Habitat Care Day at the Harlem River Ecology Center
By Howard Giske
Did you know that there is an ecosystem right in the Harlem River off the Bronx? Young people are finding out about our ecosystem at the Harlem River Marine Station & Ecology Center. On Saturday December 30th, Habitat Care day, the featured Harlem River species was the Horseshoe Crab. Children made cut-outs of horseshoe crabs to wear as masks. Last week, 35 children attended the center and made wreaths out of sticks and leaves.
Several fish tanks displayed fish common in the Harlem River, including the White Perch, Atlantic Croaker and the Welk. Mr. Ludger K. Balan, Executive director and founder of the Center, with the help of his assistants Maryanne Colon, an Intern from SUNY Maritime; and Elizabeth Ortiz, Volunteer Staff, gave me a tour of the center.
The Ecology Center is a non-profit organization located south of Roberto Clemente Park, off of West Tremont St., and Cedar Ave., under Building 10, Richmond Plaza, on the Harlem River, and has been in the Bronx for over three years.
Activities at the Center
Other activities available for youth are the Forensic Antics Station, which is an interactive station that offers a view of the water from the Harlem River, seen through a microscope. This area is rich in life, partly because it is an estuary, where the fresh water of the Hudson River, meets the salt water of the Atlantic Ocean.
The Center is also involved in monitoring temperature and water conditions in the Harlem River. Over the last 30 years the Harlem River has gotten cleaner, partially because of the building of water treatment centers in New York City and upstream locations. This is evidenced in the return of shipworms, which are tiny worms in the water that eat and destroy wooden boards and objects, and have returned in the last few years. A wooden round piling is exhibited from the Harlem River which has been severely eaten into by the shipworms. Also a bicycle recovered from the river is exhibited that actually has an oyster growing from it. It is not advisable to eat such things from the Harlem River!
Another room of the center had some historical background on Afro-American and Hispanic individuals involved in seafaring and the whaling trade. These included Louis Temple, the inventor of the Tugglehead Harpoon, and Mathew Henson, who went on the expedition to the North Pole with Mathew Perry. Coming soon for Black History month is a scheduled talk by Captain Bill Pinkney, an explorer, author, and former ship captain of the historic sailing ship, the “Amistad”. He is scheduled to speak at the Center, on Saturday, Feb. 24th at 3pm. For more information call 718-901-3331, or email, theurbandivers@yahoo.com .
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