On Monday we finally got the crab traps from the office and placed it in the water where the dock is, at Camp HarborView. This provided for more excitement and activities for the campers, along with the precense of a sea animal to make up for our lack of fish catching. When we first arrived at Camp HarborView the first thing we did was place the Traps in the water and when we went to go check it out with our first group of campers we happy to find that there were about six or seven crabs in the trap. The crabs ranged from big ones to small one, and from rock crabs to spider crabs. These crabs were also massive and made me wonder if they were these big last summer.

For The Love of Clingy

At McDonough Sailing Center a young girl was fascinated by all the crabs that we had in the touch tank. She was really into the crabs, especially two of them. One a toddler crab that she called "Runner" because every time she put it down it would just try to walk and escape from where ever it was at. It was very cool to see how she connected with the crab so much to give it a name. But that was not her favorite crab. Her favorite crab was a small and delicate baby crab. She called the crab "Clingy" because if she held it long enough it would begin to hold on, or cling, to her hand. She would walk around with clingy and show everybody how small he was. She would even let him walk on the deck to see how fast he would move or where he would go. She kept doing this until something tragic happened, Clingy fell through a crack on the dock and they could not seem to get him out. The kids tried to hold bait in front of him in order to see if he would vote it and pull him up, but he didn't. It wasn't until the little girl was probably moments from tears that Lindsay and I had to spend about 5 minutes trying to finagle the baby crab out of the crack. Once he was out and she was relieved she left Clingy in the touch tank and made sure no one would take him out in order for nothing bad to happen again.

A New Day

He caught a fish.

Yesterday, we worked at The Children's Museum. We started to work at 10 am. We set up two crab traps and fishing rods. I got ocean water by a bucket and then I put water into the container. We caught so much crabs. The children want to fishing, we helped the children. Some of the children want to hold the crabs. They played with the crab. Some of them got scare. A boy caught a fish.

They are holding the crabs.

My co-worker caught two fishes. We got more crabs, we had lunch at 1 pm. We released all the crabs. We changed the water. We caught so much crab. The children were fishing and pulled the traps up. They like to touch the crabs. After that, children helped us to released all the crabs. We left The Children's Museum at 4 pm.

Met People From Different Places

This boy caught a big fish.

Hi, everyone. Today, we worked at the Children's Museum. We had a lot of fun. We brought all the supplies from the Children's Museum. We set up two crab traps. We met a family that are traveling from Korea. They came to the Children's Museum to fish and crab with us yesterday. Today, they came to the Children's Museum again. They were fishing and crabbing. They caught four fish with a rod. They helped us pull up two crab traps. They were so excited. They took a lot of pictures of us. 

This boy was fishing.

We told them about our job. We told them where the crabs came from and how to tell if the crab was male or female. A child in that family caught a big fish by himself. He was happy. We met another family from France. Their child caught a fish. Some of the children saw the crabs and fish. Some of them were fishing. At the end, we threw crabs and fish back to the ocean. 

See you tomorrow, Hung.

Technology-Ridden Office

       Little do people know, the moment they step into the Save the Harbor office, they are stepping into a land of marine science in every nook and cranny. We have evolved from our 4 or 5 desktop computers from the summer of 2009 to 5 more Macbooks last year to 6 more Google Chrome books this summer.

Blogging in the office

       The office now has mobile hotspots that allow us to have internet access everywhere we go to blog about the amazing things that we do for the kids we have at the eight sites along the Harbor. I can't believe how accessible everything is now and it has been incredible to see how much more our influence can spread with our new technology. Blogs can be written, edited, and published in a blink of an eye. Emails can be sent within seconds.

The first spider crab in our crab traps!

       For a first hand experience, the moment I click the capture picture button on the camera, I can upload it to our photobucket folder and be used in our blog as soon as possible. So many things are possible now and   everyone can see how we progress through the week with our new field guides so we can identify each and every creature that passes our line of sight.

Pulling up the crab trap!

       Besides the laptops that reside in the office and the Chrome books that follow our Senior staff at all sights, there are also new crab traps and lobster traps that are much more efficient in grabbing up the interesting animals living in the harbor to put in our touch tanks to show the thousands of kids throughout the summer. If kids are interested in chemistry and how the quality of the ocean water changes often, they can use our water quality tests that can be recorded in our logbooks.

With the dipnets and the touch tank!

       Another great device that has come into the hands of our staff are our underwater cameras! They can just be lowered into the water and a whole other world can be seen in a 3" by 5" screen.

       I love our new technology and although we have come all this way and have all of these gadgets, I would love to see how much more equipped we can be in the future! We still have many parts of our program that can be more effective and nudged along until we reach the maximum preparedness to spread our message of loving the harbor and doing our part of the responsibility to keep it clean.

Stay updated,

Thi Tran

A hot day

Today was a hot day, we worked at The Children's Museum, we were fishing and crabbing. We caught so many crabs and fish. We helped the children fish, we put the crabs in the bucket and we showed the children which crab is male and which crab is female. At 1pm, we went to Castle Island in South Boston. It was very hot at South Boston beach. We bought the food to eat for lunch. We saw some children eating and drinking, some of them were crabbing and some of them were swimming. We helped the children catch the crabs and fish. After that, we went to the office, some of my co-workers stayed there to help the children.

I was teaching a child to fish.

                                             

Week One and Done

Hi, my name is Myriam Annie Desir, and I am from Save the Harbor, Save the Bay.  Yesterday, Sarah, others staff members, and I went fishing with kids.

lifting the lobster trap with kids

making differences between the green the others crabs. <3

The kids enjoying fishing, talking, asking questions and touching the creatures that we caught earlier; beautiful starfish, different kinds of crabs, different types of fish, and lobsters. We helped the kids by showing them how to fish as well as identifying the different types of fish and crabs that were caught. At some point, we knew that the kids liked fishing and they also liked spending time with us. Anytime you all want to come enjoy fishing with us do not hesitate to come.
   

crabs race

                               
So far, we caught 25 crabs in the crab trap which the kids called Crabs Reunion, including 1 big crab whom the kids named Mr. Crabs. We proposed a crabs race between the green crabs and the red rock crabs, each kid picked up one crab to enter in the race, and the winner was determined by which ever crab made it from the dock to the ocean first. It was a close one, but the green crabs made it to the water for his freedom.
   

fishing with the kids

so far, it was a great summer fishing with kids .We hope you stop by and fishing with us.
see you there!

Thank you bye.

  Myriam Annie Desir.

Celebrating Birthdays: Save the Harbor Style

What better way to celebrate your birthday than fishing off the pier at the Boston Children’s Museum!  Yesterday, Mark and I both celebrated turning a year older (and hopefully wiser!) while showing kids the art of crabbing and fishing at the Boston Children’s Museum. 

Birthday twins

Team Children’s Museum has been a crab-catching-machine the past three days.  We have caught 61 crabs along with two fish, a baby Flounder and Striped Bass and cannot wait to get back on the pier tomorrow!  The families visiting the Children's Museum have loved the touch tank filled with crabs and the ability to fish - some for the very first time! 

Rowan excited about fishing for the first time

The Junior Program Assistants (JPA) have been doing a great job educating the kids on how to identify male and female crabs, the different types of crabs caught, and how to hold a crab without getting pinched.  As one of the kids said yesterday, "I don't want that crabby pinching off my fingers!"  Not only are the JPA's well educated in identifying different types of sea creatures, they also know what bait attracts the most crabs.  Veteran Junior Program Assistant, Ahmed, was quick to think of a solution for our absence of crabs this morning: hot dogs.  We purchased hot dogs from a local store and it was an instant success.  We were soon catching more crabs than ever and the kids couldn't believe the crabs liked hot dogs as much as they do!  I mean, who doesn't love hot dogs?!

Nhu showing off the crabs we've caught

Between birthdays and hot dogs things are heating up at the Boston Children's Museum.  Stay tuned to see what we catch next!

-Bridget

Marginal Teeth, GREEN CRABS

The Boston children's museum is a very interesting site. We work with younger children so we usually have to explain to them what to do, but today I met some interesting children. I met an eight year old child who knew everything that I knew. It was cool because when explaining to a child what makes a green crab a green crab we usually do not use words they can't understand. We explain that the sharp parts on the upper torso spell out "Green" because of the five spikes. One of the children knew that the "spikes" were actually called Marginal Teeth.

I also explained to the child the difference between a male and female crab. The triangle on the torso of the crab for a male is narrow and for a female its wide. It is wide because it carries eggs. The child knew all the things I was talking about.

-Ahmed Hassan

Bravery at the Museum!

What another great week at Bostons Children's Museum and Community Boating. This week kids were more brave with touching and holding the crabs. We had one kid who came for the whole week. He wouldn't hold the crab but he was very happy and excited to touch and learn about it. Also fishing at community boating was a hit. Two of the kids went fishing for their first time and one caught a sunfish. Back at the Museum not many kids caught fish but they did pull up the crab trap and see how the crabs were being caught right there. Also, while trying to fish for a fish or something greater at the museum, the fishing rod flew into the water with a tough tug as if a sea monster was in there. From then on the museum will always be a mystery fishing spot. As for next week I cant wait to see what's next!

Fantastic Fishing, Delilah Burgos 

Profile: Boston Children's Museum

Hey Harbor Explorers!

One of Save the Harbor/ Save the Bay’s main goals is to reach out to the youth of the Boston area. We run two free youth environmental education programs which are the All Access Program and the Harbor Explorers Program.  Through different sites around the harbor, each summer, these programs teach children to love and enjoy all that the harbor has to offer. We will be sharing little snapshots of each of these locations with you so that you can see what makes each of these programs special.  

An important site in the Harbor Explorers Program is the Boston Children’s Museum. Boston Children's Museum is a great place for Save the Harbor to reach out and bring the harbor to life for many of the young children visiting the museum. The Boston Children's Museum is a great example of hands-on learning. Since 1913, the museum has been engaging both children and adults, and allowing them to discover new and exciting educational experiences. The Children's Museum is dedicated to developing a love of learning for every child who walks through its doors. This is what makes BCM a great site for Save the harbor to work with. At this site, our Youth Program Assistant and Harbor Educators capture the attention of visitors through our crab filled touch tanks and available fishing rods. 

The kids that stop by are provided the opportunity to learn how to fish and crab right off the dock at the museum.  Our harbor educators and assistants explain how to identify different fish and crabs, and teach kids how to properly handle the ocean life they will encounter in the harbor.  Educating kids about these fun environmental aspects of the harbor is not only fascinating for the children, it also demonstrates how accessible the harbor can be. When we were on site, many of the people passing were surprised to hear that it was possible to fish in the harbor! One father and son in particular were very excited to try their hand at fishing right in their own city as they had just returned from a fishing trip to Maine. The thing that makes this site so special is that kids get a quick glimpse of fishing or a touch tank and walk away with new knowlegde they would never have expected to gain on their trip to the city. Boston Children’s Museum is a great example of Save the Harbor’s effort to connect Boston’s youth to the harbor.

-Bridget and Alyssa