Introducing Fishing at Carson Beach

Horseshoe crab selfie!

The Carson Beach site is in it's second week, and everyday gets better and better! This week we introduced fishing to many of the youth groups on the beach. I had a limited knowledge of fishing before this week, and now I feel ready to go out everyday and fish! Since some of the kids we work with are very young or have no fishing experience, we have been giving casting lessons. Every kid is extremely enthused to try out the fish pole and always ask for more than one try. Though we were looking not to catch anything, our lures attracted a horseshoe crab! It was the first horseshoe crab we've seen this summer, horseshoe crabs are amazing creatures and I hope to see more at Carson!

Lining up for fishing lessons!

It seems like a tradition to end a week at Carson with a nice paddle around in a kayak. This Friday, we all took double kayaks out, which was a nice bonding experience for all the staff at Carson. We all went out far and got a good work out in.

Til next week!

Nora

Gymnastics and Haircuts

It has been a while since I have written about Blacks Creek- I think it is time for an update.

Things there have been going great. A good number of kids have been excited to come join us for games and exploring everyday, despite having some off-putting weather on a few days. I am proud to say that the number of attendees has certainly increased from last summer, and continues to grow as this one progresses. Just yesterday we had two new explorers signup and join us for the very first time. The word about our educational, fun and free programming is certainly spreading through Quincy.

As was the case at the beginning of this past week, exploration in and around the creek can be difficult when the tide is high. The deeper water restricts wading, and seems to always put our target critters just out of reach. Fortunately, on these days the crabs are plentiful in the trap, resulting in some new and interesting crab-based activities. While the old standby "crab races" are always popular, my new favorites include crab gymnastics and crab hair cuts.

The former of these involves the posing crabs in interesting athletic positions that suggest a gymnastic event or action, and taking a quick photo. Handstands, high bar the list goes on and on. It is great to see how creative the kids can be when posing crustacea.

A flawless performance on the balance beam.

We have also had some interesting finds including my personal favorite, the horseshoe crab. The kids especially love when we find these prehistoric creatures and are always amazed to hear about their blue blood, numerous eyes and uses in the medical industry. The one we caught yesterday proved to be a great teaching tool. Because it was a younger specimen, it was not covered in the barnacles and algae typical of older ones. This made the explanation of its anatomy much easier, and even let the kids see the individual parts of its compound eyes.

- Tom Rebula

Welcome to Jurassic Park

Today at Blacks Creek the kids and I had the exceptional privilege to come across some of the more interesting inhabitants of the Atlantic coast- the infamous horseshoe crab.

The first of the two we captured was found by myself when walking down to the water first thing in the morning, whilst I was getting things ready for the upcoming day. While it proved to be an easy catch, it nonetheless got me excited for the potential that the kids would catch more, as in my experience, where there is one horseshoe crab others are not too far behind.

Matt holding our first horseshoe crab

While the first group did not come across anymore of the living fossils, they certainly did enjoy holding the one that I had captured. Additionally, they were able to catch numerous American eels, and some of the largest killifish that we had caught to date. They also netted a number of both three and four-spined sticklebacks, species that we have only begun to encounter in the last week or so. All this made for quite the productive and exciting morning.  

The biggest and baddest killifish of the day

The second of our horseshoe crabs was found after one of the kids in the second session felt something beneath the muddied water poking at his calves. After a quick scoop with his dip net, he was surprised to pull up another of the prehistoric creatures. I believe he named it Bob.

A Jurassic hunter with the quarry that nearly took his leg

All in all it was a stellar day of catch and release at prehistoric Blacks Creek. In the last few days we have been encountering species new to our explorers with surprising regularity, providing me with ample opportunity for biological discussion. I can only hope that the boom continues and that we are able to check out a few more horseshoe crabs before the end of the summer.

- Hoping not to return to the present era too quickly, Tom Rebula

Lucky, the Horseshoe Crab- Black's Creek

Today was an extremely exciting day at Blacks Creek. Along with catching the usual: perwinkle, hermit crabs, and green crabs... my partner, Noah, spotted a Horseshoe Crab!

This summer we have only been  teased with the sights of decaying horseshoe crabs' shells, but today was the real deal.



The kids were so excited to see, touch, and hold such an unique creature.

I'm proud of ya buddy!

Love,

Karrisha Gillespie

Scavenger Hunt

On Tuesday at Blacks Creek, Aaron, Alex, Dan, and I did a scavenger hunt to help the kids identify living creatures in the water. We split the kids into four groups and went on the beach to start the hunt. They were all excited because they love finding crabs and knowing if it was male or female. My group was scattered all over the beach to find whatever they can that was on the list. The group that won would have the pleasure of fishing. At the same time all groups were helping each other and learning as they went along. All the kids were getting along and asked each other questions. Most of the time they know the answer, but if they do not know they ask me or the other staff. The bonus point of the hunt was to find a horseshoe crab. The kids found at least three and were amused on how it looked. They would ask questions about the tail, and how many eyes it had. They would pick it up and count how many legs it had. I had a girl named Mary-Kate measure the horseshoe crab she had. She named it "Bubbles" because it had small shells on it's back, and it looked like bubbles. Her face lit up when she found it and showed it to her friends. It was the capture of the week and it was a great day.

LaToya

That's not a crab!

Last week Conor wrote about the prehistoric sea spider that our friend Sully found crawling through the mud at Black’s Creek in Quincy—take a look at these pictures, which give you a sense of just how strange horseshoe “crabs” are. Horseshoe crabs are so unusual to us today because they’re “living fossils,” a term that paleontologists use to describe animals that are very similar to their distant ancestors. The horseshoe crabs that we find today look the same as fossil horseshoe crabs from 445 million years ago! To put that into perspective, it took less than 6 million years for chimpanzees and humans to evolve into different species. During that same stretch of time, horseshoe crabs have hardly changed at all!

Why haven’t horseshoe crabs changed? Because they’re so good at what they do. Although they’re not really crabs, like the Green Crabs or Asian Shore Crabs we see more often, they do live on the ocean floor and feed primarily by scavenging. They’re protected by a thick shell, which covers their whole body, and their tail allows them to right themselves if they get flipped over. Horseshoe crabs are built like tanks, and they’re designed so well that they’ve had no reason to change.

The only threat that horseshoe crabs face comes from humans, who pollute their habitats and collect too many of them to use as bait and fertilizer. When colonists first arrived in New England, there were so many horseshoe crabs that farmers would literally use tons of them to fertilize their fields—nowadays, however, finding a horseshoe crab in Boston Harbor is a thrilling discovery. With continued dedication to cleaning up the Harbor, we can ensure that horseshoe crabs will still be around to give future generations of Bostonians a living lesson in ancient history.

-Aaron