By Emily Hart
The summer is starting to wind down here at Courageous and this past week was our last with the Summer Learning Project. This week we pulled up the lobster traps to see Asian shore crabs (an invasive species), rock crabs, sea stars, a rock gunnel and our usual friends: blue mussels, barnacles and a variety of tunicates. I love seeing some of our students holding a crab or sea star for the very first time!
This week we also pressed seaweeds; just as you can dry and press flowers, you can also press seaweeds. I was excited to try it with the students and they really enjoyed arranging different types of seaweeds into artistic creations. I found that the easiest to press was sea lettuce because it’s so thin. The students took home their seaweeds to continue the pressing process and I’m excited for them to have reminders of their summer here.
In the process of picking seaweeds for pressing, I discovered one of my favorite activities here at Courageous: laying stomach-down on the dock with my head over the edge, checking out everything living on the side of the dock. Barnacles feeding, seaweeds swaying, mussels filtering water with their siphons, tiny anemones clustered together, and further down, orange sponges. It’s incredible! So next time you’re here to sail, stop on the dock to take a peek over the edge. I promised you’ll be amazed.