On Saturday, July 25, Stuy Cove Park came alive as community members of all ages gathered to celebrate City of Water Day with Solar One and Local Nature Lab. Set along the East River beside our new Environmental Education Center, the event invited visitors to connect with New York City’s waterfront through hands-on exploration, creativity, and community science.
Throughout the day, participants created beautiful cyanotype prints using seaweed harvested from the East River alongside flowers and foliage from our education gardens, filled their field journals with observations, and brought the waterfront to life through colorful puppet shows featuring native East River species—including summer flounder, oysters, blue crabs, seahorses, and sea lettuce. Community scientists also helped collect valuable water quality data by testing the river’s turbidity, salinity, and pH.
While the fish weren’t biting during our introductory fishing clinic, the river still rewarded us with unforgettable wildlife encounters. Together we watched a double-crested cormorant successfully catch a fluke, barn swallows swoop across the water in pursuit of insects, and small schools of fish shimmer beneath the surface—a wonderful reminder that sometimes slowing down to observe nature can be just as rewarding as making the catch.
A heartfelt thank you to everyone who joined us and helped make the day such a success. We are especially grateful to our generous sponsors and partners whose support made our fishing program possible: Regal Marine Products and UFSHN for donating hundreds of dollars’ worth of fishing equipment, Quantum for donating fishing rods, Saltwaters Tackle in West Islip for generously spooling our reels with braided line, and Daniels Bait & Tackle in Corona for accepting and holding our shipment so everything arrived in time for the event. Your generosity is helping us build opportunities for New Yorkers to connect with the East River and the incredible ecosystem that calls it home.
Thank you to everyone who spent the day learning, creating, and exploring with us—we can’t wait to see you at the waterfront again soon!
