Well before “Fishers Island” was penned on any map, the Pequot Indians called their summer hunting grounds Munnawtawkin or “Place of Observation”.
I can imagine centuries ago, these indigenous people paddling into West Harbor with the days catch or collecting various sea bird’s eggs from the stony spits looking north and even standing atop bluffs facing south forecasting the arrival of a turbulent gale.

I imagine the Pequot Indians were the original and authentic master naturalists. They lived the rhythm of Munnawtawkin and shared their local traditional knowledge with tribal members and even settlers on the distant mainland.

Well, with all this imagining in the dead of winter it came to me that now was the time for me to better become a master naturalist myself. And so to continue to share the passion of marine conservation and island preservation with future Island Sentinels(all students), I am going back to school myself.

Through University of Florida and The Marine Discovery Center in New Smyrna Beach, I will dive deep into Coastal Studies in the Masters Naturalist Program. And while I am busy taking notes these next months, I hope to share a few of my own- from the field.

I am grateful to both the Fishers Island community and our school as Lisa Eiriksson, Ace Ahrens and Olivia Backhaus continue to monitor and observe trends on “Munnawtawkin”. For it is outside in their own unique island classroom that they will glean knowledge from Nature’s best.

I find myself again writing about Eelgrass, which hasn’t always been my intention, but this New Year I feel it should be my “Attention” and maybe even yours.

While science students and I can learn and share facts about this flowering underwater plant named Zostera Marina, and the museum curator might inform me that early settlers banked houses and barns, and covered cellar storehouses with dried eelgrass – my work outdoors is teaching me daily that eelgrass meadows surrounding Fishers Island are a HUGE component of its unique environment.

Experts on the topic will tell you:

Eelgrass maintains shoreline stability and helps prevent erosion

Eelgrass supports several commercial fisheries by providing shelter and structure to ecosystems supporting foraging habitat.

Lobster, mussels, clams, razor clams, periwinkles, rock crabs, winter and summer  flounder, striped bass, bay scallops, blue crab (and more!) all need eelgrass  to survive and hopefully flourish.

Scientists know that Nutrient Pollution is detrimental to Zostera Marina.

Discharges from sewage, septic systems, fertilizer run off from lawns, golf courses, and agriculture fields stimulates algae growth, clouding the seawater and reducing necessary sunlight to promote healthy growth of eelgrass meadows.

While I am not an expert in the “field” of eelgrass, I continue to submit photos in hopes Islanders will, like myself, pay ATTENTION.

Wind through branch circulates against sky
Fractured ice moans

Threads of marsh grass lie entombed

Nature’s disposition so harsh and hard

Lone and hungry coyote

awaits

The warmth and pulse of Spring’s thaw

Admittedly, I thought it was quite unfair that as a kid I was signed up for
THe earliest swim lessons of the morning at Hay Harbor.

Standing there wet and shivering dockside when it seemed I just got out of my slippers bedside.

Braving the choppy waters in July with eel grass strands tickling me didn’t make me laugh, and darting and sprinting around jelly fish in August made me tired enough to call it a day by 9am!

Yesterday, I also recollected how as a kid I always wondered what the winters were like on Fishers Island.

Through life I have become a very strong swimmer (even on land!) going greater distances, learning to pace myself, take courage, remembering to exhale….

Somehow, I believe those early morning swimming lessons paid off in many ways.