Welcome to Mr. and Mrs. Fish!

As Mr. and Mrs. Fish, we, Jeff and Deb Sandler, are considered pioneers in marine education. For over 33 years we have educated and excited children about the sea and the world of water in 20 countries and over 30 U.S. states.

What is most satisfying to us is the fine work we have been privileged to do each summer in Fish Camp.

Fish Camp is a seaside ocean day camp for children ages 7-12, located at the Mr. and Mrs. Fish Building on the beautiful campus of Southern Maine Community College in South Portland, Maine. There you will find aquarium tanks filled with sea creatures, and beaches and rocky tide pools just outside the door.

Fish Camp is first and foremost a place of warmth and laughter as well as a center for fun ocean learning. Mr. and Mrs. Fish and their staff (most of whom were former Fish Campers) want their campers to wake up each morning totally psyched to come to camp.

Thus, Fish Camp is filled with lots of funny skits, puppet characters, live sea creatures and unique activities all designed to make coming to Fish Camp as laughter-filled as possible. The wealth of ocean teaching that takes place happens in a variety of innovative ways that makes learning about the ocean lots of fun.

Choice is a big part of Fish Camp. Each day there are free time optional activities that enable the campers to choose what best fits their mood at that given moment. For example, campers might select mucking in a tide pool, creating a craft project, performing in a skit, playing kickball or pillow polo, taking a lighthouse walk, building a sandcastle city or just kicking back for quiet games. One of the most popular games at Fish Camp is 4-Square.

We also have several sweet guinea pigs which campers can choose to play with and hug during free time.

Mr. and Mrs. Fish and the staff try hard to make sure each child is having a fun experience. Campers who seem to have difficulty making friends are quietly assisted by a nurturing staff member.

We are focused on helping children heighten their own personal relationship to the environment. We also try hard to build up their self-esteem and their ability to relate well to others.

Consistent with this, each session starts with "Tests of Strength, Courage and Wisdom".
These are fun challenge activities designed with the idea that everyone must succeed or no one does. Thus, our older campers focus their energy on helping the younger campers do well too. This builds a "we get by with a little help from our friends" ethic and sets a positive tone for the rest of the session. Observing the students in these introductory activities also gives the staff a good picture of who we have in camp and what might work best for them.

You honestly cannot do much better than Fish Camp. It is a well-run, safe, heartfelt environment. Jeff and Deb, as Mr. and Mrs. Fish, are highly skilled, masterful educators with years of experience. We are warm, caring people who see a Fish Camp experience as an opportunity to give each child a very special gift.

The staff are a mix of professional educators, college students majoring in theater or education, and high school students. They are chosen mostly because they are good role models for the campers. The ratio of staff to campers is about 7-1.

Fish Camp is like a school day in that it runs weekdays from 9am to 3pm. The staff arrives at 8:30am, so it is not a problem if campers need to arrive a bit early. Fish camp does not provide transportation but we do help parents with carpooling if need be.

Each day our Fish Campers bring their lunch, towel and a bathing suit; we supply a cold beverage. A water cooler in the building means cold drinking water is always available. There is an opportunity to swim in the ocean most days. We do have a professional lifeguard on duty at all times to ensure safety. We are very safety conscious. No children go in the ocean deeper than their waist, and, most of the time, water fun consists of floating with their friends on our huge, rubber truck tire tubes.

We do a field trip or two during camp. Our field trips are fun, safe, and the kids are always well supervised. There are no additional field trip costs to parents, Fish Camp pays for everything.