Category Archives: Diego Martin-Perez

The Orange Vest…Guided

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i like how this blog greets me with “howdy diego”.

This week’s highlights in 7 bullets: Note that the other two interns, Adaline and Dylan, are here now and this week, we got trained.

1) Monday: Dr. “Mudflat” gave us a tour of the…well… mudflats on the Yaquina Bay. The challenge was to soak it all up in the hour that we were there. Then we got a tour of HMSC, went through our OceanQuest presentation (a powerpoint presentation based on underwater vents and volcanoes that scientists at Hatfield studied), and talked about hypoxia with the experts (pisco).

2) Tuesday: Money counting intro, Dr. R gave us an estuary lecture, then Mr. J gave us an estuary tour, OceanQuest again, this time with public, then fisheries training and dock walk with KH (this was awesome).

Dock Walk: notice the bridge in the back

Rogue on Tuesday… almost forgot/remembered

3) Wednesday: Opening procedures (repeat for me), Yaquina Head (fell from the rock and scraped my hand…infected), amazing tidepooling (i didn’t have my camera)! Estuary Walk and OCEANQUEST again!!!!

4) Thursday: Learned how to take care of the fish, water quality, feed them, etc, Estuary walk, OceanQuest. Scheduling days off/on for the summer with the other interns. It was challenging to bargain with the other interns to get the weekends off, but it worked out at the end.

Ursula the Octopus

5) Friday: Estuary Walk, OceanQuest, Manual labor with Tim… I like Tim.

This week was basically a lot of repetition of our tours that we would be doing all summer long and an outline of the basic expectations for our final projects/exhibits. It was challenging but fun to practice our estuary walks and our oceanquest presentation.

6) Saturday: FIRST DAY OF WORK. Mentor is out of town, just me and Adaline. We open, hang, and I give an estuary tour to 12 scouts, who gave me positive feedback on the visitor center logbook!!!!! I was so excited to know that I did a good job on my first time around, which I owe to Ralph and Old Man Jerry, and Dr. Mudflat, my estuary mentors. Then I worked on my timeline for my final project, did OceanQuest for a few sleepieheads (lesson learned: don’t turn the lights all the way down in the auditorium)… and went play with our koi fish in the west wing… I like them because they kiss me in the knuckles.

7) Sunday: woke up to make some rice to hopefully have it ready by lunch. oh no! barely donnne but no cigar. Betty finished it for me… thank you Betty. Then i opened, Adaline gave the estuary tour and I worked in the Visitor Center on my timeline. Then I ran home, got my lentils and rice, and ate it while i walked back to work (give me more time to eaaaaaaaaaaat!) I wish i could have played beach volleyball…oh well. I met people from Memphis and we talked about fisheries and the blues, then I came home to cook some clam chowder, sea_gil and betty got some clams while i was out, so we went to fred meyer to get some ingredients and some other food stuffs… Betty cooked it after I opened those suckers up

By Betty

arrgh

now i write this blog entry while my pictures upload so i can post them within it. Posted

NEXT WEEK:

According to my timeline, next week I will brainstorm on ideas for my exhibit, as well as give more estuary tours and OceanQuest presentations…

I hope i can have more enthusiasm for the OceanQuest presentations since its right after lunch time and i have the “itis”.

god bless ghostshrimps, octopuses, mole crabs,and my orange vest…

 

 

 

 

Estuaries Guided…extended version (week 1)

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Hello! My name is Diego Martin-Perez, and I just graduated from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette with a BS in Biology. I am so excited to be working at the Visitor Center (VC) here in Newport, Oregon.
I am going to be responsible for giving some tours and presentations over at the VC, talking about the estuary, the Ocean Quest findings in the deep sea, and Dr. Markus Horning’s work on sea lions and the Life History Transmitter.
This past week, I basically got settled in the VC, met a bunch of awesome people that showed me around the place and told me what to do. On Tuesday, I met with the volunteer coordinator at the VC and she taught me how to open the place up (and how to close it). During that day, I spent the time helping in the “wet labs”, where a Sea Granter gave hands on lectures to kids of 6th grade, as well as 2nd grade. I won’t lie, I learned a bunch in these “elementary” lectures, mostly about the ecology of the rocky intertidal, clams, and how to handle sea stars (aka the sneak attack). Wednesday, I met another volunteer coordinator and worked in the VC for a few hours, until I went on my tour of the estuary adjacent to the VC, where I learned about clam diggin’, ghost shrimp, medicinal plants found in this location, and other cool things about the tides. I really enjoyed my little tour, so much that I took my other Sea Grant intern friends on the same tour the day after!
Thursday, I met the former Sr. Aquarist at the VC, who showed me almost everything I needed to know about how to take care of fishes and tanks containing them. He also taught me how to touch an octopus, which I did! Then, I met with someone in charge of curriculum design for kids, who placed upon me the challenge of designing an experiment with modeling clay, water and ice, and a thermometer (definitely a challenge, but a fun one). Later that day, I went clamming and got several clams (mmm clam chowder anyone?)!!!
Friday, I met my mentor, and started the extreme, painful challenge (the biggest of the week) of buffing the “chaos wheel tank”. I had never done that before, and it was hard on my body… I am still hurting from it… Then yesterday, sea grant friends and I went thrift shopping, farmer’s marketing, and ice cream/taco devouring outing! Today, I took a bike ride to the beach, ate lunch picnic style on the beach volleyball court, and read my book… oh and am writing this entry!
This upcoming week, I will meet more interns at the VC, start organizing schedules for the summer, and learning our tours and presentations, among other surprises (like finishing the buff action with the chaos wheel)…
Come visit me at the VC! I am the one with the mustache and the orange vest… Regards… Deegs

Welcome our 2011 Summer Scholars

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A new class of Sea Grant Summer Scholars arrived on campus this week for orientation, and are now scattered to their host departments and agencies on the coast and at OSU. They are:

  • Shealyn Friedrich is a student at Willamette University in Salem, OR, who will be working on developing a website for the OSU Marine Council under the guidance of the Sea Grant program office at OSU.
  • AnnaRose Adams, an Oregon State University student, returning for her second year in the Summer Scholars program, assigned to work on a Coastal Marine Spatial Planning workshop with the Sea Grant program office.
  • Diego Martin-Perez, a student at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette, LA, working at the Hatfield Marine Science Center’s Visitor Center in Newport under the tutelage of public education specialist Bill Hanshumaker.
  • Betty Mujica, of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, LA, working with veterinarian Tim Miller-Morgan and Extension water quality specialist Rob Emanuel at the HMSC Visitor Center.
  • Lauren Dimock, a Willamette University student assigned to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s marine resource program at the HMSC.
  • Nicole Matthias, of Michigan Technological University, also assigned to the ODFW’s marine resource program.
  • Margaretmary Gilroy, of College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA, assigned to the US Environmental Protection Agency lab at the HMSC
  • Sara Duncan, of Hawai’i Pacific University in Honolulu, assigned to EPA extension, where she will be working under the guidance of Ted DeWitt on a project to study the nutrient removal of flora in the Yaquina Resevoir
  • Joanne Choi, of Yale University, who will be working with the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve in Coos Bay under the guidance of the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology.

We hope all nine of this year’s Summer Scholars will find time to blog about their experiences.