Marine Life on the Harbor

Hi everyone,

This was our first full week at the Save the Harbor sites, and we were busy! On Monday, we started the day at Courageous Sailing Center, where we pulled up some lobster traps and took a look at what was inside. We caught our first lobster, and the kids were very excited to hold the lobster and get a closer look. We made sure to put rubber bands on its claws before we took it out to show the kids. We also caught several green crabs, a rock crab, some starfish, and two tiny fish. The kids spent a lot of time looking through the lobster trap to see what we caught, naming the animals, and taking pictures of them.

Holding a lobster and starfish that we caught in the trap

Later that day, we went to Community Boating on the Esplanade. Here, we help out with an environmental science class, where students learn about the history of the harbor and how we can keep the Charles River clean and healthy. After talking with the students about the harbor and the river, we went out to the lagoon to go fishing. At the end of the day, I saw a kid catch a fish for the first time! It was a great reward to have caught a fish after spending so much time fishing over the past week and not catching anything. He caught a small sunfish.

Our first catch at Community Boating!

On Tuesday at Community Boating, we talked to the kids about the history of the Harbor Islands, and many didn’t know that at one point, Spectacle Island was used as a landfill for trash. We also talked about how long different types of trash (paper, aluminum, plastic, and Styrofoam) take to decompose and about the importance of recycling. To finish the afternoon, we went kayaking in the lagoons along the Charles River, and we found a baby painted turtle sitting on a lily pad. We also told the kids to keep an eye out for trash, and are planning to do a trash-pickup in the river next time we go kayaking.

On Wednesday, I went to Carson Beach, and I had a ton of fun playing with campers on the beach. When the tide was low, the kids and I had a great time looking for snails and hermit crabs in the ocean. The kids engineered a tide pool and waterway to house the animals they caught. Overall, it was a great day, and we were all excited to get a closer look at the wildlife at Carson Beach.

Until next time,

Grace

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

Patience is a Virtue

Hello again fellow explorers!

For anyone that has been fishing before, you know that over everything you need to be PATIENT! For some of the young harbor explorers in our programs, the concept of patience is nonexistent. As a result, they are always looking for other ways to stimulate their energetic minds while they're waiting for that fishing rod to land a monster fish!

#1 on the race track and #1 in your heart

With little to no yield in fishing off the dock at Courageous in past weeks, we came prepared with a wide variety of activities and games to preoccupy the campers. Everyone's favorite event so far has been the crab races. After collecting crabs from our multiple lobster traps on the Courageous dock, everyone (counselors included) picks their favorite crab in hopes that he will be the first to reach the water. Once the race begins, it's pure chaos on the docks. Everyone cheering on their crab until every last one has reached the ocean. This week I was fortunate to pick the winning crab, and of course I took a few moments to bask in the glory of winning the race.

Overseeing a close game of Ninja

Another crowd favorite this week has been Ninja! While it can get slightly violent, Ninja is a great game to keep everyone active and entertained. Everyone playing stands in a circle, and strikes a ninja pose to begin the game. Then going in clockwise order, each person makes one fluent "ninja" move at someone else in the circle, attempting to land a hit on an arm. When someone is hit in the arm, they then "lose" that arm and must continue playing with only one arm. When both of your arms are lost, you are out. The campers would be totally content with playing Ninja for the entire day if we let them, but we have to continue to explore the wonderful waterways that surround our beautiful city.

In addition to games, artwork has become a key component to every day life at courageous. From fish printing to drawing imaginary sea creatures, we've seen some future Van Goh's materializing before our eyes. Overall Courageous has been a site teeming with ocean life, excitement, and creativity. I look forward to coming back every week and learning something new just like the campers!

Until next time, keep on exploring!
-Luke

Courageous Crabs

The life of a crab can be difficult. One minute you're chomping down on an all you can eat mackerel buffet, and the next minute you're skyrocketing to the surface in what you now realize is a lobster trap. Once on the surface there's multiple kids surrounding your metal prison all eager to find out just what you are. Fret not! for our highly trained staff at Save the Harbor has prepared these young ones to handle you with care and compassion.

Take notes, this is how you hold a crab properly 

Once the initial shell shock (pun intended) has subsided, and you've had a chance to calm down, you see that the surface isn't all that bad. The strange clear force field you're not subjected to is baffling, but it's filled with water and also the same crabs you had just been enjoying a nice meal with in the

Friends till the end!

lobster trap. The occasional hand reaches in to pick you up and take a look, but more often than not the ordeal finishes with the flash of a camera. It seems all eyes are on you (quite literally) and there's no time for stage fright because someone in a blue collared shirt is explaining almost everything there is to know about you in great detail. At this point you're feeling pretty flattered, and once you get back in the tank you're beaming with confidence.

Then there is an uneasy calm before the storm. After a few minutes of peace and quite, suddenly hands are flying in from every direction, you have no idea what's going on when you're picked up by a small child and placed behind a broom stick. Since the stick is too high to see over, your mind is racing with possibilities of what is on the other side. You have no idea what to expect when the broom is lifted, and then your filled with a jolt of excitement when you see the edge of the water within sprinting distance!

And they're off!

Amidst the thundering cheers of what feels like a stadium full of fans, you and your other crab friends make a mad dash for the ocean. It's within your grasp! Just a few more feet and then SPLASH! The cool ocean water is a sign of relief, as you now can relax and float gently back to the ocean floor you call home. All is well again and life can resume back to normal.....

That is, until you come across another tasty all you can eat mackerel buffet!

Until next time, keep on exploring!

-Luke

Sun, fun, sea stars, beach stars!

Hello Friends of STH/STB!

What a week! I should be exhausted, scientifically speaking, but I have enjoyed every single minute of this week, so instead, I'm bubbling over with energy!

Clam risking it, driving a speed boat without a license!

First things first: watch this video! It is only five seconds long, pay attention to the first two seconds for a chorus spouts of water to the left of Annie's feet. They're from clams! This is my favorite discovery of the week- having kids hop up and down to find clams under the sand! I have been to the beach hundreds of times in my life, and never before have I noticed clams squirting through the sand. Now I know exactly what to look for, and kids (and their grown-ups, sometimes) LOVE to help us find where to dig, even if they are scared of touching the sand themselves!

The clams kids hop to look for!

Many kids don't just jump- they dig too! Up to the right, Santiago from the YMCA decided his clams might be bored. He let one lucky clam drive a speedboat, which admittedly, is probably more fun than wiggling around in the sand. Santi had so much fun that he approached our JPAs at the end of the day and asked who we were, and if he could work for us. Sure, he's only 9, but he held up eight fingers and said "I will be back in this many years for a job!" Keep your eyes out for this one, Bruce, he's applying early! This clam-hunting happened at Carson Beach, and we decided to use this activity at the Eastie campfire on Thursday night-check out next week's blog for more information on that!

Other discoveries this week came in rapid-fire succession because I was able to switch to two new locations: Courageous Sailing and Community Boating Inc.! Both locations have breath-taking views, energetic kids, helpful staff and lots of sea-critters to enjoy!

The view from Courageous- I will never want a cubicle job after this!

Crabzilla, a normal rock crab with a big name!

At Courageous Sailing, we have four or five big crab traps. We start our morning down on the docks, strapped into our life-jackets, ready to dodge whatever the sea-squirts spit at us. I was very nervous about starting two new cites on Wednesday, but my Lead Harbor Explorer, Lucas, had everything under control, and helped me learn the ropes! He and Andy, one of our JPAs, hauled up the traps while Ruth, a JPA and dock-boogy-extraordinaire, cut up frozen fish to use as bait. I met some new sea creatures this week, including a rock crab we named Crabzilla! Our sailers wanted him to win the crab race, but rock-crab-motivation is not one of our specialties (or anyone's, really.) I saw a sea star spit its stomach out in order to munch on a mussel, and helped kids identify "pregnant" moon jellies (pink rings, ready for spawning!) We did fish prints with Ruth, and decided by popular vote that I should dissect the flounder after it was used for art. We found what we expected to inside the flounder, not  totally intact after defrosting and smushing the flounder on rice paper with dye... but the campers loved it!

Sea star eating a mussel! 

Jake attacking the city of Boston with his sea monster creation! Beware: part Great White, part Lady's Comb Jellyfish, part sea worm, all real beasts of the Atlantic combined into an imaginary monster! 

Afterwards, I had a few drawing contests with kids at Courageous, and lost most of them! The challenge is to combine a familiar species from the guidebook with another, unfamiliar creature to make a scary (or interesting) sea monster, and we have other kids judge whose is scariest! Jake was so excited that he kept finding new creatures in the guidebook, and adding them on to his creature. Then, we pretended to attack the city of Boston with our worm-shark-jelly monster (others joined in as they waited for fishing rods to free-up!)

Despite being in imaginary peril, the city of Boston and its communities amazed me this week. I will explain more about Community Boating in my next post, but here is one anecdote to close this week. As we put our paddles away after kayaking, one of the counselors pulled Ruth and I aside and told us that she grew up with Save the Harbor. She said she was amazed by the biodiversity STH/STB helped her experience as a child, and she decided to study marine biology because of it. "You guys make an impact, please know how important that was to me," she said, pausing with our paddles to smile and nod at the kids behind us.

We make a difference. We have to remember that, and we have to keep it up for the kids we work with today.

Go jump around in the sand!
Carolyn

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

Reunited and it Feels So Good

Hello again fellow adventurers!

Not only will I be discovering new and exciting things at Piers Park this summer, but I will also be returning to both Community Boating and Courageous Sailing Center from last summer! The past two days have been spent reminiscing on the great times I had at both CBI and Courageous such a short time ago, and I can say that I am more than excited to be back!

Kayak Selfie!

One resource that was drastically under-used last summer was the kayaks at Community Boating, well this year that was going to change, as we have taken full advantage of them. The narrow alcoves that run along side the mighty Charles river have proven to be the perfect spot to explore and exercise in the kayaks. Even though the fear of falling in is always in the back of my head, it's worth the risk to be able to explore the river.

Everyone say...Green crab!

Meanwhile at Courageous, the multiple lobster traps we have positioned along the dock have continued their mesmerizing ways from last summer into this one. It's almost impossible to hold back the kid's excitement as we pull up each trap one after the other. Hearing the kids scream in disgust and awe at all of the sea squirts that have taken up position along the length of rope that holds up each trap. Of course over anything the kids go CRAZY for the dozens of crabs we find in each trap. It's a mad concoction of grabbing hands and giggling laughter from everyone as they pick up the crabs and show off their little friends to each other. They would spend hours on those docks with just one Green crab if they had the opportunity to do so.

I know there will be more excitement to come throughout the summer and I will continue to share all of the wonderful discoveries we make with all of you.

Until next time, keep on exploring!
-Luke

The Charles River: a VERY Interactive Experience

there were enough crabs for EVERYONE!

         Hi again! Instead of the usual Carson Beach routine, on Wednesdays and Thursdays I am at Courageous Sailing Center and Community Boating on the Charles. These sites have had some amazing makeovers and are even more more fun than last year. At Courageous we met some EXTREMELY excited kids. Their excitement to get out on the dock and pull up traps was very motivating. The ropes of the traps were completely covered in barnacles, sea squirts and mussels. Some of them were so encased in sea life that it was almost impossible to pull the traps up, but we were well rewarded for all the effort we put in. The traps were absolutely covered in two types of crabs (green and rock), as well as sea squirts, a few lobster claws and an enormous sea star.

After such success we hoped for the same with the fishing- unfortunately, none of the fish were cooperating with us. They did, however, gain important knowledge about harbor life, fishing safety and how to cast. It was a lot of fun teaching the kids about bait and how fishing rods worked. Children have this insatiable excitement for the world around them and they bring out that excited little kid in everyone. Even though our hooks came up empty, they were excited for next time, as am I!

Crab Racing at Courageous

After Courageous' great turn out, we made our way over to Community Boating on the Charles River. That was also A LOT of fun, I had never been to Community Boating so it was a great new experience. The kids were just as excited to fish in the Charles River as they were at Courageous. And we were much more productive in the Charles. We caught a white perch, which we promptly named Freckles- the name most definitely fit. It was a really pretty fish with silvery grey scales and sharp spines on the back. We were very safe handling the fish and it happily swam away once we released it. After fishing, we quickly hopped into the kayaks for a quick paddle in the inner parts of the Charles. We had quite a few races including racing backwards, and an impromptu obstacle course involving buoys, moored sail boats and a lot of happy campers. I had a lot of trouble maneuvering away from happy splashing and docking.

I had quite the happy train ride home

Freckles looking very dapper 

while smelling of the Charles. But with Save the Harbor's immense cleaning up effort, it was only the faint smell of fish and nothing more.
I really love the sites I was placed at this summer and I hope to come see some of your happy faces if not at Carson Beach then at Courageous Sailing Center or at Community Boating on the Charles.

Stay safe in the sun,
Ruth Scott

First Day at Courageous Sailing Center and Community Boating!

Today was our first day out at Courageous Sailing Center and Community Boating! After an early morning staff meeting I was eager to get out on the water to catch some awesome critters. My team- Luke, Ruth and Andy- started our day off at Courageous Sailing Center in Charlestown where we had a chance to get our gear set up and ready for a chalk-talk with our stage 2 sailors! We had an incredible group of ten 9-12 year olds who were all ready to learn about the harbor and to try their hand at fishing. First, we gathered around on the pier to talk about Boston Harbor and the types of animals we would see, as well as learn how to safely use a fishing rod! 

Chatting about Boston Harbor and site safety before heading down to the dock!

We decided we would first pull up all of our lobster traps on the dock to see what we could find. We pulled up five traps and caught tons of interesting creatures! The first thing we saw was the ever-present green crab, an invasive species in our waters, we talked about how to tell if it was a male or female crab, then I explained how they could identify it! Green crabs have 5 points on either side of their eyes- and the word 'green' has 5 letters- voilå! We also found sea stars, rock crabs, asian shore crabs, jellies, a sculpin, 2 rock gunnels, and a bergall! After baiting all of the traps and hauling them back into the water, we made our way back up to the pier to fish. While we had plenty of bait, we didn't catch anything- but I am hopeful for tomorrow!  

We found tons of green crabs!

After we packed up at Courageous Sailing Center it was time to go over to Community Boating, Inc. on the Charles River. When we first got there we talked about marine debris with their Environmental Educator, Chelsea. We then baited the eel trap in hopes of catching one while we fished, and decided to walk down to the public docks around the river to see if we could catch some sunfish! It was a hot day- but there was a beautiful breeze on the river so we didn't mind the walk. 

Once we got to the public docks we set the kids up with fishing rods and bait. It took us about 40 minutes of fishing and two locations to catch something- but we did it! One of the campers reeled in a beautiful white perch, and everyone was very excited to see it- we all gathered around the touch tank and decided to call him Freckles. Once we released Freckles back into the river we went back to the sailing center to check the eel trap. Unfortunately, the trap was empty. Since eels are nocturnal and hunt at night we decided to leave some bait in the trap overnight to see if we can catch some by tomorrow afternoon! 

Freckles the white perch!

 -Kelly Randall-

Fishing, Sometimes Catching

This summer, one of the things I'm most proud to have learned is how to fish! Before working for Save the Harbor / Save the Bay, I had never been fishing and it was only something that vaguely interested me. I'm a scuba diver at heart and seeing fish while underwater is more my thing.

However, since the beginning of the Boston Harbor Explorers program, I have been eagerly learning the best ways to fish in certain areas, best baits to try, the frustrations of not catching anything, and most importantly, how great it is to teach a child to fish and have them actually catch something.

The first fish I caught at the Fan Pier Fishing Tournament

We didn't catch anything at either site for about three weeks. But at Community Boating, as the water grew warmer and we perfected out technique, we started catching more and more sunfish. Pretty soon we had more than we even knew what to do with. We are still trying different things to try and catch a different freshwater fish. But as I now know, fishing takes lots of patience.

Putting bait on a line at CBI

At Courageous, we fish from the pier or the dock and we've tried many types of bait. We have used mackerel, herring, quahogs, crabs, mussels, squid, and even live eels. Despite all our efforts, we have not managed to catch anything there. I think it's just a tough spot with a lot of boat traffic. We have occasionally spotted fish, but they are too smart to fall for our tricks. Our Save the Harbor staff and the explorers are definitely optimistic and we will keep trying until the end of the summer.

Fishing at Courageous

I'm so glad that I have learned these lifelong skills and will continue to try and catch the big one.


Keep casting your lines,
Sej

Life Finds a Way

The other day at Courageous Sailing Center was really fun because so many interesting and surprising things happened. We were checking our traps and we found all the fun stuff we usually find in them (like crabs, sea stars, tunicates, and small fish). However, we realized that we are not exactly sure how many traps we have put down at Courageous over the years, so we decided to check a couple of places where we assumed there was nothing on the end of the line.

Most of the lines were just tangled into a big not, some ended in buoys, but one line was really cool. It didn't have  a trap on the end, but it was covered in life. It was overgrown with tiny little mussels, some larger mussels, seaweed, tunicates, amphipods, and skeleton shrimp!

Crawling with life!

We pulled it out of the water and immediately saw that it was a habitat of it's own. It was like a small intertidal zone attached to the dock. The whole thing looked alive with the tiny creatures jumping around.

Skeleton shrimp are really cool too. I had never touched them before and it was weird to feel them sticking on to my hands with their little grasping appendages. They look like tiny marine stick insects.

Skeleton shrimp

Another cool thing we saw by the dock that we had never seen were crabs hiding in the cracks in the pilings of the pier. One of our sharp-eyed explorers saw that small crabs had gotten in there, probably at high tide, and stayed waiting until the tide rose again. We kept looking and found that there were crabs in every crack that was wide and deep enough to hold a crab or a few.

Can you see the tiny crab claws?

I think it just goes to show that there is always life in unexpected places when it comes to the ocean. Through millions of years of adaptation and evolution, animals have found ways to take advantage of every possible situation they might find themselves in. I thought we would have explored all there was to see around Courageous by the end of the summer, but there are always more mysteries to explore in the harbor.


Keep on exploring,
Sej

CBI & Carougeous sailing

Last week i spent most of my time at Community boating and courageous sailing center. We caught a bunch of little fishes. There was this one kid who cased his rod in the water and in about 5 sec he caught a fish. It was really funny and exciting, because it was my first time seeing someone catch a fish that fast. By the time he left he had about 8 fishes total.
    After Community boating we headed to courageous sailing center. we found a trap that contained 3 big lobsters.We measured all 3 of them and you could actually  eat them.

Luke picking up a big crab

Till next time

Abdullah Abdi

The Eww Factor: Part 2 (Courageous Sailing Center)

Hello again!

So I've filled you all in on the disgusting (and really cool!) things we do at Community Boating, but the fun doesn't stop there. We have a whole host of nasty things going on at Courageous Sailing Center as well. From all the stuff growing on our lobster traps to the different kinds of bait we use, there's always something you can get your hands dirty with at Courageous. Here are some of my favorites:

Mussels: 

Mussel insides- the small, dark lump is its heart

Mussels are abundant at Courageous. On the sides of the dock, on the pilings, and even on several of our traps. We can always find mussels, and in a pinch, they make great bait. However, if you've ever cracked an uncooked mussel, you will know that what's inside the shell is not always the most fun to deal with. In fact, it's usually a goopy, orange mess. But we scoop out the meat, try to get it on a rod, and cast off gently so our bait doesn't go flying into the harbor.

Mussels work better to bait traps with: we just gather a whole lot, crack their shells so the lobsters and crabs can get a good whiff and put them in the traps. The mussels often have lots of little amphipods on and around them, or even better, are covered in a nice black mud.

Cracking mussels to use as bait

Baked Bait Fish:

At least the flies like it

Another gross thing that we get to do at Courageous is put our bait fish on the hooks for fishing. Usually this is fine, if the bait has not been baked by the heat of the day and seared by the sun to be a flaky and smelly mess. The bait can get so baked that if you cooked a fish you were intending to eat to the same extent, food critics would say your fish was very overcooked. 

All chopped up and ready to go

Then there comes the near-impossible task of getting the bait to stay on the hook. Once it is consistently flaking off, we resort to mussels, even though they slip and slide off the hook just as easily... 

Tunicates: 

Tunicates, or sea squirts, are a unique type of invertebrate that is actually quite closely related to humans. They can live as individuals or colonies that encrust over a surface. Tunicates have very simple body plans: they are shaped like a sac and have two openings, one to take in water and one to expel water. They come in various shades of brown to orange and are slimy to the touch. 

Colonial tunicates growing over mussels

At Courageous, we find tunicate slime encrusting our lobster traps, the lines that tie those traps to the dock, and even sometimes on crabs! One grossed-out explorer exclaimed that it looked like something had vomited on our trap. 

The individual tunicates are like slimy sacs of water, and when you squeeze them, water shoots out of one (or both) of their siphons. It's hard to tell where exactly the siphons are so the water shoots out in random directions, often hitting someone nearby unexpectedly. 

His face says it all

So those are some of the less pleasant things going on at Courageous this summer. Community Boating and Courageous are different for many reasons, but I'll let you decide which site is more disgusting. 

Keep getting your hands dirty, 

Sej

We tried to wash the tunicated off our traps...

50 Crabs & 3 Lobsters

Hello everyone!

I have to say that working at Courageous Sailing Center has been really fun. I've seen all sorts of amazing and unexpected things and been able to share these experiences with the explorers and instructors at Courageous and the staff of Save the Harbor.

One of the coolest things that has happened there this summer was the day we caught over 50 green crabs. We have several lobster traps at Courageous and there are often crabs in them, but last week there were so many crabs in every single trap that we decided to collect them and count how many we had. Many of the campers were fascinated to see how many crabs there were and how many there might be crawling around all over the harbor.

Grab a crab!

Another amazing thing that happened at Courageous is when we caught three lobsters in a trap we did not even know was there! Save the Harbor has been working with Courageous for years so we have put traps down on lines that are often hard to see. At first we thought there were just two big lobsters in the trap, but I noticed that the bait bag seemed really full... Turns out it was full of lobster! Another smaller lobster was squeezed in there so tightly that we thought it might not be alive. 

There's a lobster in there!

I slowly opened the bait bag and it started trying to move around. We eased it out carefully because its claws and many spines kept getting snagged on the mesh, but eventually it was free! 

Almost free!

Catching three lobsters after only having caught one or two sporadically the whole season was very unexpected, but hopefully we will catch more now that we have new traps and we know how many traps we need to check. I also think that we will succeed in catching a fish with a rod one of these days, as long as we just keep trying!

A beautiful day for fishing at Courageous

See you on the dock, 

Sej

Lobsters at Courageous

First time banding lobsters

 Oh my goodness!!! We caught lobsters at Courageous!!! There are so many lobster traps that we have at Courageous and we finally caught something other then crabs. As soon as we got there we checked the trap and put them in the floating crate and left it in the shade. As soon as some kids came we went to the end of the dock and checked every trap with the kids. We also had two new traps that Sam brought there for us to place so we did that with the kids too.

I learned how to band lobsters on Tuesday which was pretty awesome and very difficult. Luke held the lobster and Andy held its claws closed so that I could band it. Since it was my first time doing this I was so confused on how to do it and didn't know how to get the tool off once I had the band on it. But I figured it out and I definitely want to do it again since it was really cool. 

Sej getting the lobster out of the bait bag

There is actually a funny story about how we got one of the lobsters out. One of the lobsters was stuck in the bait bag. My theory is that it was just being greedy and crawled into the bait bag and just couldn't get out. At first we thought it was dead but once Sej started peeling back the bait bag it moved a little bit. I hope that no more lobsters get stuck because I'm sure the lobster wasn't too happy about being stuck and who knows maybe if we would have waited longer then it could have died. I don't think anyone wants that to happen. 

Until next time,

Esmeralda