You are reading

Learn How to Fish, Kayak or Watch Wildlife at the Jamaica Bay Festival Saturday

Photo courtesy of the Water Front Alliance

July 7, 2021 By Ryan Songalia

An annual festival for outdoor enthusiasts will be taking place at Jamaica Bay this Saturday.

The Jamaica Bay Festival, organized by the Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy, will provide the public with the opportunity to paddle a kayak, learn how to fish, watch nature, go sailing and participate in various other activities.

The event, which is free, takes place from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The festival, which is in its fourth year, will take place in areas along Jamaica Bay, including Far Rockaway and Rockaway Beach, as well as in coastal Brooklyn.

Bayswater Park and Shirley Chisholm State Park will host multiple events throughout the day.

The Kayak Parade, considered the festival’s highlight, will begin at 9 a.m. from various points by Sunset Cove, where paddlers can view the FDNY spray boat, which shoots water out of cannons from various angles.

At Bayswater Park, visitors can learn to do stand-up paddle boarding or observe nature and wildlife with the Urban Park Rangers. Further down, at Fort Tilden in Breezy Point, visitors will be able to observe piping plovers, which are endangered birds that nest each year on the Rockaway Peninsula.

Those interested in yoga can join classes at the Rockaway Hotel rooftop or Rockaway Beach, while the Black Surfing Association will conduct a water safety clinic at Rockaway Beach Skate Park.

Some of the activities in Brooklyn will include fishing lessons, free bike rentals and bird watching.

The festival is part of the Waterfront Alliance’s City of Water Day, a region-wide event that celebrates New York’s waterways and aims to raise awareness about the risk of climate change and its effects on the coastal area.

A full list of activities and links to register for the Jamaica Bay events can be found here.

Map of activities at the Jamaica Bay Festival

email the author: [email protected]
No comments yet

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News

Maspeth woman charged with DUI after slamming SUV into school crossing guard: NYPD

A Maspeth woman was arrested and charged with driving under the influence and other crimes after she slammed her SUV into a school crossing guard on Tuesday afternoon.

Police from the 104th Precinct responded to a 911 call of a motor vehicle collision involving a pedestrian at the intersection of Eliot Avenue and 71st Street at around 3 p.m. on Sept. 26. Upon their arrival, officers found the 63-year-old woman lying on the roadway with trauma to her head. EMS responded to the scene and rushed the crossing guard to Elmhurst Hospital in critical but stable condition, according to the NYPD.

MTA providing shuttle from 7 train to traveling Vietnam War Memorial replica in Flushing Meadows Corona Park

Sep. 26, 2023 By Bill Parry

The MTA is working with the NYC Department of Veterans’ Affairs to provide shuttle bus service between the Mets-Willets Point 7 train station and Flushing Meadows Corona Park for all those wishing to visit the “The Wall that Heals,” a three-quarter scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., that honors the more than three million Americans who served in the Armed Forces during the Vietnam conflict.