ALPENA — The Downtown Boxing Gym (DBG), a youth mentoring program based in Detroit, visited the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary (TBNMS) this week to learn about the sanctuary, The Great Lakes ecosystem, and shipwrecks.

Remi Napier, a DBG group leader, explained that the director of DBG connected with TBNMS to bring the young people to the sanctuary for a field trip.

“They had conversations about bringing some kids here and just learning more about Thunder Bay and everything that’s happening,” Napier said. “So we said, ‘Of course we want to go!'”

Napier explained that DBG doesn’t have much to do with boxing, the sport, but is more about mentorship.

Courtesy Photo Students from the Detroit Boxing Club (DBC) are seen on Wednesday learning to snorkel in the outdoor training tank at the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center in Alpena.

The DBG mentorship program is for those ages 8 to 18, Napier said.

“The goal is to train our kids for life,” Napier said. “We are bringing them to different experiences that they don’t know about, bringing in professionals to the program because Thunder Bay has come down to Detroit before and talked to our students. So it’s really about giving them and showing them that you can do this, too. This experience is also here. So really giving them that push to succeed in life.”

Napier said that one student, Alton Jones, has been especially enjoying the TBNMS experience, toting around a GoPro camera and leading with enthusiasm.

“Learning about the shipwrecks is fun,” Jones said. “We get to learn about all the different stuff we didn’t know … how long (the shipwrecks) have been here … it was really fun having the experience to come out here.”

Sophie Stuart, TBNMS education and outreach specialist and volunteer coordinator, explained that the DBG students learned how to snorkel in the outdoor training tank at the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center Wednesday. On Thursday, they went on a morning glass bottom boat tour to view shipwrecks, and then were preparing to go on a marine debris monitoring excursion to North Point Nature Preserve that afternoon. After their monitoring excursion, the students planned on having a bonfire and roasting marshmallows.

Courtesy Photo Students from the Detroit Boxing Club (DBC) are seen on Wednesday learning to snorkel in the outdoor training tank at the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center in Alpena.

Stuart said that marine debris monitoring is a fun and easy way to incorporate sight-seeing and science.

“It’s an easy way to get kids out on the beaches that aren’t from the area,” Stuart said. “It gives them a citizen science project to do … it’s quick and it’s fun. We make it like a treasure hunt.”

Stuart added that the marine debris monitoring is part of a larger, national marine debris database that NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) uses to track the health and quality of beaches.

“We fill out a worksheet that tells us about the conditions of the beach before and after the cleanup,” Stuart said. “Then we remove and document any debris that we find and put it into categories such as plastics, metals, woods, glass, rubber, and other … we classify it as much as we can.”

Stuart explained that TBNMS conducts marine debris monitoring at five sites within its three-county coverage area — Alpena, Alcona, and Presque Isle.

Courtesy Photo Students from the Detroit Boxing Club (DBC) are seen on Wednesday learning to snorkel in the outdoor training tank at the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center in Alpena.

“We have a 100-meter established section of beach and then we choose at random four five-meter transects within those 100 meters,” Stuart said. “We average between 10 to 20 pieces.”

Stuart noted that the beaches that TBNMS monitors accumulate significantly less debris than in other places.

“Whereas on a beach in California or Florida, you’d have a thousand pieces,” Stuart said.

Stuart explained that TBNMS does a lot of community outreach and having DBG visiting the sanctuary is a profound connection.

“I think one of the incredible things is that this was a cooperative agreement that came from a community partner,” Stuart said. “This was not a connection that we knew about ahead of time … a community partner who said, ‘We see the work you’re doing at NOAA. We see the work that they’re doing at DBG and we want to combine these two organizations’.”

Stuart said the sanctuary looks forward to DBG visiting and the two organizations are working to expand their bandwidths to bring more youth to TBNMS next summer.

Kayla Wikaryasz can be reached at 989-358-5688 or kwikaryasz@TheAlpenaNews.com.