The Harbor: Where City Meets Nature

This is Boston. It’s a city built upon the ocean. When Boston needed to grow, the city made more land. The whole waterfront is manmade, and built from gravel and rubble. It took almost 100 years, but today we have a beautiful city.

In a metropolis of skyscrapers, old steeples, and cobblestone, it doesn’t look like there’s an abundance of nature. But there are plenty of pockets of wildlife, if you know where to look.

The Waterboat Duck House hides among boats docked at the piers by the North End.

Spectacle Island is part of the Boston Harbor Islands, and is just a 20 minute ferry ride from Boston.

Sometimes you have to move just outside of the city to see what’s out there. Just a short boat ride away, the Boston Harbor Islands house a variety of wildlife.

Animals range from scurrying little muskrats to deer that swam from the mainland to the islands.

Piping plovers are an endangered species that call Boston beaches their home. On Revere Beach, you can find fenced off areas where plovers are safe to nest and rebuild their population.

Along the shore, people and animals share the same habitat. Usually we coexist without interacting with one another.

But sometimes, we need to step in to help local, endangered animals.

At low tide, you might find a tide pool—a small ocean environment contained to a large puddle. The animals that live here are tough. They have to hold their ground against harsh sunlight and rough waves crashing against their home.

Farther out to sea, there’s a big, strange world of animals living below the surface. Although scientists know a lot about the animals that call Boston Harbor their home, there are a lot of mysterious creatures that live down at the bottom of the ocean waiting to be discovered.

Basking sharks may look scary, but they only eat microscopic plankton. Harbor seals and striped sheepfish also coexist in the same parts of the ocean. Swordfish slash at their larger prey with their pointed bills.

All fish have the same basic anatomy, but every species has its own special body adaptations to help it survive in its environment. Some may look strange.

Some may be striped or polka dotted or rainbow colored. Some may have extra long fins or tails. Some may have no eyes when others have too many to count.

The ocean sunfish, also called mola mola, are the largest bony fish in the world. They can grow to be the length of a full-sized adult, and weigh over 2,000 pounds. That’s a fish that weighs as much as two horses!

We can’t see much beneath the surface, but sometimes the animals will come to us.

Breaching is when an animal jumps out of the water to come up for air or catch prey. Whales and dolphins breach regularly, but other animals like sharks, manta rays, and even mola mola do the same!

Sea turtles love to snack on moon jellies.

However, plastic bags that get caught in the water move and look just like their favorite treat. These bags can get caught in their body and cause them pain.

Human technology has changed dramatically over the last few hundred years. Ocean life hasn’t been able to change as quickly and can’t always distinguish man-made inventions from the sights and sounds they’re used to. This can be harmful to marine life. Luckily, it’s not too late to help.

The wind sweeps up trash and it gets dumped into the ocean. Some animals mistake it for food, which can make them really sick. We can make a big difference by keeping our beaches clean and reducing the amount of

trash we produce. Using products like cloth shopping bags and reusable water bottles minimizes the amount of waste we produce.

Boston is beautiful. It balances nature, history, and modern living in a unique and special way. It’s up to us to protect and treasure our wonderful city.

This book was written, illustrated, and produced by Molly Magnell for her Senior BFA Capstone project at Washington University in St. Louis. The body text is 18 pt. Calluna Regular with 24 pt. leading.

The caption text is 12 pt. Calluna Italic & Bold Italic with 16 pt. leading.