The other day I received an email from the American Littoral Society about a program they are running called SpillSpotter. In a nutshell it is compiling data of life in a certain location of a river, bay, ocean to have on file should a spill or disaster strike. With that info in the bank authorities can use it to help figure out what life has been affected if it is still around after the event or not.
We seined a part of the Shark River in Neptune and collected samples from the net and also clam rakes. My oldest daughter is showing interest in marine life so I thought this might be a good fit. And, as always, my 7 year old was up for anything her dad was doing. Juliet jumped right into a pair of waders and got busy with the seine an sorting through fish, crabs, and mollusks that were collected. The group included us volunteers, two college interns and the coordinator from ALS Stevie.
We caught 2,000,000,000,000 Silversides, okay a bunch, some neeedlefish, mullet, mummichogs, killies, and bluefish. If I were a fluke or bigger blue I would hang right about where we were because all of the food you'd need was right there.
I also tag striped bass for the ALS and have been a member for a few years. It's a great cause and one thatyou can involved not only by writing a check but hitting the beach and water with a garbage bag, shovel or seine net.
