Floating Classroom with Belen Jesuit MS Fishing Club

Overview

On the morning of February 11th, 2025, The International SeaKeepers Society hosted a Floating Classroom with 23 students and 2 educators from Belen Jesuit Preparatory School’s Fishing Club aboard DISCOVERY Vessel River Queen in Biscayne Bay. Once we met up and boarded at FIU’s Biscayne Bay campus, we made our way out into the bay while we discussed the local watershed and ecosystems, the history of South Florida’s watershed, as well as the general ecology of the waterway. We also highlighted the unique ecosystems and properties of South Florida coasts, from seagrass meadows to coral reefs to mangroves. Following this talk, students were able to test their water quality knowledge by helping us use our Earth Echo Kits to conduct analysis on the water quality of the Bay, including temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, and turbidity. Our students got to illustrate their knowledge and explain why we might have seen certain readings, including extremely consistent temperature readings and very low dissolved oxygen levels across all of our students. Following our water quality talk and activities, we made our way to Sandspur Island where our students and educators participated in a beach cleanup. In less than an hour, we managed to collect more than 61 pounds of marine debris! Following a discussion of what we found, we finished the floating classroom by discussing some of the strangest as well as most common trash we found, and how we can better reduce, reuse, and recycle common plastics and microplastics in our everyday lives. We were extremely impressed by our students’ knowledge and initiative throughout the day and give a huge thanks to the students and educators of Belen Jesuit and D/V River Queen for a great day on the water!