Hanging Out in an Estuary

Estuary.  Gesundheit.  

An Estuary is a place where fresh water and salt water meet.  Check it out.

Jacob's in an AP Environmental Science class.  A.P. E.S.  aka APES.   They had a field trip to Rose Bay, which is an estuary in Spruce Creek Park.  They needed chaperones, so I volunteered.  Turns out, I was the only volunteer needed.  There were only 15 kids going.

We headed on the bus, driven by the class teacher, which was pretty darned funny and impressive; she'd just gotten her license to drive school buses and this was her first trip!  She did great.

We arrived and were split up into 3 groups; one for me, one for the teacher and one for the teacher's intern from a local college.  Jacob ended up not even being in my group.

Each group had to go through 3 small tours; birds, plants & manatees.  My group of 4 girls and one boy were off to birds.

The kids were really fun and were interested in what the local park educator had to say.

Next up, Plants.  We walked around and were shown different plants, what to eat what not to eat, etc.

Studying plants

Stoner tries a numbing plant.  Yes, his last name is Stoner. No, I am not joking.

Jacob's group heads off to the plants tour.

After plants, we headed over to the manatee lesson where the kids played a game that showed how overpopulation hurts the animals in an environment.

After this, we all headed on a small hike, maybe 1/2-3/4 of a mile.  Our group headed to an activity where we mapped out the crab population using these meter.....things.  See below.

The other two groups? They were in the water with a 70 foot net, trying to catch things!!

Jacob & classmates lug the net

Once we were done with our crab-mapping, we switched off with a group in the water and we waded right on in.

Jacob on the right. On the left is an exchange student from Germany.  

I was in the water with them, taking all the pictures.  We got muddy and smelly.  We didn't catch much; just some tiny fish, shrimp and little non-stinging jelly thingies.  

A fun time was had by all.