Rockweed Workshop

Rockin’ with Rockweed: Up close and personal with New York City’s brown macroalgae.

Rockin’ with Rockweed: Up close and personal with New York City’s brown macroalgae.
Rockweed (Fucus spp.) is a brown seaweed that occurs in many rocky shorelines of NYC and throughout the northeastern U.S. However, there is little known about this seaweed that lines the jetties and provides habitat for smaller marine life. This two-hour workshop aims for participants to get up close and personal with this seaweed by going to sites to collect them or see them in their natural habitat. Participants can also have the option of making herbarium art out of the rockweed by setting up the herbarium press on-site, bringing them home, and seeing the results one week later. This workshop is a collaboration between Hunters Point Park Conservancy (HPPC) and Biotech without Borders (BwoB).

About the workshopperAs a marine biologist by training, Lowell Iporac (he/they) specializes in seaweed ecology in tropical areas, and moving to NYC brings many opportunities to apply that research to coldwater, urban settings. Since then, Lowell has shared his expertise to both college and high school students in formal classroom settings such as NYU and Manhattan University and informal settings such as the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and the Bronx Zoo. Lowell’s passion for teaching is driven by the initiative for communities to gain a better understanding of how our ecosystems work and address the challenges to environmental and social justice.

This event will be held at the Queens Landing Boathouse & Environmental Center from 2:30-4:30PM.