Outdoors in RI: For mom, Fish Parade, Beaches, Quahog Week, Mosquitos, URI student Sailors

Mother’s Day

Burrillville Farmer’s Market

The Burrillville Farmer’s Market will hold an early kickoff to the spring season with a popup market by the town common gazebo on May 10th from 9:30am to 12:30pm. Stop by to shop with local vendors for fresh foods and handmade items and pick up something for Mom – or bring her with you. At Burrillville Town Common in front of A. T. Levy School, in Harrisville.

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Mother’s Day Garden Tea & Lunch

Treat Mom to tea in the garden this Mother’s Day! May 11th with seatings at 11am and 2:30pm. You’ll enjoy soup, salad, sandwiches, pastries and bottomless tea in the big, beautiful greenhouse. Click the link for tickets and full menu. 

At Mapleville Farm, 544 Victory Highway, in Mapleville.

Details: www.maplevillefarm.com

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FISH PARADE

Mark the calendar do be part of the 3rd annual Fish Parade on May 18th in Central Falls:

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Beaches opening NOW

Scarborough North and Salty Brine State Beaches will be open Saturdays and Sundays through Memorial Day when all beaches open to the public for the season.

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9th Annual Quahog Week is set for May 11-17

The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) and Rhode Island Seafood Marketing Collaborative, a public-private partnership led by DEM, is excited to announce the ninth annual Quahog Week, taking place May 11 to 17. This week-long event “shell-ebrates” the cultural and economic importance of the quahog, Rhode Island’s official state clam. The event aims to boost awareness and  demand for local seafood and the RI Seafood brand, while honoring the dedicated harvesters and the vibrant local food industry that brings fresh quahogs to tables across the state. 

During Quahog Week, restaurants and markets across Rhode Island will celebrate this sustainable local resource with special quahog dishes. Now in its ninth year, the event is expected to feature a record number of participants. Consumers can visit seafood.ri.gov for a full list of participating restaurants and markets and the specials they are offering.

“Quahog Week is a celebration of Rhode Island’s shellfish industry and the bounty of Narragansett Bay,” said Governor Dan McKee. “Quahogging has a long history in the Ocean State and this “shell-ebration” is a great opportunity to support local harvesters, restaurants, and seafood markets – and enjoy a favorite quahog dish or discover something new.” 

“Quahog Week is a proud Rhode Island tradition that highlights the cultural and economic importance of the shellfishing industry,” said DEM Director Terry Gray. “Thanks to cleaner waters, stemming from strong investments and environmental laws, more areas are now open to harvest. It’s a great time for both commercial harvesters and families to enjoy quahogging. I encourage all Rhode Islanders to take part in the week-long celebration of our iconic Rhode Island clam!”

Quahogs are Rhode Island’s most economically significant fishery from Narragansett Bay, withover 13.5 million harvested in 2024 by 444 shellfishers – worth more than $3.5 million. They rank fifth in value among the state’s marine fisheries, after squid, scallops, lobster, and summer flounder (based on 2022 ex-vessel values).

Quahogging happens year-round, with demand peaking in summer for favorites like littlenecks, clam cakes, and stuffies. They also make the perfect fare for chowders, pastas, and other dishes. Quahog Week, held in spring, helps boost awareness and sales during a season when fresh local clams are plentiful but often underappreciated. In the last week alone, RI commercial harvesters landed over 100,000 pounds of it! 

During Quahog Week, the Rhode Island Seafood Marketing Collaborative will host two free public events featuring complimentary littlenecks shucked by RI Shellfisherman’s Associationmembers, along with samples from participating restaurants and markets. Guests can meet local quahoggers, enjoy delicious food and drinks, and celebrate Rhode Island’s vibrant seafood industry and food culture. 

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Three URI sailors earn honors for their roles in the Rams’ success 

Sailing team has ranked as high as 10^th this spring

Three student-athletes from the University of Rhode Island’s club sailing team earned prestigious New England Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association awards for the spring semester, a milestone achievement considering URI was the only club program among the 34 colleges and universities in the NEISA to earn accolades in 2024-25.

Co-captain Miles Bailey ’25 earned the NEISA Student Leadership Award while Kerem Erkmen ’25 and Abbie Chipps ’25 earned All-NEISA First Team Open Skipper and All-NEISA First Team Open Crew honors, respectively. 

All three played an integral role in the sailing team’s spring season in which the Rams were ranked as high as 10th in the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association national coed poll and recently finished second in the A Division in the NEISA Open Fleet Race Championship for the Coast Guard Alumni Bowl at Brown on April 19.

The NEISA is one of eight conferences governing 190 college and university sailing programs throughout the United States and in parts of Canada. URI competes in the same conference as six of the top 10 varsity programs in the nation, including Harvard (1), Yale (2), Roger Williams (3), Brown (5), Dartmouth (7), and the Coast Guard Academy (8). 

The Rams’ season continues May 20-23 at the Women’s Fleet Race Nationals and May 27-30 at the 2025 Open Fleet Race National Championships. All-American selections are announced shortly after the national championships, and URI sailing head coach Joakim Karlsen is hopeful one of his two All-NEISA selections will make the list. 

“Having Kerem and Abbie be recognized on the All-NEISA First Team is big for the program as we are the only club team on any of the All-NEISA Teams and we’re able to compete at the highest level in the country with very different circumstances,” said Karlsen.

“Miles winning the Student Leadership Award is well deserved. We are the only club team that is recognized for all the awards in NEISA this season, so it takes a lot of effort to make sure we can perform on the water. Having Miles as co-captain has helped the team do exactly that. There is so much that goes on behind the scenes, and I am reliant on players like Miles to make it happen.”

Bailey, a South Kingstown, Rhode Island, native and marine affairs major, earned the Student Leadership Award, which recognizes “extraordinary leadership and achievement by an undergraduate whose efforts have made a significant contribution to the development, progress, and success of his or her club or team, conference, or the ICSA.”

“If anything, it represents what this team’s accomplished more than what I have,” said Bailey, who has sailed during all four years at URI and has been a captain for the past two years. “It’s indicative of all the hard work this team has put into this program to, I guess, make me look good. I joke around with these guys a lot that I was a cocky little kid when I showed up. I was 19 years old and thought I owned the world. This team’s taught me a lot.”

Karlsen is URI’s third head coach in the past four years, which put an onus on team leaders like Bailey and others to proverbially “steer the ship” amid the changes. Bailey credits Karlsen with bringing the program to the next level and ushering in several changes beginning in the fall semester, including the purchasing of a new fleet of boats for competition, made possible by the team’s fundraising efforts. Club sailing raises funds each year to support similar purchases and travel expenses for the program to compete across the country.

“Even when you get off the boat, the work’s not done. It’s a 24-7, 365 days-a-year endeavor,” Bailey said. “As I’ve become a senior, my role has shifted much more into a managerial role and it’s something I just love. The amount of life lessons this team has taught me has been just amazing.”

Erkmen and Chipps started 16 regattas in the fall and spring and led the Rams to victories in the 33rd Captain Hurst Bowl and Sherman Hoyt Trophy in the fall in addition to a first-place finish in the Open Atlantic Coast Championship qualifiers on Oct. 5. In the spring, the Rams finished fourth at both the John Jackson Memorial Regatta at Georgetown and the Thompson Trophy at the Coast Guard Academy, followed by a fifth-place finish in the Southern New England Team Race on March 15 at Connecticut College. 

Erkmen and Chipps’ improvement from junior to senior year caught the eyes of the NEISA awards committee, which elevated them from Second Team selections in 2023-24 to First Team selections in 2024-25.

A Seattle, Washington, native and journalism major who is also a writer for the student newspaper, The Good Five-Cent Cigar, Chipps was one of seven First Team Open Crew selections in the NEISA. She transferred to URI from George Washington University during the second semester of her sophomore year and has played a key role in the program’s annual success. 

“I don’t think I could’ve asked for a better senior year,” Chipps said. “Kerem and I have been sailing together for two years now, so it’s been nice to have a partner in it. We’re both graduating and we both care about it a lot. We did well at some of the more important regattas and it’s just been fun to compare this year to last year. The fact that the conference recognized our improvement was great.”

Erkmen’s First Team Open Skipper honors come a year after earning Second Team honors and finishing his junior as an ICSA All-American Honorable Mention. 

“Sailing in the fall is fun because it’s not that cold or windy, but in the spring, when it’s really cold after coming back from winter break, those are the hard times suffering through the practices and the regattas that get you to this level,” said Erkmen, a computer science major from Istanbul, Turkey, who may consider a run at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles after graduating. 

“I always sailed well, but I wasn’t always as consistent,” he said. “Finding that consistency and achieving good results every week leads to good things.”

Michael Parente, director of communications and marketing in the URI Division of Student Affairs, wrote this news release.

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Mosquito Control in Westerly

The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) is announcing that the Town of Westerly will conduct its annual aerial mosquito larvicide treatment across 500 acres of Chapman Swamp and nearby swamplands on Friday, May 9 or Monday, May 12, weather permitting. The application will occur between 7 AM and 2 PM and involves dropping Bti pellets by helicopter on targeted waterbodies to kill mosquito larvae. Bti is a natural, environmentally safe product that targets only mosquitoes, black fly, and fungus gnat larvae, posing no risk to humans, animals, or beneficial insects like honeybees.

The Town of Westerly has conducted this annual application since 1997 to help control mosquito breeding, given the area’s remote location and large footprint. Larviciding is recommended as part of the state’s action plan to control West Nile Virus (WNV) and Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) Virus and is one of the most effective tools to reduce the number of biting mosquitoes by preventing the larval stage from maturing into adults.

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