Last week we started our training at the HMSC under the supervision of Bill Hanshumaker. On Tuesday we took our first little tour of the estuary. We had to get up at around 6 AM in order to make the low tide.  We were informed that at least one of us was going to sink into the mud that day. That person ended up being me. I was able to recover my boots (using a bucket to pry myself out) but they still smell like Hydrogen Sulfide. We learned a lot about the estuary as well as the organisms (both native and invasive) that live there. We spent the rest of the day getting a little behind the scenes tour of HMSC.

On Wednesday we met at Yaquina Head and explored the tide pools and sea birds to help familiarize ourselves with intertidal life. Later we arrived for the Markham Symposium going on in the visitor center.   We got a little tour of more of the  facilities at HMSC and ended the day in the auditorium working on the Ocean Quest slide show (it still has a few bugs to work out). We later helped Bill Hanshumaker take down some of the older exhibits and relocate them to a ware house about 15 minutes up the road. He left for Alaska the next morning and we will probably not see him again until July 2.

On Thursday we practiced worked on the Ocean Quest presentation again. We learned about the feeding processed at HMSC. We also got to meet “Pearl” (the octopus that is currently not on display) and watched a Rock fish get some of its parasites removed. We did the estuary walk again with another volunteer who encouraged us to find our own particular way of making the walk interesting

On friday we worked on more behind the scenes stuff. We got to see some of the seawater pumping system that runs all throughout the facility.  We also had  more practice with the estuary walks and finally seemed to make some progress with Ocean Quest (then we lost half of the videos somehow). Later we learned all about marine fisheries (and some of the relevant exhibits) off of the Oregon Coast.

On Saturday we “gave” our first estuary walks to the public (under close supervision). And Sunday I gave my first estuary walk, apparently I did “fine” for my first try. All in all it was a good first week and I’m looking forward to next week.