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.