Plenty of middle school students may have passed Gravesend Bay near the Coney Island Creek on the Belt Parkway and wondered, “What’s living in there?”

Those enrolled in Coastal Classroom are finding out.

The group has been seining, using a net called a seine with sinkers on one edge and floats on the other. Their finds include fish like bluefish, striped bass, bunker, also known as menhaden, and a lion’s mane jellyfish, plus another type of jellyfish.

The students are taking part in the free five-week Coastal Classroom Program from City Parks Foundation at Coney Island's Kaiser Park.  

"We strive to teach them about these ecosystems, about the ecology of estuary ecosystems in New York City, and inspire them to take care of these aquatic ecosystems and become the next generation of stewards,” said Luis Gonzalez, the associate director of environmental education at the City Parks Foundation.

The students in the program spend a lot of time in and around the water, not just seining, but working on other activities, like building remote-operated vehicles with cameras for exploring. 

For Sebastian McKinney, an aspiring marine biologist in his second year in the program, the experience has been eye-opening.

"The fact there are puffer fish and sea horses and apparently lion's mane jellyfish here, I was expecting them way farther down, not in Coney Island,” McKinney said.

The program is also a career pipeline for alumni who want to work with Coastal Classroom, who can return as peer mentors and paid interns in high school and college. 

For third-year intern Erin Pender of Bay Ridge, who just graduated from Boston College, the experience impacted her decision to teach middle school science in the fall.

"Not only just the hands-on aspect of science that we get to do here, but also seeing students who are growing up and learning what their own interests are, getting to love something that I also love, and being able to share that with them,” Pender said.

Learn more about the program on its website.