I left off my last blog post while I was aboard The Lituya motoring along from Juneau to Prince of Wales with Ginny and her husband Matt. My trip down was spectacular. The weather was great and the opportunity to spend a few nights on the boat, anchoring in places with almost no one in sight was out of this world. The first night we anchored in glassy waters just outside the bay of a town called Kake. I will honestly never forget the feeling of sitting on the boat as the sun was setting watching the eagles soar over the water and trees.
The next morning was met with rivaling views. As the fog cleared after our early morning departure, the most magnificent reflection I’ve ever seen was created on the water. The second day was packed with spotting sea otters (which would later come in handy when learning to do sea otter surveys with the Prince of Wales team), dodging kelp, and navigating the Rocky Passage, a big but shallow short cut Ginny decided to take.
We made it to our destination in Prince of Wales later that day but had time to spend before our meet up on the North of the island with the team the following day. We decided to check out a small bay called Hole in the Wall, named because of its extremely narrow passage, which can only be navigated at certain tides. Luckily our timing was perfect and Matt and Ginny were able to navigate through. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and spying for black bears on land.
The following day I hopped off the boat, drove down to the south of POW and met up with some of the team. For the rest of the week I helped out with all of the intertidal sea grass surveying that took place every morning. Overall, my one week on POW was outstanding. Despite the extremely early wake ups at 2:00 and 3:00 each day to catch the low tides, I was able to help out a lot and have a great time with all the people there. For anyone interested in the science being done on POW, I definitely recommend checking out the APECS (Apex Predators, Ecosystems, and Community Sustainability) website to learn all about impacts of sea otters on ecosystems and marine resources.
After working with the crew in POW, I flew back to Juneau for my final week and got ready to fly back home to California. This internship experience was five weeks of intensive cold water diving and field work, during which I learned new hands on techniques as well as participated in real applications of scientific processes I have recently studied in school. I undoubtedly learned more about myself and my future goals, and would like to thank the many people at OWUSS, AAUS, and the University of Alaska who made these opportunities possible for me. Thank you again to all who have followed and supported me on this journey!
