Spreading a net in Dad Horse Bay, you never know what. Photographs by Ava Chin for The New York Times “They don’t call it Dead Horse Bay for nothing,” said Jarad Astin, walking across the bottle-strewn beach in flip-flops with a seine net over his shoulder.
We were there for BioBlitz , a 24-hour survey of Jamaica Bay on June 11 and 12 by scientists, professors, amateur naturalists and families. The goal of the field study, sponsored by Brooklyn College and the National Park Service, was to collect and identify as many species of animal, plant and marine life as possible. Our group, one of many working throughout the area, was attempting an accurate assessment of marine creatures, but at the beach of Dead Horse Bay, near Gerritsen Inlet, all we saw were discarded wine, juice and syrup bottles, mugs, film reels and other assorted trash.
The three of us — Tumpa Mira and Beni Mfitidi, two Brooklyn College juniors, and me — marveled at the former landfill as we followed Mr. Astin, our leader and the live animal coordinator for the Brooklyn Children’s Museum.
Under Mr. Astin’s direction, Ms. Mira disappeared with a dragnet toward a patch of water-grown grasses, while Ms. Mfitidi helped him unroll the 25-foot-long seine net.
“It’s like standing on a mattress,” Mr. Astin said, making his way thigh-deep into the waters of Dead Horse Bay, holding one end of the net, while Ms. Mfitidi held the other.
“O.K., hold it nice and tight,” Mr. Astin instructed. “Ready? 1, 2, 3 — go, go, go!”
Good morning, little green crab. (Photo right)They dragged the net toward the shore, and in a final scooping motion, lifted it out of the water. The first attempts brought up only seaweed, but on the third try, there were bits of comb jelly, a few mud snails and several tiny Atlantic silversides in the net.
I fished out a piece of sea lettuce (a k a Ulva lactuca) about the size of a square of origami paper, floating in the water like a piece of green cellophane. “Is this edible?” I asked.
“Most kelp and seaweed is edible,” Mr. Astin said. “But you wouldn’t want to consume any from around here.”
Jamaica Bay houses four wastewater treatment sites, and the Department of Environmental Protection is working to improve the ecology, according to agency officials, by initiating measures to cut nitrogen-discharge levels and increasing the number of water- sampling sites. Still, the combination of pollution, the proximity to Kennedy Airport and the fact that we were on former landfill made the eating prospects unattractive.
I headed down the beach to where Ms. Mira stood with a dragnet in a grassy estuary, knee-deep in water. Earlier, Mr. Astin had shown us how to bring up samples from the bay floor using arm motions like an Olympic curler’s, which I tried to mimic with my own net. Ms. Mira caught several slippery Mummichogs (minnows), but I was bringing up only sea lettuce and mud snails.
Suddenly, through the water, I saw the scrambling motion of a small crab near my waders and nabbed it with my net.
I was worried it was an Asian shore crab — the wildly successful invasive, of which we didn’t need a living specimen. But to my delight, back on shore, Mr. Astin confirmed it was a female European green crab, or Carcinus maenas (also nonnative and invasive), which he did want. She was about the size of a silver dollar and blowing bubbles in his hands.
A catch of tiny silversides. (Photo right)Half an hour later we regrouped, marveling at a horseshoe crab Mr. Astin had found crawling around the water’s edge. “This one’s in pretty good condition,” he said, holding up Limulus polyphemus as it made slow crawling motions in the air. Ms. Mira and Ms. Mfitidi wanted to know if it could bite.
“It can’t hurt you,” Mr. Astin said, noting the knot of barnacles on its hard shell before turning it over. A handful of slipper limpets (Crepidula fornicata) lined the bottom. “These are hitchhikers,” he said, prying off the limpets with a knife, revealing their yellow eggs.
Before we started packing up, Mr. Astin made one last survey of the bay’s grassy area with his dragnet. “Whoa, look at this,” he said, suddenly pulling his net out of the water.
He held out a large blue crab, with a single pincher waving in the air . “He’s lucky I’m not crabbing,” Mr. Astin said, as we admired it. “He’s big enough to be a keeper.”
He showed us the crab’s dorsal side, and the rather phallic apron- flap, shaped like an upside-down T (a male), before tossing it into the water.
Suddenly, something jerked in the net, and Mr. Astin fished out another, much smaller, crab. Turning it over revealed the triangular-shaped apron of an immature female. “I think we broke up a couple — sorry, guys,” Mr. Astin said.
By the end of the morning expedition, we counted silversides, killifish , amphipods (the roly-polies of the sea), tiny Atlantic herring, fairy shrimp, mud snails, common periwinkles, a hermit crab, pipe fish (related to seahorses, but elongated like inchworms) and my European green crab, among others. Our total was 42 species.
Each BioBlitz helps the Park Service discover species of animals, plants, fungi and marine life, but while we found nothing unusual that day, it seemed enough to contribute an accurate assessment for the survey.
In our small tank filled with living specimens — including feathery barnacles waving come-hither like slow-moving showgirls, and fairy shrimp treading water — I watched my scrappy green crab trying to eat its neighbors. It seemed particularly keen on nabbing one of Ms. Mira’s minnows. If it survived the weekend and quarantine, it would become a part of the Children’s Museum.
When all the species are tallied, experts at Jamaica Bay expect to have counted nearly 600 from the BioBlitz.
No dead horses, but lots of other stuff.
For 24 consecutive hours, volunteer students and residents, led by wildlife experts, hiked around the wetlands surrounding Floyd Bennett Field in this year's BioBlitz, counting and identifying hundreds of animal and plant species that call the New York City area home.
The June 11-12 wildlife census was organized by Brooklyn College and the National Park Service. The NPS oversees the entire 26,000-acre Gateway National Recreational Area, which stretches from the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Queens along the Brooklyn and Staten Island shorelines to Sandy Hook, N.J.
Professor of Geology John Marra, who helped organize the event, said that the partnership between the College and the NPS made perfect sense. "The Park Service has the facilities, and the College has the scientific interest and the labor.
"While we are helping the NPS monitor what they have," he added, "we are also providing good research education for our students."
"For us, the BioBlitz has two objectives," said Barry Sullivan, NPS's superintendent for the Gateway region. "The first is to sample the biodiversity that we have here within the boundaries of New York City. The second is to get citizens out and involved in counting and recording plants, animals and other creatures."
Sullivan added, "If Teddy Roosevelt were still alive, he would be here with us today." Roosevelt was a noted conservationist who established five national parks during his terms as U.S. president (1901-09).
President Karen Gould kicked off the event on Friday afternoon. She said she was "very proud" of the College's partnership with the National Park Service. "It is a way of engaging the real world in learning," she noted.
The final species counts for this year's event should be completed within a few weeks, according to Assistant Professor of Geology Rebecca Boger, who also helped organize the event. "We're very pleased with the results," she said. "Our initial species count was over 500, and we expect the final tally to pass 600."
Previous tallies from the 2009 and 2007 BioBlitzes have shown that the Gateway area shelters more than 330 species of birds. That figure is more than all the kinds of birds found in Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Yosemite national parks combined and is nearly half of all the 700 bird species that inhabit North America.
A number of other institutions, including the Brooklyn Children's Museum, New York City Audubon Society, Hofstra University, College of Staten Island, American Museum of Natural History, New York Aquarium, Fordham University, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Environmental Protection Agency and New York City Mycological Society, supported this year's event.
Professor Robert Dickie of Brooklyn College and assistant Nicole Wharf gather silversides at Plumb Beach during Jamaica Bay BioBlitz 2010. NPS PHOTO On June 11-12, nature enthusiasts conducted a 24-hour “wildlife census” for Jamaica Bay BioBlitz 2010. About 100 volunteers documented over 500 animal and plant species at Gateway National Recreation Area’s Floyd Bennett Field. Scientists, college students, hobbyists and families crawled through underbrush and waded in saltwater to observe spiders, water birds, algae, horseshoe crabs, fish, frogs, mollusks, plants and fungi, among other species. Results are still coming in and will be updated as scientists receive lab test results.
Brooklyn College partnered with Gateway NRA to organize BioBlitz 2010. Rebecca Boger, professor of Earth and Environmental Studies at Brooklyn College, worked closely with National Park Service Biologist Jessica Browning to recruit researchers and volunteers. Shuttle buses brought volunteers and visitors to programs and field sites throughout Floyd Bennett Field. Many researchers were professors from local colleges, especially Brooklyn College, while many volunteers were college students in a particular field of study.
Gateway Superintendent Barry Sullivan, Brooklyn College President Karen L. Gould and Dr. Gary Machlis, Science Adviser to the NPS Director, blew whistles of red-tailed hawk calls to kick off the 24-hour event. Dr. Machlis then waded into Return-a-Gift Pond with researcher volunteers to collect tadpoles and other acquatic life. He noted the benefits and challenges of preserving nature at Floyd Bennett Field, once a municipal airport for New York City. “This is an extraordinary example of how the Organic Act needs to be acted out,” Dr. Machlis observed. “Preserve this unimpaired for future generations.” He added, “If it was easy, we wouldn’t be doing it.”
For a BioBlitz, the means of gathering data is just as important as the final species count. College students try out their research skills under the guidance of professors. Nature enthusiasts have the opportunity to expand their interests. Volunteer Anne Yen enjoys birding, but volunteered to help collect saltwater organisms because “I like it all.”
Gateway scheduled several interpretation events, such as “Seining at Sunset” and “Junior BioBlitz,” to attract people of all ages. Researchers, too, brought their children. At the closing ceremony, Allison Mass took the stage with one of her children to report her findings on fiddler crabs.
This was the 16th BioBlitz for volunteer Suzi Zetkus. “I feel lucky to be part of it,” Zetkus reflected, “because I see how it changes people. If kids aren’t getting outside and having the hands-on experience of a horseshoe crab, letting it move in your hand, they aren’t going to love it. They’re not going to save it.”
David M. Quintana, a writer for the blog Lost in the Ozone, volunteered the entire 24 hours of the event. He took over 70 photographs of the event. “I got my merit badge at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge [another section of Gateway NRA],” he recalled. “I would ride my bike down there. I would tell kids that I saw a snowy owl or thousands of snow geese .They thought I was making up stories. You get kids there and half the battle is won.”
Some volunteers were interested in Floyd Bennett Field’s “wild” nightlife. Elliotte “Rusty” Harold signed up for his first BioBlitz because he liked to photograph “cool, interesting insects. This is an unusual opportunity to find nocturnal insects at the park in the hours when it’s normally closed to the public.” Harold brought his own camera and ring flash, for photographing images directly in front of the lens.
At the closing ceremony, several researchers reported their findings, including Paul Sadowski of the New York Mycological Society. He was surprised to find an earthstar fungus, but “the best species to find [at the BioBlitz] is homo sapiens, to raise their awareness about our planet.”
The 2010 BioBlitz was held at Gateway National Park's Floyd Bennett Field, Plum Beach and Dead Horse Bay units in around Jamaica Bay...It was seamlessly coordinated by Assistant Professor Rebecca Boger (Brooklyn College) and Park Ranger Jessica Browning (National Parks Service)...
Click here to view these pictures larger
The 24 hour event began at 3pm Friday June 11th and ended at 3pm June 11th, 2010...It was a fun event which served as a learning experience for the scientists, amateur naturalists and children who participated...There was a total of over 500 species located and identified during the 24 hour period...
Species Count as of 2:30 PM, 6/12/2010 | |
| Aquatic Plant | 60 |
Bird | 47 |
| Bryophyte | 10 |
| Fish | 15 |
| Herp | 6 |
| Mammal | 10 |
| Marine Invertebrate | 55 |
| Terrestrial Inverebrate | 164 |
| Terrestrial Plant | 149 |
| *Preliminary Total* | 516* |
“BioBlitz provides a wonderful opportunity to take a snapshot of the park’s ecosystems and the information we gather can provide a complete picture of the health and longevity of these areas,” noted Gateway Superintendent Barry Sullivan. “By taking a partnership approach to this event, the organizations and colleges involved can all learn more about the richness and biological diversity found at Gateway National Recreation Area.”
The Jamaica Bay BioBlitz, sponsored by The National Park Service in partnership with Brooklyn College, also offers an exiting array of educational and recreational events for young and old alike over the course of the 24-hour event. The Floyd Bennett Field Aviator Center (3159 Flatbush Avenue) will be “Base Camp” and the starting point for all events. The complex will be transformed into a temporary on-site research laboratory where scientists and volunteers will huddle over microscopes working to identify specimens brought in from the field. During the fall 2007 BioBlitz, scientists and volunteers identified 650 different species of birds, bryophytes, fish, mammals, plants and terrestrial and aquatic invertebrates at Jamaica Bay.
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The count included 209 different types of land and water plants, 164 varieties of bugs and moths, 47 types of bird and dozens of fish and animals.
The survey began Friday afternoon and ended on Saturday.
Researchers at Brooklyn College coordinated the count.
Gateway National Recreation Area Superintendent Barry Sullivan says the findings show how diverse life is, even in an urban environment.
Families and students, scientists and park rangers walked Plumb Beach on a treasure hunt Friday, to look for natural treasures of wildlife. It was the beginning of a 24-hour "BioBlitz" at Brooklyn's Gateway National Recreation Area, where different species in and around Jamaica Bay were found and identified.
The National Park Service joined with Brooklyn College to record all the species of living organisms, from sea life and insects to reptiles and grasses.
Park rangers say the biodiversity here is greater than most New Yorkers may realize. There are 331 species of birds alone recorded in Jamaica Bay.
"That 331 is more bird species than you would find in some our great national parks -- Yellowstone, Yosemite and Grand Canyon. If you combine the bird species in those parks, it wouldn't equal 331," said Barry Sullivan of the National Park Service. "So right here in New York City, we have that kind of biodiversity."
It was the second BioBlitz at Gateway over the last two years. Organizers said documenting what lives there helps experts learn if there are any new species or endangered ones.
Residents said getting involved helped them become more engaged in their national parks and their environment.
"I'm here to learn. I'm not an authority on anything on the biodiversity here," said one volunteer.
"Just to know what's around me, what's in Brooklyn, what's here," said another.
"To take stock of all the biodiversity that exists right here in Brooklyn, right in our backyard," said a third.
The BioBlitz kicked off Friday afternoon and was scheduled to run nonstop through Saturday. Experts said the overnight hours are necessary to get a more comprehensive look.
"Some animals are more active at night than daytime. Some of the insects for instance, moths. Bats, you document them at night. Mammals are more active at night," said Brooklyn College professor Rebecca Boger.
The National Parks Service said once it records all of its findings, it will post the data on its website.
Hundreds of scientists and amateur naturalists are going on a 'treasure hunt' to catalog the diversity of organisms in New York City's Jamaica Bay and surrounding areas.
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