Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Day 4: Boating on the Bay

Day 4: Boating on the Bay


March 21, 2017
Poster: Omid Barr

Today we woke up at 7:30 so we could have our daily breakfast of oatmeal and coffee, and so we could make it to our site of the day (by the bay :-) ) by 9. We arrived at the Arthur Sherwood Environmental Education Center where we were greeted by Arthur Sherwood Environmental Education Program Manager Tiffany Granberg and Captain/Assistant Manager Adam Wickline, along with our new friend from Saturday, Carmera Thomas.

Here we learned that the center is the oldest of CBF’s environmental education programs. We saw an old CNF office cabin and the treehouse outhouse that employees used to use. We then walked to Meredith Creek where we hopped on the Marguerite and took it to Whitehall Bay.

On our trip we saw several bald eagled, herons, ospreys, as well as the brick colonial house where in 1964, a group of residents sat around a fire to reminisce about their childhoods on the Chesapeake Bay. They noticed that the wildlife population was being depleted, there were more people and houses, and more industrial discharges and sediment runoff into the tributaries of the bay.

The group, led by Arthur Sherwood, formed the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. After learning this piece of history, we watched watermen harvest oysters using a patent tong. We then collected some oysters of our own using an old-fashioned dredge. Besides oysters, we picked up interesting critters like crabs, shuks, and _____.

For lunch, we docked at Holly Beach and made our own pizza bagels. Afterward, we strapped on waders and looked for marine life by the shore using sanes and nets. Although they were interesting, all we managed to find were multitudes of jellyfish.

After this excursion, we went back to CBF’s Philip Merrill Center. We had a conversation about oysters, restoration, and sanctuaries with Maryland Fisheries Scientist Allison Colden and Maryland Scientist Doug Myers, which lasted about two and a half hours. Everyone was very involved during this discussion and we learned a lot about the fight to keep the oyster population stable as well as the biology of the bay. 

We had a change of pace for dinner at the Asian Buffet, graciously provided to us by Mr. Rosenberg, a father of former AB students. We ended the day with reflection around the fire.

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