GAFC This saturday

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We've got a good turnout for the Great Annual Fish Count on Saturday.  76 divers have registered, with a few more last minute registrations coming in. 

Remember to fill out your liability waiver to your dive and give it to the site coordinator. 

The event will happen rain or shine.  If we do get rain, don't worry, the deck at Stage For Park is covered, and most people will have been underwater all morning anyway!

GAFC Recap

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The 2012 Annual Great Annual Fish Count was a great success. We again had the largest single-day fish count in the country, with 83 divers, and 90 surveys submitted submitted for the day.  We also had 38 species sighted.

A huge thank you goes out to all of the volunteers who helped make this the largest GAFC event in the USA for an unprecedented 10th year in a row!!

No surprise with what was spotted, with cunner and winter flounder being the most commonly seen.  Some people even saw four-spot flounder and norther puffer!

View the data collected for the day on REEF's website

View photos in the NEADC Scrapbook and on Facebook

Send any more photos to webmaster@neadc.org, and remember to count fish on every dive!

Upcoming Speakers

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We have some great speakers coming to the general meetings in the next few months.  Remember meetings are the 3rd Wednesday of every month.  Details at the next meeting page and About meetings page

September: Jonathan Bird will talk about underwater habitat Aquarius and at the beginning will shoot a short version of the Fish ID class taught by Bob Michelson as a part of the GAFC Jonathan Bird Blue World episode – chance of being seen on TV.

October: Ethan Gordon will talk about Maldives,

November: there will be members show and tell,

December: Brian Skerry, National Geographic Photographer

January: Amy Fleishman from Mass Audubon's Wellfleet Sanctuary will talk about turtle rescue.

February: Greg Skomal will talk about shark tagging in Saudi Arabia

March: there will be another Members-only behind the scene tour of the aquarium.

All speakers are subject to change

Sharksavers and other environmental news

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Following the August general meeting, some members asked for more info on Sharksavers, and in particular what they can do to stop restaurants in Massachusetts from serving shark fins (yes, there are a few).

All the info is compiled on the environmental page of the website.  Remember if you do visit a  restaurant that serves shark fin, be polite and explain the issue.  Many business owners are simply unaware of the problem.

BSC treasure hunt

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The annual Bay State Council of Divers Treasure hunt is this weekend, 9/23/12.  This year they have made it easier for people to walk away with prizes:

Entrance fee is $10 for one or both parts of the event, diving and/or snorkeling.

Diving Event:

• Purpose: Individual SCUBA divers will dive in a controlled, supervised environment for submerged items. Raffle tickets given out in exchange for those items will afford participants a chance at some great raffle prizes.
• The start time for the diving event is 10AM; divers are expected to be at the edge of the water ready to be counted at that time. If a diver is not ready to get in the water at 10, he/she will be at a disadvantage.
• There will be a limited number of special tokens in the water for specific top prizes. If you find one of the special tokens, you will want to come out of the water immediately to claim your prize.
•  Other tokens will enter divers into the general raffle.
• All participants who find tokens will be eligible for the two Grand Prizes.

Snorkel Event:

• Purpose: Teams of snorkelers will dive for specific items. The team that retrieves the largest number of those items wins the event.
• The start time for this event is 11AM. This is a one hour event. Snorkel teams are expected to be ready to enter the water at that time. If a team is not ready at 11, that team will be at a disadvantage.
• Maximum team size is 6 snorkelers.
• The number of teams is not limited.
• A trophy will be awarded to the winning team.

If anyone is interested in diving or snorkeling with the NEADC team, contact Anna at Secretary@neadc.org

Boston: Museum of Science: Isaac's First Visit!

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This past week, our little family took a much needed trip to Boston. "Much needed" in the sense that we needed to get away for a while, just us three, to take a break from the chaos of our lives and simply enjoy one another. But also "much needed" in the sense that Mama needed to revisit the city of her childhood ... the city that my Dad took us to whenever we needed a bit of culture, some interesting foods, music, museums, and whenever we just needed to be surrounded by people of all kinds. My Dad and I are kindred spirits ... and Boston feels good to us.

I took Meaghan to Boston when she was 6 (still searching for the pics of that trip) ... taking the train in from Lowell ... for a visit to the New England Aquarium. It was a wonderful day for us ... and I figured it was time to do the same for Isaac.

But instead of one day ... we took a vacation of three days. One day for each place that I wanted to share with my boy. Day one? The Museum of Science.

As a child, I loved the Museum. As a young adult, I found it boring. As a Mama, I fell in love all over again. Such a huge place full of rich history and exciting innovations.

Here is a bit of what we saw/did:

First stop ... Theatre of Lightning ... one of my favorite exhibits from childhood ... and as relevant today as it was 30 years ago. But not one of Isaac's favorites. Very loud and a bit over his head. But interesting (again) for both Daddy and me.

Then, a bit of the old space exhibits that we parents also remembered from our childhood ...

R2-D2 and Luke Skywalker never get old. And since Isaac is a recent convert to the whole Star Wars trilogy ... this was a super cool find for him.

Sometime after space ... we went over to the Evolution, Human Birth and Anatomy sections. These were my favorite! Skeletons that showed the evolution of the human species ... various animal brains in jars (beluga whale brains are awesome!) ... a whole exhibit on reproduction that was so well done ... baby chicks hatching in a hatchery for all to see ... WAY COOL.

And as part of the whole Human Evolution exhibit ... there were Tamarin monkeys ... live ones. So adorable and fun to watch. And I swear to you ... on pain of death by flying monkeys ... that we (all three of us) witnessed two Tamarins totally making out. Like for real making out. Lips to lips ... smooching. Then they would preen each other ... then cuddle ... then smooch ... and repeat. It was awesome.

Why Tamarin monkeys? Well, I don't think we got that far, but the website reads: "Ancient stone tools, poisonous plants, DNA, fossil skulls, and tamarin monkeys all have something in common: they are all clues that help explain why all life on Earth, including humans, evolves over generations." So if you are interested, check out their site and search for the connection.

Later ... after skipping around to various exhibits (we had only a few hours so did much skipping about to the exhibits we knew were a must see) ... we found ourselves among dinosaurs!





The above dino is Cliff, who is apparently a big deal. He is one of only 4 nearly intact Triceratops skeletons in the world.(I am loving the picture I took of him!) As I looked over his bones, while Halis and Isaac were goofing about somewhere else, I found myself wondering how some people, in order to keep to their religion, have decided that all the skeletons/fossils of dinosaurs are a hoax. Apparently they need to believe this in order for the Christian bible timeline to make sense. I wondered how on earth anyone could pull off such a global hoax ... and how people could believe that these bones were planted all over the world for archaeologists to feign the discovery of them. I wondered this in part because I once had a friend who truly believes that dinosaurs were created as a global hoax to usurp Christianity. ANYWAY ... while I was wondering all that ...


Isaac was simply enjoying them. :)

There was so much to see all around us ... and so little time (we will definitely go back!). There were so many exhibits that we enjoyed but did not get any pictures of. A fave that comes to mind is the new X-Ray exhibit ... where Daddy showed Isaac the x-rays of various animals with various ailments.

I found this amazing rock ...

Anyone know what is called? It is gorgeous. I want to wear it all over me!

I also found this enormous piece of artwork that called to me ...





I think I may try to recreate this in some way ... on a much smaller scale ... and with paper :)


Here - for whatever reason - was one of my favorite interactive sections of the museum ...




I think I would also like to recreate this in our home too! What a simple, yet brilliant way to learn about birds! Oh, and I just have a thing for silhouettes :)

This was Isaac's favorite ... and I really think he could have spent hours at it ... watching the mechanics at work ...


At one point, there were at least a dozen kids watching this piece ... and I think Isaac loved it as much for the social interaction as he did for the mechanics of it. That's my boy.

And at the very end of our visit, I remembered the bees! The bees that I was mesmerized by as a child ... so Halis and I made sure to run Isaac up to the top floor to catch a glimpse. And it was worth it ... once again ...




So, there ya have it ... a glimpse of what we enjoyed during our first Boston day. We missed quite a bit at the museum ... so now have an excuse to return ... that and we want to do an overnight in the museum! I want to live out the adventures of Claudia and Jamie ... just as I heard them when I was in 3rd grade :) Have you ever done such a thing?


Although we weren't able to explore any one exhibit in the depth that it deserved, we now have some starting points for homeschool discussion and exploration.
Day Two? The Aquarium! And it was AWESOME! Will post more asap. Thank you for reading & sharing with us.


Love,

Jodi & Family

It's New Years Eve!

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What's your resolution? Do you make them? Do you keep them?

I don't know if I have ever really made any ... and I am sure I simply can't THINK of any because I never really actually KEPT any. But I have a few "thoughts" for the upcoming year ;) And they go something like this:

* Like nearly every other American, I would like to make a commitment to weight loss and healthier living in the new year ... especially since the Mayans believed that this will be the last year for humans on earth. Or maybe because it could be my last year ... I should just eat tons of chocolate and worry not about my heart or health? Hmmmm ... I signed Isaac and I up for karate anyway. At least if the Zombie Apocalypse occurs, (as also popularly believed), I will be prepared for executing awesome karate chops to brainless heads. And I will be healthier ... just in case we all make it to 2013.

* I would like to make a commitment to play more. Yes, PLAY. I want to play board games, team sports, practical jokes (only the nice, really fun kind), play with Isaac and Halis more ... creating epic star wars battles on the living room floor ... etc. PLAY, PLAY, PLAY. One of my favorite Calvin and Hobbes quotes comes to mind: "There is never enough time to do all the nothing you want." I wish to MAKE that time ... to do the silly things that society tends to tell us do not matter ... like chasing each other around with squirt guns, playing endless games of Monopoly, faux tag team wrestling on the bed, searching for worms in the spring mud, etc. etc. etc. Are you feeling me?

* I also wish to make a commitment to create fun play dates with my friends. And if they want, we can run around and chase each other with squirt guns (as stated above) OR we can go out for martinis ... whichever is preferred at the moment. I have amazing friends, and I think 2012 will rock if I make the commitment to spend more time with them.

* But perhaps most important, my sweet little family of 3 has made the commitment to add another child to our family in 2012! Not a resolution really ... but we have announced to friends and family that we have begun the process to domestically adopt a newborn into our family. We are all very excited about this. Isaac is certainly the MOST excited :) Details will follow ...

2012 will undoubtedly be awesome. Many changes have taken place in our lives over 2011 ... and though some were difficult to be sure ... they have led us to this new place of hope, renewed faith & love, and a commitment to cherish and grow our family and our circle of friends.

At this time of reflection on the past and hope for the future ... I wonder what you are all thinking about committing to for the new year ... for your life ... for your family ... for you. Please share.

And thank you all for reading and sharing with me over the past year. Love to you and yours. Happy New Year.

Love,
Jodi