Cora Hartshorn Arboretum

A mix of students some as young as 3rd grade and parents arrived at Sedge Island on Friday night. Even though some of the students were small and had no prior kayak experience, they all managed to paddle into the marsh and pass close to the peregrine falcon hacking tower before stopping for lunch on a sandy beach on the western side of the Marine Conservation Zone. On the way back to the house we stopped to dig some soft clams in one of the sandbars. While we didn’t get many, we did manage to rake some hard clams and as a result we had a wonderful clams and spaghetti dinner on Saturday night.

The biggest disappointment for some of the participants was not catching any fish. Many of the students and some of the adults fished every spare moment. Although some had the tails bitten off the pink Fin-s, or had their grass shrimp taken off their hook no one landed a fish.

This group picked up where the previous group left off with the clam aquaculture conservation project. Students sorted through thousands of 8mm size clams to find any that had survived the winter in mesh bags staked down in the waters off the west side of the island. Unfortunately, their findings confirmed that many of the tiny clams did not make it over the winter. Thanks for helping with this tedious but important task.

Jim Merritt

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