Category Archives: Internship Journeys

Maine-ly Amazing, for another month!

Work has proceeded along and we still do much of the same projects. Lobster and scallop collections are still going strong, and lobster dissections continue throughout this month and next. Rick and Chris have asked me to stay on as a diver through September, in order both to help finish out the collection season and to help with classes that start at the Darling Marine Center soon. My Our World Underwater Scholarship Society funds will have run their course – providing me with an excellent summer of experience – but UMaine and AAUS have been generous enough to help extend that grant through to the new ending date. I am very excited to be able to stay and help, as I have never had the opportunity to dive as frequently or for as so many varied purposes as I have here at the DMC! I’m extremely excited to stay at the Wahle lab and begin my own scallop predation project as well as continue lobster collections, but I am equally excited to get to help out with the Scientific Diving class hosted here by the Semester by the Sea.

I’m also excited to stay in Maine for another month because of awesome places like this.

Lobster experiments have become more focused on collecting young-of-year (YOYs), which are particularly evasive this season but generally difficult to find. These less than 1cm long lobsters are difficult to find among the rocks at our sampling sites, which makes hand collection practically impossible for those who haven’t been collecting them for years. Suction sampling – the art of collecting lobsters with large, tank-run PVC pipe – has become easier for me since the start of the summer, but even this process doesn’t guarantee their collection. Holding them in the lab is even harder, as they escape easily from well ventilated (read holey) containers. Dissections and measuring continues as well, and a larger in-field project will start once we have enough lobsters to deploy!

Measuring small lobsters at the Department of Marine Resources is part of our long-term growth study.

The DMR also breeds some pretty cool species in their tanks, including this two color lobster!

One of my formerly least favorite dive sites was redeemed this week on one of the most gorgeous summer days Maine has had so far. Of course we didn’t bring the GoPro to grab pictures but it was an extremely calm day that let us explore some underwater swim throughs and partially exposed boulders on the point at Rachel Carson. I’ve included the map below so you might begin to understand how this site treats swimmers in rough conditions (badly) but that its many nooks and crannies are amazing once you can gain access!

Everything is moving forward up here in Maine and I’m excited to see the start of fall. I’ll probably become more dependant on my USiA drysuit in the future, so I’m glad that certification was one of the first that I completed this summer. Water temperatures still remain around 50 degrees and visibility is highly variable. Sometime this week I’m hoping to put my newfound search and rescue techniques into use combined with my recently gained knowledge about runoff and seawater visibility to find my lately-submerged sunglasses. Other than that no problems to be found!

-Katy

Scuba Education

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Maine is still beautiful as usual.

Pemaquid Point is still gorgeous even on a dreary day.

August has brought with it two of my greatest accomplishments so far during the internship: AAUS Scientific Diver Standing and PADI Divemaster certification! Its been great working up to the two exams and underwater tests throughout the summer, and many of my personal experiences helped me through the questions. One in particular stands out,

A diver comes to you after a few days of diving, feeling tired, sore, and achy. What do you think is wrong with the diver, and what should you do?

Well, although the first answer is Decompression Sickness, one of our divers this summer discovered in this same scenario that she had lyme disease. I encouraged her not to dive due to her then mysterious illness, and was not surprised to find out something was actually wrong! DCS is similarly evasive, but whenever a diver feels poorly, the best choice is to discontinue diving. You never know what could be the result.

By being able to associate the questions with my experiences from this summer, the tests felt like I whizzed through them. Definitely the more challenging aspect of the two exams are the in-water skill tests. Since I did the two courses simultaneously, its difficult to extract the skills that were specific to one or the other – and the two courses seemed entirely complementary to me. Where AAUS would test your own buoyancy control for scientific studies, Divemaster would ask you to know how to help an out of controlled buoyant ascent. Where AAUS wants you to be able to distinguish different ocean qualities for experimental design, Divemaster training requires you to be familiar with current patterns and drift in order to better plan dives for students. While you have to complete basic dive skills for AAUS, you have to demonstrate dive skills for Divemaster. The two courses helped me become an all around better diver, and by doing them at the same time I learned more about dive physics, physiology, and oceanography that I would have separately. I also experienced the class from both sides of the coin, as student and teacher, which helped define my teaching style and refined my practice as a student. I would recommend to anyone hoping to do either, to do both!

One of the most enjoyable – and the most helpful – parts of my training was the role-playing aspect. My DSO Chris would become “other Chris” and act the part of a new or inexperienced diver. Most often this meant that his gear would be put together incorrectly or that he wouldn’t stick with me throughout the dive, but once or twice this meant real underwater accidents. He bolted to the surface, had his air turned partially off, and even unstrapped his tank from his BCD. These tested my own ability to identify and solve problems (hopefully out of the water first!). It also solidified the need for each step in the preparation and check-out dive process. I will never not check to see if a diver’s air is on, or if he didn’t connect his inflator hose. For me the most disconcerting underwater problem is actually when my buddy does not stay with me. Then, I imagine all possible problems being wrong and if he is not around I cannot even begin to attempt to fix them. This changed my own diving by making me uber aware of my buddy’s location during working dives – both for my safety and theirs.

Although my scuba education is not yet finished – is it ever really? – I do feel like I’ve accomplished a lot this summer. I would’ve never been able to neither afford nor have time for these classes on my own, so the internship experience has been vital. Now I’m off to use my new minted Divemaster training to help teach Discover Scuba!

-Katy

Blue Heron Bridge: Home of the Crazy Critters

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Blue Heron Bridge is located past Fort Lauderdale and is a beautiful little boat channel. Most people know it as just a fun little place to swim or fish, but some of us know it as the best place to find critters! Blue Heron is not your typical Florida reef dive; it is actually nothing like it. It is a very shallow dive, with the max depth at around 12 feet, and it is all sand with giant pillars from the bridge forming structure for critters to hide. When I was first told about this dive we talked about how there was an active boat channel right next to where we would be diving, and about how it is a muck dive and the current can sometimes pick up so the viability will go way down. So I must admit that I was a little apprehensive about the dive. Fortunately, I was in great hands and all the things we talked about were just for safety and to prepare us for what to do. After driving three hours to get to Blue Heron, we finally entered the water around 11. We had to time the dive right so we would be there for slack tide and the current didn’t wash us out to the boat channel. After going over our dive plan, we headed out. I was told that there were a lot of things dumped in the water like shopping carts or old sunken boats, and I questioned why people would want to make the three hour dive to stare at some trash, but after I got out there I began to understand. All the big structures that were thrown into the water provided habitat to tons of animals I had never seen before. When we began our dive we had talked about what we wanted to see the most and of course I knew exactly what mine was; a seahorse! I had never seen a seahorse before, and was beginning to think that they were a myth, but sure enough half way through our dive I hear someone tapping on their tank to get my attention. I quickly swim over and see a tiny pink seahorse holding on to a piece of algae with its tail. Needless to say I did my little underwater happy dance and had everyone laughing. Not only did we see this little guy but we also found another on our way back in! I am so excited to cross that off my critters to see bucket list (nerd alert). Some other critters that I was equally excited to see on my dive were two octopi, a few sea robins, and a flying gurnard. The dive was two hours long and while it wasn’t the prettiest dives I have been on, it offered a chance to see some amazing rare species and I hope to go back soon to find more.

My first sea horse!

Hiding octopus

Another sea horse!

Great Annual Fish Count: One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish

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The Great Annual Fish Count is an event that takes place across the world every year during the month of July. It is organized by REEF to help get people in the water and counting fish. This year another intern and I took the lead on this project for the Florida Keys and coordinated a fish ID talk and dive. REEF cannot do what we do best and preserve the oceans without the help of citizen scientists. This is why we try to spread the idea of doing fish surveys to as many people we can. As I mentioned in one of my other blogs, volunteer fish surveys are one of the main projects at REEF. It is actually pretty easy and anyone interested can partake with the right training. We use a roving diver technique, which means that the diver does a regular dive and while they are swimming around they write down all the fish they see and their abundance. For the Great Annual Fish Count, we hosted a fish ID class where we taught the public about the most common fish here in Key Largo, Florida. REEF is a worldwide organization and we do surveys in every ocean. For Florida, however, we are grouped into the Tropical Western Atlantic or TWA. After we taught everyone about their fish, we set up a day to go out on a dive boat where we provided underwater paper, slates and pencils to anyone interested in doing a survey. We had a great turn out, with many people interest in doing a survey and learning about REEF. I loved being able to see people getting as excited about fish ID as I am. There was a father out diving with his two sons and it made my day watching them point to a fish and swim over to me and ask me what it was. After I told them their eyes would light up and they would quickly check it off their list. I am glad that so many people were interested in going out and preserving our reefs.

Just doing my surveys

Chromis

Chromis

Eel

Angelfish

Hamlet

Green Turtle Cay Derby in the Bahamas

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Lionfish derbies are one of the big ways that REEF helps with controlling lionfish abundance. During the summer REEF hosts a series of derbies all around Florida and in the Caribbean that are open to the public. Lionfish derbies consist of many different teams that go out for the day and bring back as many lionfish as they can. This year I was lucky enough to help run the Green Turtle Cay Derby in the Bahamas! Green Turtle Cay was actually the first place to host a lionfish derby and we are excited that they have held one every year since. Along with the derby, REEF has been doing some monitoring research to see the effectiveness of derbies. For the whole week prior to the derby our REEF team surveyed around 80 sites looking for lionfish and doing predator/prey surveys as well as fish counts. This research is being done to see how much impact derbies have on the control of lionfish. The research was very interesting and I look forward to seeing the results after we analyze the data.

Lionfish on the reef

Lionfish on a wreck

A ton of lionfish on a wreck

Out on the water doing research

After a long day of research we get to enjoy the sunset!

As for the actual derby, we have tons of teams going out throughout the week to scope out their best lionfish sites, but the real fun starts on Friday. Each team must have a member present at the Captains Meeting on Friday night to hear all the rules and regulations. The captains’ meeting is where teams that are not preregistered sign up and tons of people walking around buying raffle tickets or REEF merchandise. I love all the competition in the air as each team tries to talk up how many fish they will be catching the next day. After the captains meeting, the teams go home to hopefully get a good night’s rest before the start of the derby at sunrise. Teams go out all day in hopes to collect the most lionfish and win any of the cash prizes. There are prizes first through third in the categories; most, biggest and smallest. All the teams must be back at the dock by 4:00 sharp. This is when they bring all their fish up and we size them and count them. It’s always crazy with the amount of fish being brought in and everyone running around checking the score board to see whose winning. This year we had 907 lionfish come in, a great improvement over the previous years! Something interesting that we noticed was that more of the fish were on the small size, this could mean that the derbies are really effective in keeping the population down and that we are only finding the new juveniles of the year. Hopefully all our research will show how much derbies are helping control the population of lionfish and how the hard work of all our participants is really helping the reefs.

The REEF Crew at the derby

Me recording data

In front of the score board

At the banquet all dressed up

Perfect Day on Alligator

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Although REEF tries its hardest to keep us interns busy, we are still able to make it out on the reef for some perfect weather. The other day we went out with our lovely friends Carlos and Allison to a little place they call Alligator. The conditions were amazing; it was the kind of conditions you wait all year for; sunny, no current, glassy surface and clear to the bottom. When we first hopped in we were surrounded by a halo of silversides and herring. I had to wave my hand out in front of me to make them move so I could see the bottom, which was about six feet below me. I still can’t believe that I have this awesome job. We snorkeled around the lighthouse for a few hours doing fish surveys, while being serenaded by the great Jimmy Buffet from the radio of a neighboring boat. It was hard to not get distracted but I was able to finish 3 separate fish surveys. Fish surveys are one of REEF’s major programs where citizen scientists go out and write down on underwater paper all the fish that they see and their abundance. With the help of all the fish surveyors over the years we are able to look at the species and abundance and get a better idea of the status of our reefs. In order to become a fish surveyor and help save our reefs all you have to do is become a member and know at least one fish! There are many different levels which you can work your way up to with fish quizzes and number of surveys. Our summer intern goal is to be level four fish surveyors (part of the Advanced Assessment Team) by the end of our internship, which some say is a hefty goal, but we are excited to take on the challenge. After our fish surveys at Alligator we hung out in the water and just took in the beauty. Coming from California, I am still trying to get used to this feeling of being warm in the water. So far I think I’m doing a good job! Our beautiful trip was only cut short by the fact that another intern and I had to wake up at 3 to catch a flight to the Bahamas!!! Rough life I live, I know! But someone has got to do it! When we get to the Bahamas we will be doing lionfish surveys and tagging at Green Turtle Cay all leading up to the lionfish derby that will be held on Saturday! Lionfish derbies are big community fishing events to help control the lionfish population. I will be back soon and will hopefully have great stories to tell about the Bahamas!

The REEF girls out at Alligator!!
(Photo Credit Carlos Estape)

Week Three: Proofs Galore

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Week three had me back in my cubicle, mostly editing and battling with Drupal, the software platform Bonnier uses for their online content. I am usually quite good with technology, and I caught on pretty quickly, but glitches in the system tested my patience a bit… I ended up spending the entire day on a post that I thought would take me two hours. But it turned out looking great, and I learned a lot. Shout out to Alex Bean for the awesome crash course in HTML and CS5!

First priority all week were the “Epsons,” which are basically the final copies we ship to print. They need to be perfect. Scuba Diving’s Oct/Nov issue was shipped to print on Wednesday, and with Mary Frances gone and Patricia in the sales meetings all week, the pace was fast and furious.

ScubaLab’s Sept./Oct. Gear guide was all about dive computers. We write edits on sticky notes so the quality printing isn’t messed up.

I loved it.

I really felt a part of the team—after all, it really does take a team to get the content from word documents à fact-checking à edit à copy edit à design à proof à Epson à print. Everyone plays a key role, even the interns. Every extra set of eyes helps.

I also had my first encounter with rewriting. Sometimes the facts you find out while writing and researching change the arc of the story—I needed to focus on a different, more relevant and worthwhile angle on a marine conservation, and I had to completely rewrite it.

It is true that constructive criticism makes you better. One of the most valuable opportunities this internship has given me so far—besides the obviously phenomenal experience as a whole—is having my writing edited. Not graded, but edited.

We are always learning, always changing, and we always have the opportunity to improve. Being around better writers has pushed me to hold myself to their standards and to try to get better at my craft.

There is nothing better than coming home after a busy day at your internship and realizing that you wouldn’t rather be doing anything else.

Next up: My first press trip—Adventuring in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea!

Week One: The Adventure Begins!

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After a fun-filled few days at Universal Studios, it was finally time to travel to Winter Park and begin what would prove to be an amazing adventure, chock-full of first-time experiences, friendly faces, and my very own cubicle.

I had been counting down the days from when George Wozencraft first notified me that I had, incredibly, been chosen for this prestigious internship (cue the composed phone call, followed by excited squeals and several emotional calls to my parents). The internship of my dreams was within reach—all I had to do was reach out and grab it.

After moving everything into Bonnier Corporation’s ultra-modern company loft (in the rain, might I add: the inevitable afternoon rain is one thing this Tennessee girl still has not gotten used to), walking distance to their office in Winter Park Village, I finally took a breath. Here I was, 20 years old, almost 700 miles from home, and about to walk into one of the largest special interest publishing groups in the country. I must confess… I was a tad nervous.

Little did I know that my nervousness Sunday night would be all for naught—as soon as I met Patricia Wuest, editor-in-chief for both Scuba Diving and Sport Diver magazines, I felt instantly at ease.

After all, most of the people in the dive publishing group at Bonnier are divers. One thing I’ve learned in my five years of diving is that divers are pretty awesome people; this group did not disappoint!

As Patricia gave me the grand tour, I shook many hands and met lots of smiling faces; unfamiliar to me then, these people would come to play huge parts in my experience here at Bonnier Corp.

My first few days were spent familiarizing myself with the magazines’ layouts, getting my logins for the numerous online platforms Bonnier uses, and learning the lay of the land (er, ocean?).

I’m official! My first cubicle.

I dove in quickly, embracing my busy schedule—I attended three meetings the first day alone, learning about budget and collaborating on the creative content (Note to self: bring a sweater or parka when meeting in Zone 1). I soon learned to swear by Gmail’s calendar; without the little ding! alerting me of a meeting in 5 minutes, I probably would’ve been known as the Late Intern by the end of the first day. (Glad I escaped that stereotype…)

I was continually amazed by the efficiency in the office, much of it coordinated by the uber-organized Ashley Annin—once an intern, and now the Managing Editor—she, along with Alex Bean, Digital Editor, and Tara Bradley, Assistant Editor, provided many of my “Intern Training” sessions—all neatly recorded on my Google Calendar, of course.

I was fact-checking and posting to Sport and Scuba Diver’s website before I knew it. There is nothing like the rush you get when you realize that YOU are responsible for the article so many divers read and share. I soon found it to be addicting.

I even finished my first original article, written for the Briefs section of the October 2014 print edition of Sport Diver. Interviewing the Executive Director of the Turtle Island Restoration Network’s Cocos Islands project and being able to say I work for Sport Diver was absolutely surreal and humbling. Writing about endangered sea turtles and the work these scientists have done towards their protection was an honor, and I can’t wait for it to come out in print so many other divers find out about what they can do to help our beautiful ocean and the animals in it.

I truly saw every side of publishing this first week, cumulating in being a stand-in model for Sport Diver’s Gear Guide on Thursday. Working with the amazing Elizabeth Fleener, Chelsea Pomales, and John the photographer/lighting wizard was so memorable. I got to see where the magic happens—where those gear guides that I have so thoroughly pored over for years were shot, how they are put onto the layout, and the creative minds behind it.

The lighting set-up for Sport Diver’s Gear Guide

Me (eeek!) and photographer John testing the lighting and gear for the gear guide.

Okay, this is getting long. I promise to wrap it up, but before I go, I want to thank everyone at OWUSS and the Bonnier Dive Group that has made my first week phenomenal.

I look forward to the next week of my adventure.

Until then,

Schyler Cox

Lionfish, Morays and Manatees, Oh My!

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My time in Biscayne National Park began with some rocky travel. First I had to return from Yellowstone National Park, which was an adventure in and of itself. Brett, Koza and I dropped off Brian Skerry in Jackson Hole to catch his flight, and then we made the nine-hour drive back to Denver. By the time we stopped at the office to switch out my drysuit for my wetsuit it was already almost midnight! I got a few hours sleep back at Dave and Michelle’s, then packed up my things and went to the airport.

Two flights, a rental car mix-up and an enormously large headache later I arrived in Biscayne National Park. Being back in the South and hearing cicadas again felt like putting on a comfortable sweater- albeit a hot and humid one! I met my awesome flatmates Jeneva Plumb Wright, an intern with Cultural Resources here in the park, and JT, a fellow southerner doing a three-month maintenance stint in the park. And with that I unpacked, prepped my gear for the next morning and fell asleep.

In the morning I met up with Dave Conlin, who had flown to Biscayne a few days earlier. He was assisting a program called Youth Diving with a Purpose, or YDWP. The program is made up of a diverse group of students from different schools, states and even countries, and all of them gain exposure to underwater archeology through the program. Excited to see their work, I splashed down with Dave Conlin, David Gadsby, an archeologist with the National Park Service, and Chuck Lawson, the Cultural Resource manager at the park, and started photographing the intrepid young archaeologists.

Dave having fun with some seaweed!

The site the YDWP program was working on this year is called Captain Ed’s Wreck.The ship lies in about 20 feet of water, and is about 11 miles offshore. According to Josh Marano, a Biscayne National Park archeologist, the ship was from the mid 19th century, and was a sailing cargo vessel. The name came from a concessionaire captain, Captain Ed, who discovered the site and led snorkel trips there- he notified the Park Service of the site and the wreck still bears his name.

The water was an absolute dream to dive in, especially after diving in the 40 degree Fahrenheit water of Yellowstone Lake. Even more exciting than the lovely water temperature and excellent visibility however, was the excitement of the kids in the Youth Diving with a Purpose program. Their enthusiasm was infectious, and after each dive I was eager to get back in the water to photograph their work. It was a challenge to compose a picture with 20 young archeologists diving around the site, but after a few dives the students fell into a rhythm, and it became easier to isolate them photographically to compose a shot.

The students had a chance to show-off their newfound diving and archeological skills when Brian Carlstrom, the superintendent of the park, visited the site. Dave Conlin acted as tour guide and showed Brian where the masts of the wreck used to be, as well as other archeological points of interest. The students shared their work with the superintendent and wrapped up their last day of diving!

Superintendent Brian Carlstrom (left) gives the “ok” to a student archeologist.

Once YDWP concluded I joined the Southeast Archeological Center (SEAC) on their project documenting the Long Reef Cannon Site in the park. The SEAC team included David Morgan, the director of SEAC, Thadra Stanton, the Principal Investigator of the project, Charlie Sproul, a Museum Specialist and Meredith Hardy, an archeologist. The SEAC team was also joined by several members of the SRC, including John Bright, Jessica Keller and Susannah Pershern. Chuck Lawson, Josh Marano and Jeneva Wright of Biscayne National Park also contributed to the project, making it a collaborative effort across different groups of the National Park Service. It was great to see so many different organizations working together!

: An artifact in the Long Reef Cannon Site.

: John Bright (left) and Jessica Keller of the SRC measure the Long Reef Cannon Site.

: Josh Marano of Biscayne National Park documents the Long Reef Cannon Site.

: An artifact in the Long Reef Cannon Site.

: SEAC’s Charlie Sproul sketches an artifact.

: SEAC’s Charlie Sproul sketches an artifact.

It was also great to learn more about underwater archeology. Since my main focus is in underwater photography (pun intended) my archeological skills aren’t quite up to snuff. Joining the SEAC/SRC/Biscayne team on this project gave me an opportunity to learn more about the process of documenting an archeological site.

After spending a few days working on the Long Reef Cannon Site I transitioned to working with ongoing projects in Biscayne National Park. One project I was excited to work on was the Lionfish eradication and research project. Lionfish are an invasive species whose population has exploded in the last decade. The invasive fish are voracious eaters, and their fast rate of reproduction makes them a threat to many native reef fish. Each year the park hires interns to conduct research and help eradicate the invasive species; I worked with this year’s grad student interns: Megan Davenport, Michael Hoffman and Kristian Rogers.

BISC-DUW-140722_1-05

My first day with the Lionfish team was a little bumpy; I made the mistake of having coffee on an empty stomach before going diving- mistake number one! The weather was a little stormy, and to top it off my regulator malfunctioned, although thankfully it happened before the dive and not underwater. Hyped up nerves, a rocking boat and intense heat resulted in my first bout of seasickness. Ugh!

The stormy weather while returning to the dock.

Thankfully we had better weather the next day, and with my newly found “sea legs” I was able to join the lion fish team both on the boat and underwater. Kristian, Mike and Megan definitely made using the speargun look easy- my two attempts went wide. I only hope that the poor fish ended up as another fish’s dinner!

Kristian spearing a large lionfish.

Jeneva and I also had the opportunity to “fillet” some lionfish for dinner. I use the word fillet generously, as it was more like a butchery. Apparently there’s only so much you can learn from a Youtube video!

Jeneva braces herself for the smell.

I also got to spend some time monitoring sea turtle nesting sites in the park. Shelby Moneysmith, the regional Dive Safety Officer and a park biologist, Katie Fisher, a biological technician, and the Fish and Wildlife interns Kelsy Armstrong and Nicole Rodi and I all piled on the boat and went to Elliot Key to look for turtle nests. Looking for turtle nests was like being a detective; we had to interpret the turtle tracks to see if and where the sea turtle laid her eggs. We had a particularly busy day for turtle activity with plenty of false tracks and possible nests.

: Nicole disembarks the boat to do sea turtle monitoring.

: Shelby, Katie and Nicole wade to shore to do sea turtle nest monitoring.

: Broken turtle eggshells are a hopeful indicator of a successful hatch; the trash in the background was buried with the turtle eggs.

: Shelby Moneysmith digs for turtle eggs on the beach.

: Trash litters the beaches of Biscayne.

: Nicole takes notes as Katie and Shelby dig for turtle eggs.

The high point of my time in Biscayne was a chance manatee encounter while doing sea turtle monitoring. All I needed was for someone to shout “Manatees!” and I was over the side of the boat with my camera. I was actually so excited that I flung my hat, sunglasses and other items all across the boat in my haste to get in the water! It was my first time seeing manatees, and snorkeling with the gentle giants was just amazing. Plus they made great models!

Later in the day we also went on two dives to do reef visual counts, or RVCs. Katie and Shelby explained to me that RVCs had been performed in the park and surrounding area for years, and have been done by different organizations at the local, state and federal level. This has yielded a huge dataset that shows biologists the “big picture” about fish populations in the area. One of the more interesting things we saw on our RVC dives was a beautiful green moray eel, who was obviously hamming it up for the camera.

Say cheese!

My last adventure in the park was to assist with Lobster Mini-Season, an annual dive derby to catch Caribbean Spiny Lobsters. This was a great opportunity to work with a different side of the park; law enforcement officers, biologists, rangers and volunteers all came together to help assess the mini-season’s impact on the lobster population in the park.

My role was to interview the captain of each boat to find out where, how and how long each boat was fishing for lobster. It was definitely a hectic experience when we had boats coming in constantly, but I really enjoyed interacting with visitors to the park.

Visiting Biscayne National Park was a rush of different people, projects and experiences. My favorite part of my experience thus far has been meeting the passionate, kind and knowledgeable people that work at each park. If the people I’ve met so far are any indication, then I’m in for a treat as I make my way across the US. Next stop: Dry Tortugas!

Science Diving Projects

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Besides learning about diving techniques and training, I spend half of my time working on research projects at the Darling Marine Center. Between diving for collections and working in the wet lab I’m getting a lot of experience on fisheries growth studies and population monitoring projects.

Maine as a whole continues to amaze me with the many faces of summer. Thankfully I have never experienced a Maine winter so I can continue to live in blissful ignorance. Working with the Darling Marine Center I’ve been able to see the labs at Bigelow and soon I’ll visit the Maine Department of Marine Resources, and I’ve learned a lot about how large institutions share information. Lobsters or scallops we collect might end up in an experiment somewhere else! My name graces more than a few collection permits these days and that part of my job is quickly becoming a favorite.

Views of the Darling Marine Center at various points throughout the summer.

Research wise I’ve been very busy with the Wahle fisheries lab doing lobster and scallop collections. We dive once or twice a week to do either basic scallop collection for gonad indices or lobster suction sampling. After going diving in the mornings on the Turnstone 2 – still waiting on the Turnstone 3 yacht – we collect lobsters and whatever else ends up in the sample bags and bring them back to the lab. We sort for Jonah crabs and lobsters and pick out brittle stars and urchins for the DMC touch tank. We’re hoping to get around 250 young of year lobsters to do growth studies. I’ve also done a fair bit of sorting scallop young of year from spat bags. We dissect out hundreds of small scallops (below in photo) between the sizes of 2mm and 15mm.

The last project I’ve worked on pushes my limits of science work. As a vegetarian I try my hardest not to kill too many animals for research, but recent projects demand dissection. We hope to find growth bands in the gastro-intestinal mill of lobsters, that indicate either the age or the number of molts of that particular lobster. This information would be invaluable to the fishery, but is a mentally difficult task to say the least. I’m learning a lot about how to balance the science aspects with my own personal choices.

Thats all for now, as the summer continues I’ll have updates on dive classes and how our research projects are going. Until then, fair winds!

Katy