DNREC’s Aquatic Resources Education Center to Offer Array of Summer Family-Oriented Fishing and Environmental Fun

Great fun and outdoors aquatic education await Delaware families in the summer ahead presented by DNREC’s Aquatic Resources
Education Center, from fishing to marsh exploration to seining the wonders of Delaware Bay. /Delaware DNREC photo

Slate of Free Outdoor Programs Including Take A Kid Fishing!,
Small Fry Adventures and Life in the Bay Underway This Month

The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control and DNREC’s Aquatic Resources Education Center (AREC) are set to expand family-oriented outdoor fun and educational discovery programs throughout the state this summer. A full slate of AREC programming – Take A Kid Fishing! (TAKF!), Small Fry Adventures and Life in the Bay seining fun – begins this week and continues through end of summer, with the majority of programs in June, July and August.

TAKF!, the mainstay of AREC’s family programming, opens another season of summer fishing fun and education Friday, May 15 at Silver Lake in Dover. TAKF! outings are geared toward children ages 6 through 15. Youth participants learn fundamental fishing skills and conservation, with all equipment provided free by the DNREC Division of Fish and Wildlife. There’s also time set aside before a TAKF! event for young anglers to practice new fishing skills. As with all AREC programs, participation in TAKF! events is free, but pre-registration is required.

Small Fry Adventures offers youngsters age 4 to 7 an introduction to aquatic education and discovery at AREC, where they can learn about fish and other critters that live in a tidal salt marsh. Kids will get to view marine life in the center’s aquariums and have more fun still while using everyday materials to make an aquatic creature, such as a crab crafted from a paper picnic plate.

AREC’s increasingly popular summer outdoors program “Life in the Bay” boasts seven dates this year, all at Woodland Beach outside Smyrna. The program is geared toward children age 6 and older, but also welcomes adults who want to learn more about the fish species and other aquatic creatures that inhabit Delaware Bay. AREC staff will be on hand at Woodland Beach to seine for aquatic life found along the Delaware Bay shoreline, and to help participants discover seining and learn more about it. “Life in the Bay” program participants will be shown how to use a seine net to capture aquatic life, then have opportunity to view what’s been caught and to assist staff in releasing the catch from the seine.

Schedules and locations for all AREC family aquatic education programs can be found at the de.gov/takf webpage. To ensure enough supplies are on hand for these free DNREC programs, pre-registration is required by going to the DNREC Outreach and Education Events Calendar. AREC also offers adult programs this summer, including fly-fishing and kayak fishing. For more information about AREC and programs offered by the center, visit the de.gov/arec webpage.

About DNREC
The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control protects and manages the state’s natural resources, protects public health, provides outdoor recreational opportunities, and educates Delawareans about the environment. The DNREC Division of Fish and Wildlife conserves and manages Delaware’s fish and wildlife and their habitats, and provides fishing, hunting, wildlife viewing and boating access on more than 75,000 acres of public land owned or managed by the Division of Fish and Wildlife. For more information, visit the website and connect with @DelawareDNREC on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube or LinkedIn.

Media Contacts: Michael Globetti, michael.globetti@delaware.gov; Alyssa Imprescia, alyssa.imprescia@delaware.gov

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