New York City Kids Camp Day 3- Gilgo Beach

August 17, 2005

After two days in the city, at Pier 63 on the Hudson,
and at a swimming pool downtown, the kids are getting away from their
homes and in this case, to the beach. Emily, Conor, Margie, Hayden, Jessie,
and I have all been having a good time working with these kids who are
in an upward bound program at the girls and boys harbor. Our goal is to
introduce our passion to them, teaching them as much as we can in 5 days,
and hoping that their minds are even more open to the outside world than
before, and the opportunities it offers and the responsibilities it demands.

The kids had a great time at the beach. John and Anthony
got some great surfs on some sweet waves. I forgot to take photos at the
beach itself.

We spent two hours at an estuary, where we dug clams,
saw lots of wildlife, including two big Horseshoe Crabs. I caught a little
white baby Horseshoe Crab that was very soft and not very intelligent
looking, however, that doesn’t mean that they don’t know something we
don’t know. Here are a few facts about them, according to the University
of Delaware.

Horseshoe crabs are among the world’s oldest and most
fascinating creatures. They are estimated to be at least 300 million years
old. The earliest horseshoe crab species were crawling around the Earth’s
shallow coastal seas for at least 100 million years before the dinosaurs
even arrived (which was about 200 million years ago). Since that time,
the Earth’s land masses have shifted dramatically, thousands of other
species have come and gone, but horseshoe crabs have survived and today
remain much as they were those millions of years ago.

Horseshoe crabs have been used by people for centuries.
More recently, they have been instrumental to scientific research that
has contributed significantly to human health. Still today, when people
see for the first time this strange creature with an armored shell and
spiked tail, it is often with trepidation, along with the question, "What
is that thing?" Meet the remarkable horseshoe crab!

OK, EJ back, thanks for attending 8th grade earth
science.

Got to get to bed- two days of whitewater for these
kids now, need to be ready!

🙂 EJ