Franceska and the Venice Lagoon: a Story About Discovery

By Lovelle Ruggiero

Franceska and the Venice Lagoon chronicles the journey of a young American girl as she accidentally stumbles upon illegal activity at the Rialto Fish Market. The setting is Venice Italy.
Franceska and the Venice Lagoon is an alternative learning experience that integrates drama and science content. In Franceska, you can read the story, while picking and choosing what experiments to try, and what new knowledge to explore. Experiments enhance the content that emerges from the narrative.
The overarching theme is sustainability, with lesser themes of illegal fishing and sea level rise.
The story is in two parts. Part one is the adventure itself; Franceska's journey, while part two is a series of experiments, readings, and investigations that support the science content that emerges from the narrative. Links are provided that support the science content and the experiments. They can be found in MyGoogleDrive.
Franceska, like many girls her age are at a turning point in their development. From a limited life view and experience to embracing the broader world and social responsibility.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Feb 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9781667811802

Book preview

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FRANCESKA AND THE VENICE LAGOON

a Story About Discovery

© 2021, Lovelle Ruggiero.

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Print ISBN: 978-1-66781-1-796

eBook ISBN: 978-1-66781-1-802

Contents

Foreword

Dedication

Further Acknowledgements

Trouble at the Rialto Market

No Way

Implode or Explode

Where is Venice?

We Arrived!

Santa Chiara

Chat Qui Rit

The Universe at Work

Demonstration at Piazza San Marco

Tragedy of the Commons

La Quadriga’s Story

Dad, Dear Dad

DaVinci Environmental Academy Here We Come

Franceska and Giovanna

A New Home for the Family

Sounds of Sirens

MoSE

I’ll Start Tomorrow

Rewind Chapter One Back to Rialto

Murano

The Hunt is On

PART II: Activities, Investigations, Readings

Sustainable Fisheries in the Venice Lagoon

Rialto Dichotomous Key

Is it Biotic or Abiotic?

Seining For Fish: Informal Inventory Field Trip

DIY Beach Seine

Aquaculture: Farm Raised or Wild Caught

The Biological Carbon Pump

Happy as a Clam...at High Tide

Water Quality Testing

Low DO and Nowhere to Go

Uh, Oh. Hypoxia

Salinity

Determine Salinity Using a Hydrometer

Thinking About Turbidity

The Tyndall Effect

Sea Grass Beds

SiO2 Silicon Dioxide

What Erosion and Deposition Mean to the Venetians

Sand, Silt, and Clay: The Stuff Under Foot

Is it Subsidence or Eustasis?

Doing a Serial Dilution

Public Service Announcement

Build a Crooked Boat and it will Go Straight

Built in the Mud, in a Salt Marsh, on a Wooden Foundation

Exploring Amorphous Solids: Let’s Caramelize

Foreword

Franceska, a 14-year-old American girl, along with her two friends Giovanna and Alberto, must stop illegal fishing in the Venice Lagoon before it’s too late.

Taken from polluted waters, illegally harvested and potentially contaminated clams are headed straight for the Rialto Fish Market. Can they intercept a shipment of clams from reaching the fish market in time to avert a public health crisis? Can they change the thinking of the fishers? And will they be able to support a better understanding of environmental sustainability?

As Team Franceska tracks down the fishers, the reader is an active participant in learning about the environment through a series of interdisciplinary activities, experiments, investigations, and readings as well as through the story itself.

Franceska tells her story along with special narration by the famous horses at the Cathedral of San Marco, La Quadriga (LaQ) of Venice.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to the late Dr. John Loret: a Queens College Professor, former president of the Explorers Club, New York State Outdoor Ed, New York State Marine Educators Association, and former director of the Science Museum of Long Island at Leeds Pond Preserve. Through his example, John taught us to be adventurous in our teaching. It is hard to imagine a world without John Loret.

Further

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my gratitude to Marco Secchi, whose award-winning magnificent photo of the Canale Grande graces the front of this novella.

The author thanks the Lawrence Hall of Science, Science Education for Public Understanding Program (SEPUP) for its inspiration in the activity Sustainable Fisheries in the Venice Lagoon.

A special thank you to Taylor and Jordan Carpentieri who graciously took the book to Venice and conducted water quality studies in the Grand Canal and the Venice Lagoon. Thanks, Explorers!

A huge thank you to Suzanne Flynn for her diligent editing and her ever present encouragement.

Trouble at the Rialto Market

Frannie, go to the fish market near the Rialto Bridge. You might get some ideas for your semester project.

Good idea, Mom. Thanks.

"Oh, and don’t forget your vaporetto ticket."

Right!

I decided to take Mom’s advice, use my vaporetto ticket, and do some exploring for my environmental semester project. Not exactly excited, but I was determined. I had my phone, a notebook for sketching and pen in hand, but no real ideas. The market opens early at 7:30 a.m. and is closed by 1:00 p.m. Dead fish don’t relish the afternoon heat.

The vaporetto chugged along the Grand Canal toward the Rialto Market station. From the boat, I could see the market, draped in the red canvas curtains, making it look like a circus. I disembarked, ambled through the archway, made a right turn, and entered the area of the market. It was familiar as Mom and I had been there the other day, shopping for groceries for our new apartment.

Butcher shops, coffee shops, and specialty food stores all lined the perimeter of the market. There’s that horse meat market again. Oh my! The market also sells fruits, vegetables, and mushrooms. By 8:00 a.m., the market is bustling with shoppers and tourists.

I felt watched. Thousands of bulging eyes, from glistening, iridescent fish were all glaring at me. Fish were flanked on my left and right on tables loaded with hills of ice. Every fish was neatly laid out in symmetrical arrays, as if in a parade.

All of the fish were fully dressed with their fins and tails in all the right places, not just the fillet. Customers approached the vendors and gave their order. Vendors then scaled and undressed the fish for each customer. Poor things. Then, they tossed all of their clothing in the trash.

Each vendor, sometimes called a fishmonger, displayed his aquatic specialty. There were flatfish and finfish vendors, mussel, and clam vendors. Some vendors displayed just fish heads, others just the body. Some sold sardines, some octopuses. Or is it octopi? There were shrimp of many sizes and colors. Some were so small; I wondered how they ate them. I was fascinated by the variety. People eat this stuff? If there was an odor, I lost track of it. I took out my phone and started taking pictures. I snapped here and snapped there. There were labels about species and prices, so I included that in the picture.

"Vorrei un po’ di quello pesce." I heard one woman say. I think she wanted some fish.

"Quanto ne vuole? How much do you want?" was the vendor’s reply.

"Vorrei due chili. Grazie. I would like two kilos. Thanks."

The lady made her choice of some strange-looking fish. The vendor cleaned it and wrapped it in special paper. They exchanged money, then on to the next customer.

But how would I be able to get more information for my project without speaking Italian? Major problem. I did catch the "grazie."

I roamed around aimlessly. I had only snapped a few pictures when I felt the ground tremble. EARTHQUAKE? Yikes! I heard a commotion from behind, and a rumbling underfoot.

COPS! I turned quickly. Police in fancy uniforms, galloping in unison, flooded the area. There must have been ten police officers chasing someone. As they galloped, their boots hit the ground at the same time. Boom-pow, boom-pow, boom-pow.

Women scurried in all directions, their bags dropped to the ground, some bags even flew into the air. Tables were toppled, children cried, and infants wailed. Men surreptitiously hid items under their tables. What’s that about? I thought.

One lady grabbed a large Dungeness crab and tried to steal it. The crab fought back, it resisted and then retaliated. It pinched her and as she couldn’t get it off of her finger, the confusion worsened. She ran around the market screaming loudly with her injured finger shaking in the air, the crab still attached. Eventually, the crab did let go leaving behind one of its large claws firmly embedded in the fleshy part of her right thumb. Ouch!

You’re welcome, said Sir Dungeness the crab, "and don’t mention it lady. You can keep one of my claws. LOL. I’ll just grow another one. Hahaha. Hey lady, crime does not pay!"

The ground was littered with shaved ice, knives, and fish. Internal fish organs were everywhere. People slipped and slid on the entrails.

Eels were immediately paroled from their shallow water prisons. If I hadn’t been so scared, I would have thought it was funny.

The police