FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE06-19
April
25, 2006
Contact:
Charles G. Sturcken
(718) 595-6600
Students
From City’s Environmental High School Get Hands On Water
Quality Training At South Street Seaport’s Living Harbor
Wet Lab On The Schooner Peking
New
York Harbor Sail Follows to Teach Students the Ropes of both
Sailing and Protecting Harbor Waters
Commissioner Emily Lloyd will greet a group of 30
ninth grade students from the High School for Environmental Studies
at 10:30 am who have gathered at the Living Harbor Wet Lab on the
Schooner Peking docked at Pier 16 at South Street Seaport. The
students will apply the lessons they have learned in their “Introduction
to the Environment” class to a hands on classroom experience. Educators
from the South Street Seaport Museum will make a one hour presentation
to the students about the ecology of New York City harbor waters.
Commissioner Lloyd said, “This collaborative
effort between our agency and South Street Seaport Museum is part
of the backbone of DEP’s environmental education effort.
Our educational outreach is designed to bring an understanding
of nature and the world we live in to those young people who will
be its future guardians. We can’t take for granted
that our resources will renew themselves without effort and commitment. I
want to thank the Seaport Museum for its cooperation, and I look
forward to future shared activities.”
DEP, in partnership with the South Street Seaport
Museum, the Catskill Watershed Corporation, and the Council
on the Environment of New York City, has forged this upstate/downstate
educational exchange program. Five schools, studying our
water resources as part of their curriculum, will have their turn
at the Wet Lab and experience a sail on the Pioneer. The
students from the High school for Environmental Studies are the
first group to take advantage of the program. The Wet Lab aboard
the Peking –
an early 20th century sailing vessel – opened in late
2004.
At 12:30, after lunch, the students will board the
Schooner Pioneer for an hour and a half sail of New York
Harbor. Students will test their sailing skills and have
an opportunity to view the harbor, observe its wildlife and ecology,
monitor harbor water quality, learn about watersheds, and assist
with rope tying and chart reading.