An Eventful Day

Today at the Boston Children's Museum, it was an eventful and exciting day.

We started the day normally: taking our supplies from the utility closet, cutting up bait, throwing in the crab trap, and setting up the fishing rods. Maybe it had something to do with the type of bait we used.

In the morning, Bruce brought us a bucket of fresh quahogs for the day. We usually use herring or bass for bait. Within the first hour, we caught not just one spider crab but two!

Candido, Lead Harbor Explorer, and I cracking a quahog

Also, we have been chumming the waters with white bread and a few saltine crackers. Candido, our Lead Harbor Explorer, and I spotted a few striped bass close to the underpass. We often see the stripers after our lunch break at about 2 pm.

While we try to catch the stripers, we like to talk to the kids and family we see about what they find in the channel each and every day. Many kids and even parents are surprised to see how many different types of creatures swim below them.

Sam, Senior Harbor Educator, fishing for a striper

It was a fun day filled with sun, laughter, and teachable moments. I am hoping for many more days like this one at the museum.

See you on the pier,

Iris Ayala

Dissection Connection

Hello again, Sej here. I’ve had a really good time with the youth programs this week. I’ve been working at Community Boating and Courageous Sailing Center. One of my favorite things to do with our campers (and even their instructors) is dissecting one of our bait animals.

This week we have used herring and quahog clams as bait. While preparing the bait, many of the explorers are quite intrigued by what we are doing and what is inside the animals. Nothing’s more fun than teaching someone who’s curious, so of course we show them all the different parts and ask the kids to identify what is what. 

Telling campers about the herring at Courageous

At Courageous, while cutting up herring to fish with, a few of our inquisitive young fisher-people wanted to see the fish brain and other organs so we performed an impromptu dissection at the end of the pier. We looked at the fish eye lens, the gills, lungs, stomach and stomach contents, liver, bones and spinal cord. Unfortunately, the fish had been frozen and it was hard to make out some things clearly, but it’s still really cool to be able to show them things like this in a hands-on way while not in a classroom.

Dissecting herring at the end of the pier

At Community Boating, we were using quahog clams to fish with, so we showed the young sailors what exactly is inside that hard shell. The campers were hesitant to touch the clam parts but they all wanted to get a good look. I love being able to bring this kind of education about creatures right in the Boston area to kids who live here and might not have experienced it. 

Lesson in clam anatomy

I can’t wait to see what else we can show people!

Chopping up the quahog at Community Boating

Don’t forget to have fun chopping bait!
-Sej