Floating Classroom with Camp Shemesh

Overview

On Thursday, July 25th, 2024, The International SeaKeepers Society hosted a Floating Classroom with Camp Shemesh, a daytime Summer youth camp through the Center for Jewish Life at Beth David. We met with 15 kindergarten through 4th grade students and 3 chaperones at Bill Bird Marina in Miami, FL, where he hopped aboard DISCOVERY Vessel River Queen. We made our way into northern Biscayne Bay where we participated in a lecture and discussion about the history of development in the Bay, how the watershed and local ecosystems are interconnected, and even some of the fun organisms that call our Bay home! Students demonstrated their knowledge of various types of pollution, their sources, and what we as Floridians can do to help even for those who do not live near any direct waterways. Following our discussion, we arrived at Sandspur Island where our students were able to conduct a shore and beach cleanup. Students had a great eye for the smaller, harder-to-notice plastics that still leave a big impact such as bottle caps, plastic bags, and cigarette butts. Our team was also able to find a few local species for students to get to observe in a mangrove crab and a hermit crab. We ended our day by pooling all of the trash where we successfully cleaned up 5.5 pounds worth of trash as well as returned our crab friends back to the mangroves where we found them. We had an amazing afternoon with the students of Camp Shemesh through the Gordon School at the Center for Jewish Life at Beth David and thank them as well as DISCOVERY Vessel River Queen for their excellent work and help in spreading marine conservation awareness throughout South Florida!