Ready, Set, Summer

The kickoff of summer programming this year was a great one. The day was filled with excellent finds, and lots of thrills for all the kids who spent time with us.

Our morning started at Blacks Creek with our partner sailing program run by the Quincy Rec. Department. I was happy to see a lot of familiar faces returning from last summer join us for games and exploration in this wonderful estuary. Even more exciting was the growth in size of our program at the site, made evident by the presence of so many newcomers.

Horseshoe Crabs are always a big hit.

After finishing up in Quincy, the team and I headed out to Camp Harbor View on Long Island. This beautiful harbor island is a special place, and the camp at its end is a true gem. Run by The Boys and Girls Club, it offers all the opportunities of the finest summer camps, but offered to the children of Boston for a mere 5 dollars per four week session.

Live skates provide excellent opportunities for brief bio lessons

The day there started at fishing club, where we managed to catch a small skate, leading a lot of excitement on the docks. Even more well received was the 38in Striped Bass provided to us by Bruce Berman. Filleting and dissection of this behemoth went over particularly well, and the kids were ecstatic to be able to take home some delicious pieces.

A camper holding a monsta'

-To many more perfect days,

                        Tom Rebula

Fun Games with Fun Friends !

Matt and Shavya checking out the contents of their nets

Hey everyone, Manny here! Just wanted to share this awesome picture of my friends Shavya and Matt closely examining the the tiny minnows they caught on there exploration around Blacks Creek. Some of the kids were lucky enough to catch other aquatic creatures such as crabs, small American eels, shrimp and muscles. Matt in particular had a sharp eye for catching minnows, which was surprising because of how small they were and how fast they move in the water. 

Luckily other kids found other interesting things such as shells of odd color and shape and even a bunch of clams! The day went by very smoothly and everyone had caught a bunch of stuff before it came to an end. The kids enjoyed themselves a lot, especially Matt and Shavya. They even told there parents to recommend Save The Harbor/ Save The Bay to their friends and family! It was a very remarkable day indeed for the Save The Harbor/ Save The Bay team and the young harbor explorers of North Quincy! This is only the beginning to what the save the harbor staff have in store for the bright children of blacks creak ! 

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

FISH ON!

Today was an extraordinary day at both of my program sites.

The morning started as usual at Blacks Creek, with the first session of kids going through and fully enjoying the activities in which we normally have them participate. As the second group came in we realized that staffers from the Quincy Rec. Sailing Center had placed our crab trap out the previous evening. When we pulled it in, I was thrilled to find that a two foot eel had made its way inside, most likely to feed on the many crabs that had also been trapped.

 

Trying to get a hold of a slippery fellow.

The kids loved feeling the slimy skin, and a few of the more adventurous ones even tried to hold it, a task comparable to grabbing a fist full of air- those suckers are just so darn slippery. Besides delivering boundless entertainment for the kids, the captured eel also provided an excellent opportunity for me to explain the biological characteristics of a species that our Blacks Creek Explorers had yet to see. Not sure if they understood my discussion of the Sargasso Sea or the journeys that American eels make between fresh and saltwater, but it was still a valuable experience. They may have just been too captivated by the eel itself.

With such a fantastic start to the morning I would have been surprised if the rest of my day at Camp Harbor View would be as full of novel experiences and room for teaching, but surprised I was.

After our block with fishing club the campers at CHV had a performance to attend, leaving my team with a small amount of downtime before we would receive groups of campers again. I, naturally, went fishing, and as luck would have it hooked into a decent sized striper after only three or four casts (I believe this marks the first striper of any SHSB employee during work hours this summer. Prizes?). 

 

First striper at SHSB and first fish at CHV (now we just need to get a few on the end of campers rods)

After landing and measuring, I decided to keep the fish for educational, as well as, culinary purposes. When the next groups came around they exhibited a level of excitement and interest, equal to, or surpassing, that of the kids at Blacks Creek, and I was more than happy to share the knowledge I had. 

Grabbing hold of the monster

Words cannot express how glad I am to be in a place and position where this type of opportunity is commonplace.

 

- Thanking our bountiful Harbor, Tom Rebula