Today at 0930, 60 seniors from Weston High School boarded the Ernestina for a four hour sail.  Their focus onboard was to look at the marine science of the area from the deck of a traditional vessel.  In addition to water quality and plankton, students also learned about navigation, the history of the Ernestina and stood watch at the helm and the bow.

Looking to do an otter trawl, we motored out from Fan Pier to a trawl site between Long Island and Spectacle Island.  We trawled for around 5 minutes without a good idea of what we might find.

No one onboard could remember trawling in Boston Harbor before. We came out with a great collection of skates, flounders, crabs, seaweeds, and more.

Students walked through the different tanks, and identified the different species and counted the number of each one. Although we found some invasive species, we were impressed with the numbers and diversity of the species we found.

We raised the four lower sails with everyone’s help and shut down the engine for a beautiful sail.  We had decent wind with only a few clouds overhead and following the trawl and sail setting we all enjoyed our lunch on deck.

We returned to Fan Pier around 1345 after striking and furling our sails.  The crew fully enjoyed the sails and working with the students and we hope some may come back and join us as interns in the spring.

Captain: Doug Nemeth
Program Coordinator: Gretchen Stuppy