Monday, June 4, 2012

A New Inhabitant Joins Brooklyn Bridge Park During World Science Festival

The World Science Festival totally rocked Brooklyn Bridge Park on Saturday, with geology projects, botany, seining for sea creatures and more.

The Clearwater gave tours, and Ray Shapp of Amateur Astronomers, Inc., captured an image of the sun using a Spacescope (above).

One of the big highlights of the day was the first-ever release of a turtle into the pond at Brooklyn Bridge Park. Turtles like this painted turtle used to live on the waterfront before it became industrialized, said Rebecca McMackin, a horticulturist for the park (above in red blazer). All native plants were planted around the pond, so the environment is much like the one that existed when turtles formerly lived there. Guilia, Educational Intern at the park, showed the turtle to the crowd. (Note: we previously had Guilia's name wrong. Sorry!)

A contest was held during the festival to name the turtle, a young male. Ben, 9-year-old boy from Brooklyn Heights, came up with the winning moniker: "Shelldon." (Get it?)

Guilia and dozens of kids trooped to the pond for Shelldon's big moment!

Free at last! Now all Shelldon needs for total contentment is a female turtle. Guilia said that finding a friend for Shelldon is the next step.

- The World Science Festival came to MetroTech, too. Read all about it here

- More about the World Science Festival at the Brooklyn Eagle.

Photos copyright MK Metz

Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey - FYI - The boy who named the turtle, is Benjamin from Forest Hills, Queens (not BH) - sorry :\
He's my son and he is a big fan of The Big Bang Theory .......so Shelldon was just such a perfect fit!

mcbrooklyn said...

Oh sorry -- the person reading the name said the boy was from Brooklyn Heights! All our congratulations to Benjamin. So funny about Big Bang Theory. Shelldon is the perfect name.