest who could cast out their line the farthest and the kids really enjoyed it.
                                                      -Andy Gomez

McDonough sailing center

This week was really intense at McDonough, we caught so many crabs this week. I think the kids caught over 80 crabs plus one big spider crab. Everyone was going crazy when the little boy caught the spider crab with the fishing pole. The kids were so excited to see the huge crab, some of them were very scared to pick it up but faced their fear and did it.

 

Yesterday I went to go pick up the lobster trap and there were four of them, we let one go because it was a baby so we brought back three big lobsters to the dock. All of the kids were going crazy when they saw the lobster, they didn't expect us to bring some back, they were really happy to see them up close and pick them up. It was my first time seeing a lobster up close and picking it up so it was a great time for me as well. Some of the kids wanted to bring them home and keep them as pets. The parents were also surprised by how big the lobsters were and took pictures. At the end Sam took all three lobster home to eat them for dinner. 

                                         

-Andy Gomez