Category Archives: Former scholars

Final Cut Pro snap tool

Posted on by
1

So far so good working on the videos. The graduate video has turned into two, one illustrating the marine resource management program at CEOAS and one illustrating a zoology program that lets students travel to the Bahamas to study lionfish. Both clips are just about finished, given some touch-ups and photo release forms from extra subjects who are in the photos. (Fingers crossed the releases come through.) The third video about the OSG Summers Scholars program is also almost complete, but only after some wrangling with the Final Cut Pro X program.

One difference between Final Cut 7 and Pro (which is the most recent version) is a feature called the “snap tool.” In Final Cut 7, this was a feature that could be turned on or off depending on the producers preference. In Final Cut X, the snap tool automatically pulls all of the clips you have cut forward on the timeline, making a somewhat seamless clip to work with. The problem lies in the fact that in Final Cut X, you can’t turn it off. This sounds like a helpful feature, but in reality, I’ve come to understand that this is one of the new features the masses have been unhappy with. Automatic snap makes it nearly impossible to efficiently sort your project according to subject, time, etc., because everything moves on its own, taking all the sound clips and text overlays with it, and things can get out of control pretty quickly. After poking through some Final Cut forums I found that the best way to work around the automatic snap is to lay a blank clip in the timeline that snaps and begin to build your project around it. While this still isn’t ideal for organization, it works much better for keeping your media clips where you would like them and lets you save sections for later placement. Despite the frustration that came while trying to navigate the automatic snap tool, it’s been a good learning experience that I can take with me. I’ve wanted to purchase video editing software for my home computer so I can work on projects as needed, but have been hesitant because I’ve heard negative things about Final Cut X. Now I know a bit about it and would feel comfortable working with it on my own.

The first time I saw a whale

Posted on by
2

The first time I saw a whale on the Oregon Coast was last summer while taking the marine mammals class offered at HMSC.  It’s only a month long class but we had field trips every week and many of those trips were just to look for whales migrating along the coastline.  Gray whales are particularly awesome because when making their summer migration they are nearly always visible from land.  We had been seeing whales for a couple of weeks pretty far offshore but the whale sighting I remember most was about halfway through the class.  We were up at Boiler Bay standing above the cliffs just to the south of the parking lot.  It was pretty foggy when we got there and we weren’t really expecting to see anything because of the weather. Out of nowhere a whale surfaced just off the cliffs below us closer than any whale e had seen before.  We immediately jumped the fence to get to the lower section of cliffs hoping to get a super close up of the whale.  The next time the whale surfaced it was literally 10 feet off the cliffs and about 20-30 feet below us.  I could see into its eye.  I had to consciously make an effort not to piss my pants.

In a related event almost exactly a year after my unforgettable experience…

The little boy at the visitor center last week didn’t hold back his excitement when he saw his first whale.  He and his family walked in about 5 minutes before closing even after our words of discouragement.  Generally we will tell people that walk in near closing that there isn’t enough time to see anything so its best to come back in the morning.  The little boy and his family didn’t seem too interested in letting 5 minutes of their lives go to waste.  This kiddo walked straight to the display case of miniature carved whales, stared at them, and presumably in an expression of utter disbelief, excitement, and enlightenment peed himself.  I can hardly blame him. I felt the same way when I first saw a whale up close.  I am sure this experience will be forever engrained in his memory (or at least the memory of his extremely embarrassed parents). I would venture to say after my experience and the experience of this child that every person nearly pees him or herself when seeing a whale for the first time.

 

Week 9 blog: A Short Week

Posted on by
4

This work week was a short one for me. On Tuesday, I worked on some new ideas for the tsunami exhibit. We are considering abandoning the Lego idea altogether and using per-fabricated wooden structures (similar to an idea used by OSU’s wave lab). For most of that day I was doing research on what the wave center had done and coming up with prototype models for use in our wave tank. It is still a work in progress and will make an interesting last minute twist to my project presentation this Friday.  Wednesday was a relatively normal day at the visitor center  with the exception of a few hundred  students that arrived for a morning tour. The yellow submarine that we painted last week still looks shiny and new; a nice greeting for our visitors.

I was lucky enough to use some accumulated days off and have a five day weekend. It was nice to go home for a day and then on to our annual family weekend camp out.  I also spent a lot of time working on my presentation for Friday. While I was away it hit me that the summer is almost over and I realized how much I enjoyed it and would miss my co-workers. Becca and Mackenzie have been great supervisors and I have learned so much from them and from my mentor Bill Hanshumaker.   My fellow interns are good people and while we are all very different, I have come to admire each of them.  Brian for his nearly encyclopedic knowledge of tide pool organisms, his ability to keep a cool head even in crazy circumstances (such as when all of the water pipes in the visitor center randomly break) and his handy skills, whether it is building a mock up of a wave energy device or creating very elaborate looking homemade fishing gear.  Diana for her ability to pick up things so quickly. In the short time she has been here she has quickly become an expert on all things Oregon and she brought with her an exceptional knowledge of the octopus to share.  Julie for her ability to cheer up people all around her. She has been working hard on her climate change/ free choice learning project while still having the time to work in the visitor center whenever we are short. I consider myself extremely lucky to have had the opportunity to work with all these fine people this summer.

Fishing Trip and Angry Fishermen

Posted on by
3

This week I had the amazing opportunity to go down to Redfish Rocks Marine Reserve in Port Orford to go fishing with the ODFW Marine Reserves Biological monitoring team! Redfish Rocks was one of two Marine Reserves in Oregon to close down to fishing in January 2012, so this may sound a bit ironic. However, our fishing was catch-and-release and was purely for scientific purposes.

Fishing in Port Orford is quite the experience, because there is no marina, so all the boats must be hoisted from the water with a giant crane and then left sitting dry on the dock. In order to begin our trip we were lowered 30 feet down to the ocean. We spent most of the morning attempting to fish while the team serviced the CTDs. I will forever remember what a CTD is from answering the acronym wrong on an Oceanography test, but basically it is a device that measures salinity, temperature, depth, and this particular one was also equipped with fluorometer to measure chlorophyll content. There are two CTDs in this area, one inside the reserve and outside the reserve. These CTDs are unique in the fact that they are bolted to the bottom of the ocean (usually they are dragged behind a boat). In order to bring up the CTDs to extract the data, we had to have a diver go down and unbolt them from the bottom of the ocean. Unfortunately I wasn’t really able to help much with this part of the trip, because I was overly optimistic and didn’t take enough dramamine which unfortunately resulted in a bad case of seasickness and lost breakfast :(

Luckily I was able to rally in time for fishing. The purpose of our fishing trip was to gather some data about the biomass of fish in the reserve and outside of the reserve so to add to the collection that they have already started. This data can then be compared with fish biomass numbers five or ten years down the road to see what kind of an effect the reserve is having on the fish. Each fisher also wore a stopwatch to track total fishing time in so that catch per unit of effort can be calculated as well. We were definitely in a prime fishing location, because on several occaisions I would barely have my line in the water for a minute before I would reel in another fish. My favorite part was watching all the different types of species that came up; Black Rockfish, Blue Rockfish, Yellowtail Rockfish, Canary Rockfish, and Ling Cod. I was pretty proud of the fact that I caught 11 fish including a gorgeous 51cm Canary Rockfish. However, My catch piddled in comparison to the captain who kept bringing in 12 pound Ling Cod.  Although I enjoy my social science, it was pretty awesome be out in the field with biological scientists and I consider myself very lucky for having the opportunity!

I had a reality check when I returned to my job as normal in Lincoln City. I finally had the inevitable rough interview with a fisherman in the Salmon River area. Although I had been warned that these fishermen are adamantly against marine reserves, I truly believed it when in the middle of an interview one of them told me that I could take my marine reserve and shove it. It didn’t take long for my frustration with this interview to turn into amusement and I built my nerve back up to talk to another one. The next one was upset as well, and he described marine reserves as a type of conspiracy theory, I quote, “See this is what happens when people go to school and read too many books.” I had to laugh at this one. Props to the fishermen for of the Salmon River for  helping me to develop a thicker skin this summer.

Smiles on the job :)

Posted on by
2

There have always been smiles in my life because I turned out to be a smiley person with all my crazy mannerisms and  sounds that mean words.  These sounds and mannerisms come out even more when I’m really happy, thus anyone who came into the Hatfield Marine Science Center and saw me would know that I LOVE my job.  This past week has been filled with smiles, not only from me, but from many visitor’s both tall and small.  On Monday, everyone who worked with me was asking me how my vacation was and was so happy that I got a break from the craziness of work.  Also, that day Aurora was fed quite happily and I had many people who said they loved the marine science center and couldn’t wait to come back again next summer.  Then, Tuesday was a great project day because I got to see my wave tank in action even more.  A summer camp with 56 kids and a boy scout troop of 23 came in at the same time and tested out my erosion wave tank.  Also, I got to be at the tide pool touch tanks for most of the morning and have some amazing questions asked by children about the animals and their environment.  On a cool/sad note I got to see a fish necropsy to see why it passed away which was highly informative while the death was a sad state of affairs.

On Wednesday which was my only day off this week, I got to do something quite different.  I went with Hillary to Cascade head and see what she does for her internship.  I got to take pictures of her interviewing many people about their view on marine reserves and taking pressure counts of people at each site.  I saw her interview many types of people from local fisherman to families just traveling to the coast for a few days.  These surveys asked very interesting questions and I got to hear various answers such as people who think marine reserves are great and others who had very strong opinions about how unsuccessful they would be.  Hillary did and is still doing an amazing job for her internship and it was a treat to see her in action was well as get to go to Cascade Head as well as the Lincoln city outlets.  Even at the outlets I got some great deals on jeans and workout clothes :)

The rest of the week was just as amazing as the start and challenges actually didn’t occur this week.  Many people may consider that boring, just like how a story without conflict is boring, but smiles are never boring to me.  I got to do more estuary tours, even one with 32 people on it! So many people, but I still got asked some highly intelligent questions.  Then, I showed a girl scout troop from Redmond, OR through the VC.  There were 10 7-8th graders and their leaders.  They were fascinated that I was a lifetime girl scout as well as a broze, silver and gold award winner.  They asked me so many questions and all were different from girl scout ideas to my time as a girly girl scout to marine science.  The VC was really cool to them and that made me smile even more.  Yet, the most exciting thing that made me smile was………….learning to be a feeder! I got to feed every animal in the VC except the octopus such as sea anemones, rock fish, wolf eel and much more.  I traveled around the whole VC with my cart accompanied by Harrison, Kristen (aquarists) and Julie! Together, we fed all the animals a wide variety of food items.  It was one of the best learning experiences I have had at Hatfield and I can’t believe I was so lucky.

Next week I’m sure will also be filled with smiles but also with a little bit of sadness since this will be my last blog post of the summer .  There will also be sadness because my new made friends will all be leaving while Brian, Nick and I stay for another 10 days until the VC changes over to winter hours.  This summer has been filled with crazy, exciting and magical moments that I will keep forever in my memory.  Thanks for everything and I hope for all the best not only in the future of my project, but also all of our OSG Scholar’s futures.

Coos Bay Adventures

Posted on by
2

It has been a busy second-to-last week on the nutrient uptake project. The first two days were spent finishing up our five replicates at Winant, a special little salt marsh that is near and dear to the hearts of many at the EPA. Wednesday was spent in the lab doing more data entry and looking at the cross-estuary results to see how they could be incorporated into my project on the effect of temperature on nutrient uptake. We also prepared for our two day trip to Coos Bay, which included scrounging up as many coolers as we possibly could to house all our precious nutrient spiked salt water for the overnight journey.

hovercraft

Hovercraft in Coos Bay

Thursday we began our trip to Coos Bay. Looking at Eric’s photos is seems like we got lucky in terms of getting a cloudless, fogless day. Above is a picture of the hovercraft at its peak of performance, hovering through the bay. Another researcher at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology wanted a ride so she got one. Below is the site we studied the first day. A fellow intern is seen walking through the mud. I lost both boots in this mud and had to pull them out with my hands. I think I need to work on tying them better. This site was more pristine than other sites and relatively devoid of human presence, which was ideal for our experiments and for our own pleasure. It was peaceful.

Coose Bay site 1

Taylor mud walking at first site

That night we went to the best and possibly only Thai restaurant in Coos Bay and then went to our yurt to sleep. I had always wanted to sleep in a yurt so I was excited, but after a nearly twelve hour work day I was too tired to marvel long at its yurtliness. The next morning we awoke early to get to our second site shown below. This site had its issues as dogs roamed free to poop and pee anywhere they pleased as it was near a trailer park, quite the contrast to our site from yesterday. My mentor had originally wanted to go to a slightly different location, but No Trespassing signs blocked our entry and he did not want us ending up on a WANTED poster. Our next attempted solution was to cross a section of the mudflat to get to some salt marsh islands. We brought some equipment out there, but quickly realized we would be screwed for getting out when the tide came in. We quickly returned to the mainland and sure enough, in the middle of the experiment the tide came, which would have made the passage quite difficult.

Coos Bay site 2

Coos Bay second site

In the end, we set up our experiment in the marsh where the dogs roamed. I am not sure about the quality of that data. After these experiments we quickly returned to Newport so my mentor could meet with some visiting EPA people from Washington D.C. It is important to show them that research is active and thriving (which it is!) so they know their funding is going to a worthy cause.

It is hard to believe that my internship is almost over here in Oregon. It has been a great summer with a lot of experience gained and a lot of memories created. I just need to finish it up by giving my presentations, writing my paper, and finishing the last bit of fieldwork on Monday. I am sad the summer of fieldwork is over, but it has inspired me for graduate school and beyond.

This weekend has been a lazy weekend of hanging around in Newport, which is fine for me because I finally–after nine weeks of deliberation–bought a ukelele! According to Google it is the easiest instrument to learn, so I am optimistic of my ability to make some good sound come out of it. I also hope to surf today. We will see how that goes.

Foggy Adventures in Tillamook

Posted on by
1

This week marked the end of my time in Tillamook helping with the subtidal survey. Just like many of the other projects I have helped with, just because I am leaving doesn’t mean the sampling is done and the team will have to round up some volunteers to fill my place for the rest of the sampling days. Nobody seems too excited about that, to say the least.

This week in Tillamook turned out very different than my previous visits, mostly due to some thick fog causing problems. We quickly found out that fog, main channel sites, divers, and safety don’t mix. Nobody was hurt, or even close to getting injured, but we were kept on our toes by constantly peering through the mist trying to make out were other boats where in relation to our divers.

The week started out really great. On Monday it was “warm” and the sites were short and sandy. We ended up getting a whopping 16 done by about noon so once the wind picked up we called it a day and headed in. It was strange to be done sampling and measuring at 3pm because normally we have been out working until 4-5pm. After we all had a little time to ourselves, my coworkers and I went to a nearby blueberry u-pick and got a ton of super delicious berries. Standing out in the sun among the rows of berries was very relaxing but made me miss my garden back at school. I only got 1/4 of a flat because I was unsure I could eat all the berries before I need to leave in a week. I’d never had fresh blueberries before and I was very surprised at how different they are from store-bought blueberries (something I have never been a huge fan of). After picking blueberries, everyone (including the divers!) went out to dinner to celebrate my coworker Natalies birthday. It was fun to chat with everyone outside of work and we finally got to know the divers a little better.

The rest of the week was a little crazier. The fog rolled in right about the time we started sampling which made the whole situation a tad stressful. We were in the middle of the main channel that runs from Garibaldi harbor to the ocean and our samples were taking longer than the day before. After we got a few “yahoos” speed by us in the fog (a little too close for comfort) we decided to stick to the edges of the channel while the fog was around. It helped a little, but some people still were going around really fast and didn’t really know where they were going.  The current and wind picked up a lot around 12pm again so we had to call the day early. The last site we did was so difficult because of the current that the divers had to stop halfway through to change tanks. By the time they got back it was obvious that we were not anchored and had dragged the dredge and sample ring around in the water so we couldn’t continue on that site. We only got 10 samples that day, which is much less than the 13-15 we have been getting in Tillamook.

Wednesday was another foggy day but we were prepared with lights and airhorns from the beginning  and stayed on the edges of the channel. There were still yahoos running around and making us pay close attention to our surroundings. After we set a few points on the chase boat we got a call from the dredge boat that someone had stolen our gas can overnight. but because they had already left the docks they would rather get started on the points with the gas they still had in the motor. So the chase boat went back to the docks and began our search for a gas can. We checked the marina store: nope; we checked the closest gas station: nope; the only other gas station: yep, but only a 2 gallon can. We got that because it was better than nothing then headed to the last place in Garibaldi, the single grocery store. They also had a 2-gallon can but it was more expensive so we kept the one we had. We then returned to the marina to get marine grade gas (can’t have ethanol) and headed back out. The rest of the day went much like tuesday: lots of fog, high currents, and a quick wind pickup. We finally called it a day when the divers were obviously having a tough time keeping the dredge in one spot due to the current. One of our safety protocols is that the divers can at any time decide to stop based on the conditions in the water. While they didn’t directly tell us the current was too strong, it was apparent they were having a lot of trouble so we called it for their sake even though it was only 11am.

Thursday and Friday I had off (yay 4 day weekend!) so I went to Cape Perpetua and hiked around. Unfortunately the fog obscured my view but it was a nice walk nonetheless. I also made a blackberry pie for some interns that left this weekend. I have also been spending a lot of time working on my presentation because this coming week I have 2 more days of fieldwork before I get some time in the office to work on it with Tony. Hopefully I’ll get enough done before then that those 2 days won’t be too hectic.

Fotos of fog.

Posted on by
1

A few photos of last week here in Charleston/Coos Bay.

 

 

Fog off of Cape Arrago. It's been like this most of the week.

Another fog shot. You can't see them, but there are pinnipeds all over the rocks making quite a racket!

Foggy daze in Charleston, OR

Posted on by
1

Change is in the air here at OIMB. Most of the students have finished their classes and are now packing up for their moves back to Eugene or whichever part of the country they came from. A handful that are taking an intro stats class remain, but campus has quieted down significantly. Despite not being in class with them, I got to know most of them pretty well, and it’s been a pleasure spending the summer with a great bunch of up-and-coming marine scientists.

Due to fog and unfriendly seas, the urchin surveys didn’t happen last week. It was also a short week due to a mandatory furlough day for ODFW on Friday. Much of my time was thus spent assembling my Power Point presentation and measuring a few samples of pink shrimp that came in. The toughest part of my presentation is definitely the results section. I feel like I pretty much have the interpretation down, but the organization as far as slide order and how to tie it all together for effective communication is a bit tricky. Scott has, of course, been great with helping me to fine-tune it and in providing constructive criticism, but it’s ultimately up to me to finalize it and present it effectively. Oddly enough, the final “thank you” slide is also posing a bit of a challenge. The list of people to include is quite long, and as I whittle it down to be more manageable I feel a tinge of guilt as I remove names and relegate them to the “thanks to everybody else” category. These things must sometime happen. Other than that, I’m very happy with the way my presentation has come together. I look forward to the symposium this Friday with a little nervousness but mostly optimism and high hopes.

My last week here in Charleston may or may not involve sea urchin surveys. As with the previous week, it’s all weather dependent. So far the forecast is for more fog, so I’m not getting my hopes up. It would be so nice to finish up with some fieldwork, though. The last two weeks have largely been spent in the lab or in front of the computer, which I’ve learned is not my favorite place to be despite the satisfaction of seeing the results of my project and gaining much-needed software skills. There’s been talk among the remaining students here of having a bonfire on the beach tonight, so maybe I’ll do some sort of ritual to stave off the fog and reel in some sun.

I bid you peace.

Beginning the End

Posted on by
2

This last week it really hit me how my time is coming to a close at Sea Grant. In all the bustle following the workshop I almost forgot that I have my own little project that I have to create! I won’t say too much, but scattered between my work with Roseanne and Melissa on travel reimbursement and budget maintenance, I have been trying to pull together my thoughts about the workshop and also drawing from post-workshop documents in order to synthesize my own ideas and conclusions about the event planning process and what it meant for my own learning experience and also for the broader context of a regional response plan for JTMD-biofouling issues. In addition, I have also been working to pull documents together for a report to give to Stephen and eventually, back to the National Sea Grant office. This involves some amount of communication with people on the east coast, but it seems like nothing compared to what I have done to put together the workshop.

An interesting development since the workshop seems to be the way it has spurned action on more than the intended front. Even at the workshop it was evident that while a major reason for the workshop was to get feedback and discussion going on a few issues that key parties wanted input on, it also allowed state representatives to see what other states and agencies were doing, and able to compare actions and generate ideas. I think many took valuable lessons and ideas back to their states, especially since not all states have had to deal with ‘major’ tsunami marine debris issues like Washington, and especially Oregon has. Some of the ways this has kick-started action is visible in the Sea Grant office. Since the workshop, Stephen and the other West-Coast Sea Grant Directors had a conference call to discuss the role of the West Coast Sea Grant programs on marine debris and invasive species and the potential for another, smaller workshop that would involve 4 or 5 at the most representatives from each West Coast state. From preliminary discussion it seems a major goal would be to build off the discussion held at the workshop, with focused representation from each state. There is still much to clarify and narrow within this proposed scope, but it is a good start!