My first week as a Sea Grant Summer Scholar is now finished and I don’t think I could have asked for a more overwhelming, fun, and exciting start. On Monday the 15^th, I graduated from the University of Oregon and on that very next day I was studying fish species at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon. Needless to say the week has been a whirlwind. Now that life has calmed down a bit, I feel like it will be easier to relax and explore the new area that I am in. I have never spent a summer in any place other than Portland (where I am originally from) so I think this will be a breath of fresh air and a great new adventure.

For the Sea Grant Program, I am currently working for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife on the Marine Reserves Ecological Monitoring Project. While I do not know exactly what the summer will bring, I am excited to be working with marine reserves which are a relatively new management option in Oregon. I am working on the same project with an REU scholarship recipient named Sara and am enjoying having a partner in crime. So far we have been learning a lot of the near shore fish species off the Oregon coast that we will potentially see in the marine reserves. All I’m going to say is I never I thought that I was done reading scientific reports when I graduated college. Unfortunately I was very wrong. It’s not too terrible though. We did get to tour the Oregon Coast Aquarium and are set to snorkel in the tanks sometime next week to sharpen our identification skills. Other than that, we have been learning to cut and score videos that are placed in the actual marine reserves as well as control areas via landers. These are basically anchors that are placed in the water with three different Gopro cameras attached and record the fish that are present in the area. Scoring has been fun but can be very tedious and the idea of fieldwork sounds more and more appealing for the following weeks.

Since I do not have a specific project that I am assigned, our supervisor Brittany has said she would like me to dip my toes in a couples different areas to get the feel of what they do on the marine reserves team. These include, sampling intertidal plots for sea star wasting disease, some GIS work for hook and line surveys, and helping to score fish lander videos. Something that she wanted me to do while working on these things was to film these experiences on a Gopro and potentially use the videos for advertising. I am beyond excited to do this and love that I can take my Gopro out in the field.

All around, the week has flown by and I cannot believe that it is already the end of June. Newport seems to be a gem of a town and a far cry from the bustle of Portland where I am originally from. I am looking forward to the experiences that will come from this internship as well as living in a new place with new people that are passionate about the same things!