My Watermark is Lake Erie, Ontario.

I was born and raised in western New York. For us, living in the Buffalo area, was living in a highly industrialized area. As a kid, every summer, my parents would take my family, across the border to Long Beach, for the Ontario Show.

For my family and I, it was just wonderful. The beaches were beautiful, and the cottages were great too. Everything was just right there before us. We were able to fish, play with the sand dunes, explore the beach, and do beach activities.

When the weather was bad, with strong winds, and a storm; I would walk to the beach with my mom and collect items on the beach. Noticing all the stuff on the shore, following the storm, to me was just amazing. I would explore the beach, get dirty, crawl around and bring some stuff back.

A typical kid would bring shells, rocks, and fossils. I however, would bring a cigarette box for my dad, and sneak in the occasional fish skeleton.
I have a strong love for science, which started with my vacations to Lake Erie. I’m a fish biologist now, and in part because of my vacation time there.

My trip was in the early 1970’s, which was a long time ago. At that time, the Lake itself, was quite stressed. The water quality was not how it is now. There was algae everywhere. This was back when they were using heavy machinery to catacomb the beaches, because the algae was very large-scale. Despite all of the algae and the water quality, we still loved going there.