Presque Isle Bay, USA - Amy Jo Zola

My Watermark is Presque Isle Bay, Pennsylvania.

I’m from Erie, Pennsylvania with the organization Environment Erie. My personal connection with a waterbody is with Presque Isle Bay. It’s important to me because I have been involved with it early on and it’s becoming an area of concern, and pushing (the issue) with the community to make it an area of concern. A couple years ago we were able to celebrate it becoming an area of recovery. Being able to see the transition from area of concern, where children couldn’t swim in it and fish were dying in it, to now where we actually have a Swim Across the Bay every year to recognize the fact that our Bay is now clean.

As a Child I know I went to Presque Isle, fed the ducks off the docks, but I think my first real connection was just before college when I was really looking forward to starting a career in biology and I had an internship with Pennsylvania Sea Grant. I got to help education out on a boat that we were using, and just being out on the water and seeing students learn about the bay – maybe they had no clue what the bay was or why it was important or what was going on with it – and seeing that awakening in them was probably my first real connection.
 

Collector
Matthew Chisholm
Contributor
Amy Jo Zola

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