Happy (almost) Memorial Day Weekend

Here is the latest intern news.

Last week Emily and I set up a few trials for her shellfish scholarship project. We had oysters vs mussels filtering competition at both the New Jersey Marine Education's Teach at the Beach on Friday and Ocean Fun Day at Island Beach State Park on Saturday. (If you don't know who wins this competition every time, you better contact Emily ASAP.) Alton and Semantha also helped out at Ocean Fun Day answering questions and talking with people at the Sedge display and the Stockton College display respectively. I received many comments about how good these young people are. I was very proud!

Rutgers University students and faculty visited Sedge this week. Semantha did a great job working with the first group from Rutgers staying for all three days. Alton was there for the beginning, left for the ReClam the Bay meeting Tuesday night, and then returned on Wednesday for one group to leave and another to arrive. Ryan conducted a round of checking on shellfish and monitoring water quality on Monday, helped out at Sedge in the afternoon, and then left Tuesday morning to attend the ReClam the Bay meeting and later work at his other job setingt up the Seafood Coop Restaurant/fish market in Point Pleasant. Sherry has been in the Virgin Islands (I can't wait to hear her stories,) Emily is in school finishing out her senior year at MATES.

After Memorial Day things will get really busy. Ryan, Alton and I will go to the ReClam the Bay meeting on Tuesday night May 29th. On Wednesday, May 30th the first group of freshmen from MATES will arrive with Sherry helping as a supervisor teacher. Alton and Semantha will also be helping with this group. At the same time a group of special education students from High Point High School will be arriving at A-21 for a day of surf fishing, hiking, seining and kayaking. The teachers from High Point are a great group but they are less familiar with the local fauna than we are. It would be a great experience for any of you to work with a group of developmentally disabled young adults helping out several very experienced special education teachers. Thursday, May 31st is a Blue Moon and we expect the horseshoe crabs to be laying their eggs near the dike that night. Jenny Buck and a crew from Save Barnegat Bay have asked for help counting crabs that night. I will paddle to the dike from Sedge with any interested interns. MATES leave on Friday June 1st at 9:00AM. June 1st is also the day when Save Barnegat Bay has their Nitrogen Pollution press conference in Lavallete at 11:00AM. Mike Kennish, top Barnegat Bay scientist will be speaking. Helen Henderson wants me to come and talk about "Gunga Gunga!" I'd like to do the oyster vs mussel race and bring other things for show and tell?? Ryan and Alton could talk about their water quality/shellfish growth study. Since the MATES group will be leaving at 9:00AM and the AMC group will not arrive until the afternoon, we will have time to attend this important meeting (Your attendance at this press conference is optional of course - if you need to waste time taking a shower, resting or doing something else, feel free.) Later that afternoon the kayakers from the Appalachian Mount Club begin to arrive. These folks paddle out in their own boats (some homemade with handcarved paddles) and some very sophisticated gear. They can really paddle and the are very good at helping teach skills. And, they cook really good food! As good as this is, some of us will leave on Sunday June 3rd to help out at the Barnegat Bay Natiional Estuary Program Festival in Island Heights. This is a gathering of nearly all of the environmental groups in the Barnegat Bay watershed. We will set up our display (Emily will hopefully have some oysters and mussels for a race) and help out were we are needed.