Vassar Quarterly - Fall 2017 - 41
Beyond Vassar
The reefs themselves are created by
oysters growing in metal cages designed
and welded by the Harbor School students.
Reefs have gone up in Canarsie, Coney
Island, and along other parts of the Brooklyn
shoreline and northern Manhattan. One of
those spots, near the Brooklyn Navy Yard, is
close to a drain that pours storm water-and
occasionally raw sewage-into the river, but
the area is teeming with life.
"What we found here, when we pull up
the cages is that they're covered with living
things. In the summer there will be blue
crab in every tray. There are anemones, worms,
fish. And in the winter, this whole basin fills
up with diving ducks, feeding off the trays,"
Malinowski says.
This site is very important to the Billion
Oyster Project because it's a channel, which
translates to calmer waters. That means when
the oysters spawn naturally, the larvae swim
around in the area for a few days, and eventually bleed out into the surrounding water.
"Otherwise, when the oysters spawn, all
the larvae get swept out to sea," Malinowski
says.
His students return regularly, piloting
the boats around the harbor, diving to measure the growth of the oysters, and keeping
an eye on the water-monitoring equipment,
which measures variables such as turbidity
(haziness), temperature, pH level, and salinity.
In addition to the Harbor School students,
thousands of city students from more than
75 public middle schools and high schools
have participated in experiential learning
through the Billion Oyster Project since the
project began.
With a goal of implanting one billion
oysters along the shoreline in the next 20
years-the estimated number of mollusks it
will take for the oysters to be self-producing-
it helps to have plenty of bright young minds
helping in the effort, Malinowski says.
"You can't learn creative problem solving
without a complex problem to solve creatively,"
he says. "No matter what industry it is, you
have to be able to show up on time every day,
communicate well verbally, work proactively,
be a creative problem-solver, and be a good
team player. Those skills are universal-
everyone needs them-and they're really
hard to teach in a classroom environment."
-Debbie Swartz
VA S S A R Q U A R T E R lY
41
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Vassar Quarterly - Fall 2017
Contents
Vassar Quarterly - Fall 2017 - Cover1
Vassar Quarterly - Fall 2017 - Cover2
Vassar Quarterly - Fall 2017 - Contents
Vassar Quarterly - Fall 2017 - 2
Vassar Quarterly - Fall 2017 - 3
Vassar Quarterly - Fall 2017 - 4
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Vassar Quarterly - Fall 2017 - 7
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Vassar Quarterly - Fall 2017 - Cover3
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