Photo by Bill Sheehan

Students from Bayonne sit comfortably onboard Hackensack Riverkeeper's pontoon cruisers while learning about water quality monitoring and the potentially destructive effects that human endeavors can have on the ecosystem.

This spring saw another fulfilling season nearly two hundred middle school students. Once again, the NJ Department of Environmental Protection co-sponsored the award-winning Harbor Watershed and Urban Fishing Program with Hackensack Riverkeeper, the Neu family, the NY/NJ Harbor Estuary Program, the Greater Newark Conservancy, and the City of Bayonne.

This year, from March to July, staff from Hackensack Riverkeeper and the NJDEP, including the Watershed Ambassadors, visited seventh and eighth grade science classes in eight schools in Bayonne, Jersey City, Newark and Elizabeth for four days of hands-on activities.

On Day One, we utilized several games and diverse activities to introduce the students to several important concepts, including watersheds, estuaries, point- and non-point source pollution, and fossil fuel gluttony. A series of map exercises illustrated where their local waterways originate and where they enter a larger body of water. They were also told which fish and crabs live in the Newark Bay Complex and which are unsafe to eat due to various pollutants.

When we next met, on Day Two, we used an EnviroScape model (plastic mini-watershed) to better exemplify the watershed mechanism where anything placed anywhere on the land (e.g. litter, pesticides, fertilizers, animal waste, chemicals in storage tanks, etc.) will ultimately end up in a body of water during a heavy rain. So, to alleviate the problem, we set out to the streets with gloves and huge contractor clean-up bags. We collected about 30 bags of debris from the neighborhoods around their schools. We also marked each stormwater catch basin (storm drain) with permanent markers that read "No dumping. Drains to your river." to inform more people about littering.

Day Three took us to the water. The group split, and half of the group got onboard Riverkeeper's pontoon cruiser which took the students on a tour around their city. The rest of the group stayed on land to perform several water quality tests such as dissolved oxygen, nitrates, salinity and turbidity. Then the groups switched, and at the end of the day, compared answers and shared stories.

Finally, on Day Four, we placed a fishing pole in the hands of each student (after a safety demonstration) and told them to catch fish. Only a few of them actually did, but for the ones that had never been fishing before, it was enough just to be on the water. They were also told what it means to be a responsible and safe angler and a watershed citizen so that everyone can enjoy the boundless joy that the water holds for us.