New Week, New Site

Hey everyone, this week I was moved to a new site! I went from Camp Harbor View to Black’s Creek in Quincy and I have to say that these sites are very different from one another. Blacks Creek is a smaller, quieter site with kids between the age of 6-7. We have two sessions each day which are only 90 minutes each which means that each session goes by pretty fast. We start out by searching the creek for snails, hermit crabs, green crabs and other cool creatures. After that we pull up the crab trap which usually has a lot of green crabs in it which are all different sizes. We show the kids how to differentiate between a male and a female crab and then we make a little quiz game out of it to see what they have learned. After that we walk up the hill to play a game called GaGa Ball.

GaGa Ball is a very interesting and competitive game that I just learned this week. There is a hexagon shaped ring that everyone gets in and the object is to get people out by hitting your opponents in the lower legs with the bouncy ball. It is a lot of fun to play and it is quite a workout playing with little kids because they are full of energy.

The GaGa pit

On Monday, my first time ever being at Blacks Creek, the fog was unreal. I could only see about 100 feet in front of me which means I had no idea what the site looked like until hours later when it cleared up. The temperature was perfect on monday which made it a nice day to play around in the water. Tuesday on the other hand was very hot and sticky. The kids wanted to swim and go in the water to cool off so badly but unfortunately they are not allowed to swim with us. It felt nice to go up the hill and take a break in the shade and play GaGa ball but then it was time for the second session and we had to do it all over again! It is nice to get different kids everyday to change it up because each kid has such different personalities.

Just some intense sand rakers

Wednesday was a regular day and we caught plenty of crabs to entertain the kids. The great thing about kids this young is that each crab is different to them and they can play with crabs for hours. They like to make a little pool that they fill up with water so that the crabs can swim around rather than being trapped in a bucket. At the end of the day on Wednesdays we go to the Curley Community Center in South Boston. We brought some crabs from Black’s Creek for the kids to play with since the beach the kids are at only has a few. We are only there for an hour once a week but it is nice to be at a different beach.

Thursday started out interesting right off the bat because we found a horseshoe crab! Since it was high tide when we got there at 9am the sand was different and the water was clear so Briana spotted him from far away. It was so cool to have something other than crabs and nobody was scared to touch the horseshoe crab which I was surprised by because they are very creepy looking. About an hour later we found another horseshoe crab which was bigger than the first one! The kids would not stop touching, poking and asking to hold the horseshoe crabs and it was awesome to see them so excited to interact with nature.

Not one but TWO horseshoe crabs!

Look at all these crabs!

Friday was different this week because I went to Constitution Beach in East Boston for a community event that included fish printing and sand raking. Thanks to the sand raking expert, Andres Amador, we were able to make some beautiful designs in the sand. We also had Larry the Lobster in the touch tank which kids loved because they are much cooler than regular old crabs. There were some people from the circus that did some awesome tricks right in front of us! We got free snacks and slush from tables near us and that was cool because who doesn’t like free stuff?! It was a beautiful day for the event but nothing could be better than the weather we had on Saturday.

That's easy...I can definitely do that...

...And that.

On Saturday I went to another Better Beaches event with Andres on Nantasket Beach in Hull, MA. When we first got there it was high tide which meant that there wasn’t much room for sand raking but after about an hour the tide moved out and the sand dried up which meant it was perfect for sand raking. While Andres was entertaining a group on the beach, I was on another part of the beach making pictures of animals in the sand to attract people and direct them to Andres for the real project. I had a lot of people come up to me because they were really interested in the work we were doing and because they wanted to join the project! The really cool thing about what Andres does is that once it is finished he flies a drone up in the air to capture the art from above and it is always amazing to see your finished work! The weather was perfect for a day on the beach because the sun was out but there was a beautiful breeze. When the tide came back in the day was over and all of our art washed away but we got some great pictures just in time!

My majestic elephant

My amazing giraffe 

My beautiful flower

That’s everything I did for this week but i’ll be sure to let all of you readers know about my adventures next week! Bye for now!

-Maeve Fittz

Save the Harbor / Save the Bay Releases Beaches Report Card

 

Save the Harbor / Save the Bay issued its first annual "Water Quality Report Card" on the region's public beaches from Nahant to Nantasket on Wednesday morning at 9:00 - 1-:00 the Exchange Conference Center on Boston's Fish Pier.

To assess and compare the water quality conditions on each beach, the group looked at the percentage of tests exceeding the state swimming standard of 104 cfu/100ml of Enterococcus.

Overall Beach Safety from “Best to Worst”

Nantasket	100%
South Boston @ M Street	98.60%
South Boston @ City Point	98.60%
South Boston @ Carson (Bathhouse and I Street)	97.30%
South Boston @ Pleasure Bay	94.50%
Wollaston @ Rice Road	93.20%
Constitution Beach - East Boston	93.20%
Malibu Beach - Dorchester	91.70%
Savin Hill Beach - Dorchester	91.70%
Nahant Beach	88.50%
Wollaston @ Milton Road	87.70%
Wollaston @ Channing Street	87.70%
Revere Beach	87.50%
Wollaston@ Sachem Street	86.30%
Winthrop Beach	84.60%
Short Beach  - Revere	83.30%
Tenean Beach - Dorchester	79.50%
King’s Beach - Lynn	73.20%

"Some of the region's beaches, including Nantasket Beach in Hull and the South Boston beaches, are safe for swimming nearly every day and rank among the cleanest urban beaches in the nation" said Save the Harbor / Save the Bay's Bruce Berman.

"Many others are doing quite well.  However there continue to be pollution problems at some of the region's public beaches, including most of Wollaston Beach in Quincy, at Tenean Beach in Dorchester and at King's Beach in Lynn.  We need to address them all if we are to achieve the late Judge A. David Mazzone's often stated goal of beaches that are safe for swimming "Damn near every day!"

Last year Nantasket Beach in Hull was the "Gold Standard" for the metropolitan region's beaches, earning a 100% rating for beach safety. The South Boston Beaches came in a close second, averaging better than 98%. Tenean Beach in Dorchester and Kings Beach in Lynn each failed more than 20% of the tests performed in 2012.

The results were made public at the initial meeting of Save the Harbor's Beaches Science Advisory Committee, convened to conduct a systematic review of water quality and beach flagging accuracy on the region's public beaches from Nahant to Nantasket.

"Our goal is to help turn the data into information that people can use to make decisions," said Dr. James Shine of the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard University, who co-chairs the science committee along with Dr. Judith Pederson, a coastal resource specialist at the MIT Sea Grant College Program. "As scientists, we are here to focus on the facts," said Dr. Pederson. "It is Save the Harbor's job as an advocacy organization to build a consensus on how to address the situation going forward."

Berman, who teaches marine science and management at Boston University, agrees. "The scientists and technical advisors play a critical role in increasing our understanding of the causes of these problems, and can help us evaluate proposed solutions. But at the end of the day, this isn't just about the science, it is about our shared values and the love we have for these beaches."

By all accounts, the Deer Island sewage treatment plant and the Mass Bay outfall pipe have dramatically improved the health of Boston Harbor and Massachusetts Bay since they were completed in 2001. However, Berman noted that the first phases of the Boston Harbor Project were not intended to solve all of the problems that cause pollution on our region's public beaches. "The remaining problems need to be addressed on a "beach by beach" and "pipe by pipe" basis, as we did in South Boston with remarkable success" said Berman, "and that's exactly what we propose to do."

Save the Harbor / Save the Bay also asked the science committee for advice on ways to better protect the public’s health and access to clean water by improving the current beach flagging system. 

"Posting yesterdays test results on the beach is simply not a sensible way to let the pubic know if it is safe to swim today" said Berman. "Most of our beaches deserve a fairly high grade, but I would flunk the red flags."

Here is a link to Save the Harbor / Save the Bay's 2012 Beach Water Quality Report Card
for the Boston Harbor Region's public beaches from Nahant to Nantasket.

Here is the data on which the report card was based, which was presented at
Save the Harbor/Save the Bay's Beaches Science Advisory Committee meeting
at the Exchange Conference Center on Boston's Fish Pier on Wednesday, May 30 2012.

MWRA Presentation (Background and Water Quality Testing Methods)
EPA Presentation (Past and Future Water Quality Criteria)
EPA Presentation (Rapid Testing Methods)
Save the Harbor / Save the Bay's Report (Beach Safety ad Flagging Accuracy)

Here is an Executive Summary of the results.
Here is the Data on which our report is based.
You can find a Press Release about the report here.

Here are two useful papers - on Antecedent Rain and
an analysis of posting based on the Previous Day's Results.

For insight into our values, view Save the Harbor's television commercial about beach flagging,
view our short video "Water Power" or visit our webpage at www.savetheharbor.org

If you have any questions, please contact Bruce Berman at
bruce@bostonharbor.com or by phone at 617-293-6243

SUMMER ISN'T OVER AT NANTASKET BEACH

The Endless Summer Waterfront Festival Down in Hull we try our hardest to keep summer rolling along on Nantasket Beach until our big festival Saturday September 25th from noon-6pm. With help from SHSB we were able to produce our tv commercial with hopes that it will bring you all to Nantasket for a final summer party

Endless Summer Commercial for Nantasket Beach

Thank you to Save the Harbor Save the Bay for helping support our television commercial for the Endless Summer Waterfront Festival on Sat Sept 25th.