On my way to the Flounder's School in the Boston Harbor, I was dragging my fins as I watched others having fun. It was a bright sunny day, people were diving off boats into the shimmering clean water, or lounging around and enjoying the beaches. I heard shouts and cheers-a child was having his birthday party on the beach. Some of his friends were running around skipping and splashing water at each other, while others played around in the sand. The adults watched from the side, chatting with each other merrily. Around me, various ocean plants danced back and forth among the gentle waves, happily and healthily. A piece of eelgrass even tickled my fin as I swam by. Below me, a crowd of bass and bluefish rushed by playfully and gleefully, and a group of lobsters were playing hide-and-seek among the lush seagrass. As I passed by, they scampered and chased after each other eagerly. In the distance, a bloom of jellyfish was floating gracefully along the currents towards the harbor islands. Oh! How I wished I could be having a party, or be playing hide-and-seek with my friends right now. Boston Harbor was such a wonderful place to enjoy ... except ... I had to go to school instead!

I reluctantly sat down in the classroom.

"Hey Flathead! Do you know what today's lesson is about?" asked Flatty, swimming up beside me.

"I think we are going to be lectured on the history of the Boston Harbor, AGAIN." I replied grumpily.

"But didn't we learn that last year? And the year before that? AND the year before that?" Flatbed squeezed in between us. "

Yep. AND the year before that too. Why do we have to listen to this EVERY year?" I sighed.

"It seems a waste of time when the Boston Harbor is so clean and everyone is enjoying it so much." Flatty complained.

"Speaking of enjoying the harbor, remember those harbor seals who moved back here several years ago? They put on a fantastic show this weekend!" I recalled fondly. "And dolphins made special appearances!"

"Wow that sounded amazing!" Flatty widened his eyes.

"The best part was when one of the seals pulled a hammer and produced a seaweed buffet for everyone to enjoy. It sure NAILED that trick."

"Mmm ... seaweed buffet, I bet it was delicious!" said Flatty enviously, completely missing my joke. "Seaweed from the Boston Harbor always tastes the best, because it is so fresh and clean."

"Well, I went birdwatching!" Flatbed chimed in. "Do you know there are TONS of seabirds living around the Boston Harbor? I saw herring gulls swimming around looking for food along the shores, and great black backed gulls flying over the water surface towards their nests. There were many seagulls as well. I even saw one diving into the water and catching a fish right in front of my eyes! It was awesome! Err ... the fish was not a flounder of course .... "

"What about you, Flatty?" I asked, not wanting to listen to Flatbed all day.

"I visited the harbor islands with my family!" Flatty said excitedly. "We enjoyed the nice clean beaches and had a wonderful swim there! There were so many other animals at the islands--I even swam into a huge crowd of bluefish. They did seem quite blue that day, but the beautiful islands cheered them right up," said Flatty.

"I sure could use some cheering up today," I said wistfully.

"Good morning, Flounders! We are going to talk about the Boston Harbor today!" Mr. Harbor's enthusiastic voice interrupted us.

"Good morning, Mr. Harbor." I mumbled with the others. This is going to be really boring, I thought, it is always the SAME thing about protecting the harbor. Mr. Harbor's voice echoed on and on, and time seemed have slowed to a halt. I yawned and closed my eyes, wishing I could be outside, enjoying the wonderful clean water and beautiful sparkling beaches ...

... I was swimming along the shoreline, watching the colors lining the sandy floor, when a dark shape floated by on the water surface. Was that a turtle? I swam up and poked my head out of the water to get a closer look. It was a ...tire? What was THAT doing here, in the ocean that was normally so pristine and perfectly clean?

But I quickly realized that the tire wasn't the only thing floating in the water. There were plastic bottles, candy wrappers and various other pieces of trash. Eew, was that icky and slimy ... ALGAE? And what was that TERRIBLE smell? It smelled like ... SEWAGE?!

The beach looked even worse, it was covered by a thick brown goop instead of glistening golden sand.
This is weird, I thought, am I still in the same Boston Harbor?

And something else is wrong. It seemed eerily quiet. Swimming around, I wasn't able to find any other animals. Where is everyone? There were hardly any plants either, other than the algae covering the surface of the water. This whole place looked like a scene from the horror movie The Dirtiest Harbor in America.

Just then, something moved beneath the murky water on the ocean floor. It looked vaguely like a flounder.

I rushed over happily to say hi, but gasped in shock when I got closer-it was definitely a flounder. However, it was covered in tumors and cuts, and looked GHOSTLY. Gashes tore down its side and its eyes looked empty.

I jerked awake, my fins covered with sweat and my heart pounding.

"Here in the Boston Harbor, flounders like you and me had tumors, fin rot, dermal fibrosis, and other diseases because of the pollution. Did you know that even people who lived in Boston were afraid to go near the water because it was so toxic?" Mr. Harbor was still lecturing.

"I know!" I exclaimed loudly, recalling the scary images from my dream. "It was HORRIBLE!"

"Indeed, Flathead," nodded Mr. Harbor in agreement. "But thankfully, in the 1980s, MWRA started to cleaned up the Boston Harbor. The trash was cleared out and sewage treatment started. It took many years of hard work to make the harbor the way it is today."

"Thank God the harbor is clean now, so flounders like us are not sick anymore," I said with a relief.

"Well said!" Mr. Harbor exclaimed, now flapping his fins up and down. "And it was not just us flounders who benefited. Seabirds that were once almost extinct are thriving again. Lobsters are healthy now, instead of being toxic and diseased. Other species, such as jellyfish, mussels, and barnacles can be seen again in the Boston Harbor. And the harbor islands are now full of life. Today, the Boston Harbor is truly a beautiful place to live for plants, animals, and humans, and we need to keep it that way."

"Phew, Mr. Harbor is FINALLY done!" said Flatty. "That was possibly the dullest lecture ever. I was getting so bored that I thought my scales would fall off!"

"Well, the lecture may not be that exciting," I said, "but I now understand its importance. Because if the Boston Harbor is ever polluted again, our scales WILL fall off."