Castle Island

A great way to begin our week was with a fishing trip aboard the infamous Belle. Captain Charlie gave us a lesson about how lobster traps work. Aidan and I were lucky enough to help hoist one each onto the boat, check what was inside and send it back. We learned that the lobsters travel backwards so they will climb into the trap and get stuck by the net that blocks them from walking back out. Although there weren't any lobsters in the traps we checked, we were able to catch a few crabs such as green crabs, baby spider crabs, and rock crabs. One of the green crabs were molting, which we were informed is around the same time the female crabs lay their eggs. The shell was very soft and squishy to the touch. Upon release we gathered at the front to enjoy the ride towards hull for fishing.

Team Fatima & Kharliyah

Out in the waters there was lots of fish activity. That morning my entire team was able to catch a fish, plenty of black sea bass, perch, tautog. I caught two fish that morning one black sea bass and one perch, both beautiful creatures with diverse colors and intricate patterns on their scales. The appearance of the sea bass is easily distinguishable, they are black or a dark brown and their dorsal fins have white spots. They are intimidating especially when they flex their fins. Meanwhile the perch's appearance was smaller, with a golden/green-ish tint and dark bands on its sides. I released them both after catching and helped others hook their bait. It took me over 5 years to become comfortable with touching a sea-worm. Just the sight of them makes my skin crawl, they look like water milipedes with tons of legs surrounding their bodies. Not to mention their two sharp teeth that come out when they feel threatened. They certainly are great bait to use because they were gone after fishing all morning, we had to use some squid too. I did not have as much luck catching anything with the squid.

We spent the next few days at Castle Island in South Boston. This was an interesting site to walk around and see the many people who come to exercise or simply enjoy the area for walks with their friends, families, and dogs. So many cute puppies and dogs showed out this week. The weather was perfect for a walk around the ocean and lunch at Sully's. We worked on a mural of the things we saw around the island, including Fort Independence. It is one of the oldest forts of English origin in the US, once used as a confinement for prisoners and training for local soldiers. On a regular day the fort would be open to the public where you can wander freely or go on guided tours. From above the fort has a distinct Pentagon/Star shape. Similar to the Charlestown Navy Yard, there is a Korean War Veteran memorial at the front of the peninsula.

Waiting to see what's next
-Kharliyah
Summer 2020

War Veteran

Castle Island mural

Holy Lobster!!

Everyone was so excited!

Alright, everyone, you're never going to believe what happened last week! I mean really, if I did not have pictures to prove it, you would think this whole blog is a lie. Have you ever heard of a lobster that was too big to keep?! I have heard of lobsters being too small and of course, we let them go every time but I didn't know a lobster being too big was even a possibility!

Our day started with some programming at Atlantic Wharf. We welcomed the South Boston Neighborhood House and through various activities, we taught them about Boston Harbor. We spent the day fishing, drawing a giant sea life mural, setting crab traps, singing sea shanties, and creating fish prints for children to take home. Our day was going great, we could not have imagined it getting any better.

As we wrapped up our activities Boloco delivered lunch for all the children and staff. What a better way than to end your day with free burritos, right?! As we began eating I mentioned the two traps that were still in the water and how we need to remember to pull them up before we leave. Sam exclaimed, "I'll go pull them up now!", and thank goodness she did. 

The claw was almost as big as my head!

She pulled up the crab trap to find nothing in it. We thought, "it is so low tide it is no surprise we did not catch much today". She pulled up the second trap, a circle trap with a net attached to it. The net needs to be pulled up at the right time to trap creatures inside or they will crawl out. As soon as the trap reached the surface Sam was screaming, "You need to get over here right now!". From far away I saw that it was a lobster and was very excited but as I got closer I noticed that it was HUGE! Everyone said the only place they have ever seen a lobster that size was in the aquarium. We measured the lobster and were unfortunately told that from its eye to the beginning of the tail had to be 5 inches. Ours was almost 6! Although it was very sad that we could not keep the lobster it was still amazing to have seen something like that. That day is one that I will remember forever!

This was not our lobster but this is how to correctly measure a lobster.
Unfortunately, this one is not large enough to keep.

Well, I'm off to find a lobster I can cook this time!

Catch ya later!

Briana

Total Eclipse of the Eclipse

I started my Monday morning the same way anyone who was excited for the eclipse would; I listened to Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart on repeat on my long train ride to the Children's Museum. I'm a pretty big fan of environmental phenomena, and I was not about to miss the chance to see the eclipse.

Our morning session was a bit quieter than usual, so I wrongly assumed that, despite the museum's advertised eclipse activities, people had chosen to go do their eclipse festivities elsewhere. Boy was I wrong!

What a big beautiful girl!

When we came back from our lunch break, the dock in front of the museum was so packed that it was difficult to move. Fishing rods and accouterments in hand, we wove our way over to the railing to set up the fishing program - the more the merrier! Within seconds people came to check out our touch tank and try their hand at fishing. Realizing that we were slightly unprepared, I ran back to our storage closet to pick up a few extra fishing rods.

I weaseled my way back to our station, only to notice that we had attracted quite the crowd. Zach, my fellow SHE, yelled over the tops of everyone's heads (he is very tall), that in the two minutes I had disappeared, we had caught a lobster! I made my way over to the railing where the confused young man was holding a fishing rod with a lobster hanging on for dear life right at the surface of the water.

Politely nudging some people out of the way, I grabbed a bucket with a long rope attached to it and lowered it down into the water. It took some maneuvering, but we eventually managed to get the lobster into the bucket. With the help of a few other people, we hauled up the bucket and examined our catch; it wasn't just a lobster, it was an enormous lobster!

Zach quickly banded the lobster while I prepared the touch tank for our new friend. Between (safe!!) glimpses at the eclipse, we taught hundreds of kids and their families about the secret and exciting life of lobsters.

Unfortunately, our lobster was just a hair to big for us to keep, so at the end of our session we had to let her go. It was so much fun to have the lobster and to talk to so many kids and families that I had almost completely forgotten the eclipse!

Crustaceously yours,
Melissa

Roger That

Monday was a day for the books at Piers Park! Recently, we have been accomplishing things even the Sailing Center's oldest staff have never seen at their site. After almost landing a Striped Bass fishing from the docks we thought we could not do much else that folks have yet to see until Monday.

Carefully transporting from lobster trap to water

We began our dock time like any other day by pulling the crab traps first. Crab traps are our first activity because they are light, easy for kids to get out of the water, and usually are loaded with things for them to look at. When a few kids look like they're not interested in the crabs, tunicates, and mussels that usually come up with the crab trap we ask if they want to pull the lobster trap, I've never had anyone tell me no!

We have the Harbor Explorers take turns because it is so heavy, they usually pull until they need a break and a friend will step in to help. As it rose to the surface I heard screams, not just from the kids but from the staff too. I thought to myself, we must have so many lobsters! As I took a good look at the trap I realized we did not have any lobsters, just one large creature that looked tangled and gasping for air. We realized we pulled up a skate in our lobster trap!

He was definitely waving to us.

We quickly tried to think of what to do. We knew we had a skate, we knew it was tangled in the trap, but we had no idea how to get it out or what we were going to put it into. Thinking it would be best for the animal to be in water we lowered the trap to buy ourselves some time. We looked for gloves, I've been told to watch out for a skate's tail but I wasn't sure how dangerous it may or may not have been. Finally, we found some thick gloves. I put them on and we pulled up the trap. We had a large plastic wheelbarrow filled with water ready to put the creature in to be able to examine it.

I surprised myself with how willing I was to stick my hands in to untangle this creature that could potentially have hurt me in the process but I knew I had to get the skate out. Finally it was able to curl itself into a ball making it easy for me to pick it up. When we finally got it into the water my team felt so successful, the kids and the Piers Park staff were amazed. We could not stop gawking over the amazing animal in front of us. The kids decided to name him and listened intently as we taught them all about skates. We watched him swim around and it looked like he was waving his pectoral fin at us. He must have been a Jolly Roger because he got out of that trap!

Over and out,
Briana

Comparing the anatomy of a skate to a flounder with our Harbor Explorers 

LobsterMan!

Admiring the lobster.

         Tuesday was a rainy and somewhat frigid day at Camp Habor View, but once again the weather did not stop us. For the first time this summer we caught a lobster! This was very exciting for me, the other Save The Harbor Staff, and the campers, considering most of us had never caught a lobster. Once we caught the lobster we got bands and placed them over the claws to prevent them from pinching. Then we added the lobster into the bucket, along with a couple of red rock crabs.

Another shot of our catch

          The campers were filled with questions and curiosity when they saw the lobster, and at first most of them were scared to hold the lobster or even look at it, soon enough though everyone was playing with the lobster, and picking it up. It was great to see the campers get out of their comfort zone, especially because Tuesday was "courage day" at Camp Harbor View.

The last couple of weeks at Camp Harbor View has been filled with poor weather and lack of fishes, however when we do something like catching a lobster, it brings back the energy and excitement Camp HarborView needs.

Until Next Time, Abel Yohannes

Spectacular Week at Spectacle

Hi everyone,

This past week, All Access Boston Harbor spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday out on Spectacle Island. It was a really great start back on Spectacle. An old friend from high school that I recognized came out with us on Tuesday. On the first day back on the island, we caught two skates and was able to unhook them all alone. The first one that I caught, was during lunch. While everyone went off for lunch, I decided to stay on the dock fishing. Five minutes after casting, I had a skate on one of the rods so I reeled it in as the old friend from high school and her family surrounded me. At first they were all yelling "Eww what is that?" ... "Its a sting ray" ... I tried telling them that it was not a sting ray and that it was a skate. A few minutes later, an old guy joined us and started telling me to be careful with its tail so that I don't get stung and I kept telling him that it does not sting and that it is a skate but he just kept saying "Sting ray, sting ray, sting ray." Moment later, I released the skate and the first group of kids came over to do some fishing. I guided them all and everything went smooth. Towards the end of the day, one kid reeled in our second skate and they were all amazed by it. Most of the kids knew that it was not a sting ray and that it was a skate. I was really impressed.

Old High School friend with her nephew
when I caught the first skate in 5 minutes

Thursday which was the end of the week at Spectacle was also a great day. We had a really great ending of the week out there. The East Boston YMCA came out with us again for the second time. The week before Spectacle, they joined for the Georges trip. Although we did not catch anything on Thursday, I was able to help the counselor reel in the striped bass but unfortunately, the fish kept dragging the line under the dock and snapped it. Another reason why we were unable to reel the fish its because the fishing rod had really short line so with that being said, there was not enough line for the fish to keep dragging. Even though we were unable to reel in the fish, the counselor was excited for just knowing that he actually did have a fish on the line. I was excited as well because I don't quite remember if we ever had a fish on the line last summer and we also caught a little lobster in our crab trap. Overall, everything went great at Spectacle except for the weather that was not cooperating with us.

Second skate caught after a nice swim

Until I catch another fish!!!

- Andrea Lopes

Crab, Crab, Crab...Lobster!

It's no secret that All Access has had a productive summer on the fishing side of the program. Every time Andrea casts a fishing line into the water, she is pulling a skate or a bass up! With Andrea busy being the Queen of Fishing, Kharliyah and I have taken the gauntlet in crab catching.

We have found an abundance of rock crabs, Jonah crabs, spider crabs, and green crabs. We have found so many almost every kid who has gone out on all access with us knows the differences between all four species and how to tell the difference between male and females.

On our last day at Spectacle we had a surprise visitor in one of our crab traps. As I was pulling up the trap for one of the last groups of the day, I excitedly exclaimed that we had caught a lobster!! Our excitement spilled over to all the kids on the pier when they saw what we had in our trap. It was a welcome change to all the crabs we had been catching all day. Everyone crowded around to get to touch and take a picture with the lobster. Kharliyah did an excellent job balancing the crowd and holding the lobster at the same time!

After we were done showing off our celebrity of the day we returned him to the water. It was a great way to send our last groups of the week at Spectacle off! It was another great week on All Access and great way to continue the good vibes into George’s next week!

-Nora D.

Cuties

This week one of my favorite group of kids returned to explore Spectacle Island with us, the East Boston YMCA. I remembered quite a few cute faces who were so excited to see me again. They greeted me with a "Hey I remember you!" while they lined up for their group photo. I sat with them on the boat ride and they showed me the cool designs they were making with gimp. One girl even taught me how to do the chinese staircase and I taught another how to do the circle.

We had a sad departing while they went to have fun on the island and gladly met again at the dock to check out the crabs we caught. They were fascinated by everything and so interested in learning the difference between male and female or what type of crabs they were. We had two red rock crabs, a couple green crabs, and one big and ugly spider crab. As I pulled the crab out the tank the kids shouted, "WHOA!" in amazement at its size. We even caught an American lobster in our crab trap! It wasn't that big but it's claws were and it was ready to snap our fingers off at any moment. We snapped a couple photos before putting it back in the water.

Daniel (left) Nicholas (bucket hat) Jaden (super cheesy to the right)

I really loved bonding with these 3 boys, Jaden, Daniel, and Nicholas. They were amazing guests on our trip to Spectacle. I enjoyed their company as much as they enjoyed mine. And I'm sure I'll be spending more time with them if they come back to go on another trip with Save the Harbor.

-Warmly, Kharliyah O,

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

Boom! Lobster: A Recap of Two Days of Fishing on Spectacle Island

Hello Friends, for the past two days the Save the Harbor Save the Bay All Access crew and I have been boarding the Provincetown II and ferrying to Spectacle Island where we have done our best to entice any thing that swims to bite our lures and baits.  Here is a recap of what we have accomplished:

Day 1:  We board the ferry at 11:00

                                                                      and promptly begin fishing by 11:30. 

 

And what do we catch?..

Nothing!  The fish aren't hungry, though we do manage to gather just over thirty crabs.

Day 2:  Again we catch the ferry at 11:00 and we begin fishing by 11:30.  

After setting up our rigs with lures and baits we wait patiently to see if we can better our luck.

Just when it appears that we are going to have to settle for another day of crab catching...

Drea pulls up our dip net / crustacean trap and BOOM! We get a lobster!

It just goes to show that you never know what you're going to pull up when you sink a piece of fish on a hook or in a net to the bottom of the Boston Harbor.  

These past two days have been great, despite not catching anything with fins.  Tomorrow, we are heading back out to Spectacle and I have high hopes that the third day of fishing will be the charm.  I want to thank all of the All Access crew who have been very helpful in teaching our visitors how to handle hooks, rods, reels and traps - and how to identify the various species that continue to surprise us every time they break the surface of the ocean.  Particular shout outs go to Drea for her superb handling of the crabs and the lobster, as well as to Ian who provided us with these great photos.  Also we wouldn't be out here doing what we do if the campers did not keep coming to us with curiosity about and an eagerness to explore Boston Harbor.  So keep coming!  And we'll keep providing the opportunity to catch and to learn about things that live in our ocean.  Hopefully tomorrow one of those things will be a fish.

-John Tobin at Spectacle Island.

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

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

Our Afternoon Faithful

Andy at our "secret

At Courageous Sailing in Charlestown, we dedicate the majority of our blogs to our kids in the SSS or the Swim, Sail, Science class, therefore this is a blog dedicated to our faithful members of the extended day program at Courageous. As the SSS kids trickle out and head towards the Harvard Kent school, we at STH anxiously await the second portion of our afternoon. As the hustle and bustle of sail boats being docked, life jackets being put away, and strewn bags being collected by their owners, our STH team plots what to do with our afternoon faithful. As 3:30 rolls around the majority of kids have since signed out and headed homeward, we are greeted by our hardcore extended day-ers. These are the kids that can't wait to explore, get messy, bait hooks, pull trap, and have an all around good time. The energy and passion these kids have for fishing and lobstering is infectious, and gives us STH staffers a second wind. A standard extended afternoon consists of us walking fast to get our life jackets on (no running for safety purposes!), grabbing handfuls of bait and rods, and making our way down to the dock. As we head down to the end of dock, our now not-so-secret fishing spot, we make sure to pull every lobster trap up along the way: a total of 5 traps in all. After all the traps have been pulled, with every echinoderm, arthropod, and mollusc removed and released to the great blue (the tunicates stay as they are to tricky and numerous to peel from the traps) we make our way down, with sore arms, to the best fishing spot around.

Even the tiniest of crabs is released

With the hooks baited and the rods cast, we wait patiently for our fish friends to take a bite. We in our hardcore fishing club then take this time to have conversations about the marine world around us. Today's conversation was all about the American Lobster. After pulling up a large and legal size lobster, we talk about how to tell the difference between a male and a female (hard claspers closest to the head in males, soft in females) and why its important that we only consume the males. This is due to the fact that female lobsters of legal size are fertile and must be left to ensure future generations of these delicious crustaceans. It hits me that my knowledge of these important creatures is limited, so I took out our STH crome book (thank you Bruce!) and decided to consult the world wide web for more facts on these prehistoric looking organisms. With a maximum weight of 44 lbs these creatures take the title of the heaviest crustacean in the world! While it takes about 6 to 7 years for a lobster to be of edible size (a minimum of 3.25 inch carapace length), it is estimated that they can live for up to a hundred years. My favorite fun fact that I came across was that of all the lobsters that come across our traps only 10% will enter, and of that 10% only 6% will remain in the trap long enough to be caught. That explains why we are only getting about a lobster a day!

Ahmed getting goofy with the traps

 At the end of the day once everyone has been picked up, we clean and pack up our gear, and already start to anticipate what will be in store tomorrow for our afternoon faithful. And as always, take chances, ask questions, get messy!-Sarah B

What's in the Trap!?

Sharing Smiles and staying safe!

Hello! My name is Andy Gonzalez and I am an upcoming freshman at Northeastern University! This is my first summer with Save the Harbor I get to spend it with amazing and enthusiastic kids who love to interact with sea critters. One of their favorites are, what they like to cleverly call, "Sea Squirts" which are little organisms that attach themselves to any location suitable for them to grow. These "Sea Squirts" have the ability to retain water and when you squeeze them, a stream of salt water squirts out hence the nickname "Sea Squirts!" The bright and surprised look on the kids faces when they first discover the squirting talents of a "Sea Squirt" is a genuine and heart-warming sight to see. Their excitement can make even the rainiest days quite amazing. It is amazing to see how much knowledge these children have of the critters and their eagerness to explain what they know.

A Lucky Lobster day!

Besides the marvelous "Sea Squirts," the kids can also find many crabs from clammy Green Crabs to scurry Asian Shore Crabs. From trap to trap there never seems to be a decrease in excitement about the crabs they could find, with kids even calling dibs to pick up the largest crab trapped. The peaceful sea stars are also a constant amazement that range from all sorts of sizes. The beauty of a lobster trap is suspense of pulling them up because you never know what you will find and if you're lucky, you could actually find a lobster in these traps, as ironic as that sounds. The number one thing on these curious kid's minds is "Whats in the trap!?"

An Unexpected Day !

Today was really an unexpected day at the Children's Museum. My co-workers and I found a huge lobster today and a lot of green crabs. What was so interesting about the lobster we found was that so many visitors from the Children's Museum were so fascinated by it ! This is the first time I experienced catching a lobster in the harbor right at the Children's Museum. The adults as well as the children were just so interactive with us and asked many questions about the green crabs. I'm not really a fan of holding crabs and being so free spirited with them but today I came out of my comfort zone by holding crabs! It's really not my thing but I told myself this summer that my goal was to do exciting things I never done or experienced before.







- Juelle Benjamin

Our Catch of the Day at the Children's Museum!

Today, for the second time this summer at the Boston Children's Museum, something very exciting and unexpected was discovered in our crab trap. All morning, we had been pulling up tiny, young green crabs, but this time as Andrew pulled the trap up, a fair-sized lobster greeted us! This lobster was unfriendly to say the least, but nice enough to allow the green crabs to crawl all over its back and along its claws -- much to the delight of the kids and adults who visited us. Lobster expert Candido impressively and effortlessly held its claws together to let all of the kids touch the lobster's back and side, and other Bostonians passing by commented on what a nice size lobster we had caught.

The Lobster!

 The lobster was not the only feisty creature that we dealt with today. Some of the captured green crabs were undoubtedly ones that we had also caught the day before, and they did not seem happy to find themselves back in our touch tank! One crab seemed to go into panic-mode the second he escaped from our crab trap and onto the harborwalk. As one staff member reached in to grab him, he immediately voluntarily let go of two of his legs -- quite the site to see. The fact that crabs can regrow their limbs is always a popular fact with the kids we meet, for good reason! As we wrap our summer program up at the Children's Museum, I look forward to ending this week on a high note!

-Ashley Wakefield, Senior Harbor Educator at the Boston Children's Museum

Fun in East Boston!!

Two years ago, I lived in the Orient Heights neighborhood of East Boston, right across from the big blue bridge that leads to Constitution Beach. I honestly never visited the beach there very much, but loved the views when I did decide to visit. After all, how many people can brag about the fact that their beach is less than a mile from an airport runway? Especially at night, watching the planes take off under the stars is quite a site -- factor in the moonlit water, and you have yourself in a spectacular place. Last night, this wasn't the only amazing occurrence happening on Constitution. The East Boston YMCA, along with the DCR and Save the Harbor/Save the Bay held another DJs and Dancing night on the beach, where families from East Boston gathered for savory smores, dancing, a lobster touch tank and more fun! Myself, along with Delilah and Andrew had a seriously fun night, and watching the kids check out the lobster and bucket full of treasures (seaglass, shells, crab shells, etc) made my night -- and hopefully the kids' nights too!

The kids that stopped by our station were adorable -- and very impressive with their existing knowledge about shells, crabs and marine life in general! One girl proudly told me the difference between boy and girl crabs, while another boy pointed at each item in the treasures bucket, telling me exactly what he was looking at. In addition, several adults commented on how great it was to have Save the Harbor at the event, and I couldn't agree more. East Boston is such a vibrant community, and watching the kids (and adults!) have fun dancing and toasting smores was quite the site to see. I am proud to say that I once lived across from this fantastic beach, and hope to have the chance to attend these very events in the future!

Excited explorers investigating trash vs. treasure!

Roasting marshmallows on the beach!

-Ashley Wakefield, Senior Harbor Educator at Boston Children's Museum and Community Boating

Southie: Facebook and Flounders in One Post?!

Good morning!

Emily and Ana banding lobsters on the docks!

Luck has been with us this summer, as we seem to pull up lobsters from our Pleasure Bay trap almost every day. While lobsters are definitely a focus, I take a lot of opportunities to talk about other aspects of the marine environment (sea quirts, anyone?) as well. Speaking of which, the kids were lucky enough to catch a small flounder in our crab trap the other day. After looking up flounders in the guidebooks, Floundy (aka Floppy aka Flipper) was safely released back into the water.

Shall we call it Floundy or Floppy?
No once could seem to decide!

Speaking of South Boston, I have a favor to ask of all our faithful readers... For those of you who have visited area that I've been talking about all summer, I have a request. If you have a Facebook account, please like the Harry McDonough Sailing Center's page! You can access the link here. As seen in its name, the center indeed spends much of its time teaching children about the art of sailing, but it goes beyond that, aiding children in acquiring essential life skills. Each and every day is different at McDonough, and brings with it both challenges and surprises - just like life. Some of the key qualities focused upon include leadership, communication, teamwork, and decision-making. In its partnership with Save the Harbor, children are also taught to have and share an appreciation for the environment.Yes, it is indeed a non-profit organization, just like us, and can use help in the form of many different resources. So please do me and the Program Director (Hi, Bob!) a favor and "Like" the page!

Thank you to everyone who has - and continues - to take the time to read these posts! Until next time my fellow explorers.

-Mary