Tide Poolers

Posted on June 26, 2016 by sea_dal

Tide pools are the wildflower bloom of the marine world. If you time it right, the colorful array of life is revealed from beneath the ocean cover for a brief, yet exciting period of time. Some of the marine life in tide-pools lives between two worlds, spending half of their time fully submerged under seawater and the other half in the air we breathe. I think tide pools are one of the most intriguing ecosystems that exist on this planet.

purple urchins in the tide pools at Yaquina Head

Why is it that these creatures, that become exposed when the tide goes out, can flaunt such vibrant colors and shapes? Wouldn’t they all want to camouflage themselves as rocks to avoid getting eaten? The sun-orange sea stars, huckleberry-purple urchins, seafoam-green anemones, and assorted hermit crabs (to name a few) sport their colors loud and proud. For some of these organisms, it is still not known for certain what the purpose of their vivid coloration is, but one thing is known for certain: this attractive marine life display draws eyes from across the globe to the coast of the Pacific Northwest.

Sea stars and anemones at low tide

This past Saturday, June 25^th, we were lucky enough to have a negative-low tide, which (as the name implies) means the lowest tide retreats to a negative number of feet relative to average sea level. For tide-poolers, that means there is a very good chance of seeing the unique marine life that resides at the farthest edge of the low-tide water line. Of course, I am just one of many tide-pool chasers. For many coastal residents and marine enthusiasts alike, tide-pools are an important place. A recent study in 2013 found that exploring tide-pools was among the top three most common activities for Oregon’s marine reserve visitors. While it is encouraging to a conservationist for there to be so much interest in this natural resource, too many visitors can be harmful to such a fragile environment. I’m sure the tide pool residents wouldn’t be pleased to have an army of land-dwelling visitors tromping all over their property.

Purple urchin at negative low tide

In the coming weeks, as I finish up some prep work and solidify my work schedule, I look forward to exploring more of the unique places along the coast, but also learning about the people who use them. As part of my work this summer, I hope to find out how informed coastal visitors feel about issues related to marine areas in order to better inform ocean managers about any potential knowledge gaps or concerns from the general public about our oceans. While I haven’t been able to immediately work out in the field, the work I will eventually be doing along the coast is a crucial element to bettering our understanding of marine reserves. Until then, I’ll continue to familiarize myself with new places in Oregon during my free time!

Angus exploring the tide pools

Thinking Beneath the Surface

Posted on June 17, 2016 by sea_dal

Photo of my first encounter with a sea turtle.

Ever hear of the saying, “the head, the hand and the heart?” I’ve learned that thinking, doing and feeling are key elements to bringing about change. If you know about an issue and you can feel the impacts of it, then you are more likely to care about it and take action. The same is true for me with my first encounter with the great sea turtles of Hawaii. When I was younger, I vividly remember the first time I came across one of these massive creatures on the beach and my heart raced as I approached this mysteriously large being that was probably much older than myself. On June 16^th this week, people across the globe took part in world sea turtle day in an effort to spike awareness and emphasize the importance of their conservation.

When it comes to conservation problems, there is a lot to think about. In 2005, bycatch accounted for about 17% of all U.S. commercial fisheries catch. This has been a huge problem as a result of heavy fishing pressure with non-selective fishing gear, especially large purse seine and bottom trawl nets. To give perspective, the world’s largest supertrawler, the Atlantic Dawn, is longer than one and a half football fields with an otter trawl big enough for a 747 jet to pass through. As you might imagine, any fish or marine mammal that becomes trapped in this net has no chance of escaping and many in fact drown before being tossed back overboard upon retrieval. As horrifying as this may sound, it is our love for seafood and the sky rocketing demand to feed the population that has led to the implementation of such efficient technology.

So what is being done? For sea turtles, there has been a bit of a success story thanks to the efforts of conservation groups. It is now required by law that shrimp fishermen use Turtle Excluder Devices (or TEDs) to let sea turtles or other large bycatch escape deadly trawl nets. While sea turtle mortality has been reduced by 90 percent as a result, all six species of turtles found in U.S. waters are endangered and still faces threats of survival each year. The decline in marine species stretches far beyond sea turtles, as many species may be slipping into extinction without our knowing.

Otter Rock Marine Reserve.

That is where marine reserves are important. A Marine Reserve constitutes areas “protected from all extractive activities, except as necessary for monitoring or research to evaluate reserve condition, effectiveness, or impact of stressors.” This differs from a Marine Protected Area in that some fishing may be allowed rather than closing off all extractive activities. Both of these are important efforts to reduce fishing pressure on fish that have been harvested at an unsustainable rate.

Just as the sea turtles of Hawaii ignited my passion for their conservation, I see my position this summer with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife as an opportunity to help bring attention to issues of ocean conservation. I look forward to better understanding the ways humans value, use and depend on marine resources and how Marine Reserves play a part in that. We’ve only just begun to skim the surface but there’s much more to dive into.

The Final Stretch

Posted on August 22, 2013 by Catherine Courtier

I am in utter disbelief that this is my last week here in Bandon, Oregon… Week eight involved a lot of small projects, tying up some loose ends, and adding to the research I’ve done on sustainable ecotourism to my portfolio. A large portion of my time was spent working on my Summer Scholars presentation which I presented last Friday at the Hatfield Marine Science Center. While I have no problem speaking to a room full of people, like most I still get butterflies in my stomach and have occasionally been known to talk through several slides on one inadequate breath of air. Thankfully I was the second scholar to present so I had little time to worry about messing up, and the presentation went better than I could have expected! While my mentors were unable to be there physically, they were patched in via. teleconference so they were able to hear my presentation and be there in spirit. After my presentation I was free to sit back and enjoy hearing about what the other five scholars have spent their summers doing; I particularly enjoyed this part of the experience because I was able to get a more in-depth idea of their projects outside of what I’ve read about in their blogs.

On Saturday I decided to make the trek to Portland since I thought it would be ridiculous if I spent 10 weeks in Oregon and never made it up there. I must admit that my desire was more motivated by my interest in the infamous “Voodoo Doughnut” shop than anything… Upon my arrival I immediately realized that I was back in a land of traffic and bad drivers, similar to that of my beloved Southern California! Nevertheless I navigated my way around oblivious tourists and questionable street performers until I reached the sanctuary of what seemed to be an air-conditioned parking structure. So I parked my car, walked the couple blocks that separated me from my personal doughnut heaven, and what should greet me but a line that wrapped around the corner of the building! But neither rain, nor heat, nor annoying street performer could deter me from a place that sells such sinful treats as Captain Crunch encrusted doughnuts and Bacon Maple doughnuts. 45 minutes later I was in possession of a “Ain’t that a Peach Fritter” doughnut which was easily larger than my face. From the first bite to the last, it was everything I could want in a doughnut and more, and I’m pretty sure I’m still reeling from the sugar buzz.

With all my main projects completed, I have very little to do in my last week with Wild Rivers Coast Alliance. However if all goes as planned I hope to get some more work done on a preliminary draft of the Bandon Quest Project and do some more investigation into coastal ecotourism. Outside of work I have the always enjoyable task of packing my life back into my somewhat small Mazda (affectionately referred to as “The Mazzy”); I’m sure this event will provide entertainment for anyone watching since my possessions seem to have an uncanny ability to expand to fill the non-existent space. Friday is my last official day of work, so my journey back to Altadena, California begins Saturday morning! Since the drive is a bit long (around 18 hours) I will be making stops in Humboldt, Santa Cruz, and Santa Barbara to visit friends.

Stay tuned for one last blog post!

Week 9: Symposium

Posted on August 19, 2013 by Sarah Heidmann

This week was marked by the arrival of our symposium, the soft ending to this whole summer adventure. There is still one week left in which to wrap things up, but we have all summarized our experiences and communicated them to a small audience of our mentors and others who supported us. I really enjoyed seeing what everyone ended up doing, comparing it to my impressions of their projects from the beginning. It seems like everyone learned a lot! I found myself being jealous of what other people had done, before remembering that I did just as many cool things as they did. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures of the event.

After it was over, my mentor and everyone in my lab went out to dinner, along with spouses and a couple other Hatfield people. It was great to experience my coworkers in a casual environment, with no projects to work on or requests to make.

Before the symposium, my week was a rush to put together my presentation, and try to get some data analysis done so I could present results from the videos we took. Unfortunately, just watching them takes too long, so it didn’t work out. However, this is my goal for this last week: to get at least a couple days worth of video watched in every habitat, so Daniel and I can start to analyze it together. He’s been showing me some useful commands in R, and I intend to take full advantage of his knowledge for the rest of the time I have here.

A cabezon I saw while diving

This weekend, after the symposium, a couple friends and I went diving again, to relax! They had just taken finals in their classes this past Thursday, so we were all hankering to get out and have fun. We saw a ton of cool stuff, and it was the first time I really got to play around with my underwater camera. The visibility was only a couple of feet, but considering that, I think the pictures turned out pretty well.

A nudibranch, Hermissenda crassicornis

So, on to the last week!

Breaking Bandon

Posted on August 14, 2013 by Catherine Courtier

Greetings Readers!

I can’t believe it’s week eight already! I feel like the less time I have left here at Wild Rivers Coast Alliance the more things I have to do. Thankfully every now and then I catch a glimpse of one of my alma mater’s glorious mascots and I am encouraged to march onward.

Tomorrow I will be going back to Port Orford to help some members of the Port Orford Ocean Resource Team work on the “Quest” project I had mentioned in my last post. This is very exciting because there are few Quest activities on the South Coast! I hope that after tomorrow I will have a better idea of how I can construct my own Quest activity so I can create a couple for Bandon before I leave. Presently, the Quest begins at the Visitor Center (and the future site of a new interactive Marine Education Center), ends at the Port of Port Orford (unique because it is one of only six “dolly docks” in the world – where gigantic hoists lift the vessels in and out of the water each day), and covers historic and scientific topics such as: low tide, intertidal organisms, the history of Battle Rock, Red Fish Rocks Marine Reserve, and cannery history. Not only are Quests fun, outdoor learning adventures that are great for all ages, but they have the potential to increase and renew a sense of community pride in the town and its assets. Referred to as “community treasure hunts” each Quest requires a closer look at the environment and is centered around a specific topic such as sustainability or invasive species. I think this will be a great way to build each communities’ interest in the natural wonders they have on the South Coast, and maybe even act as a gateway to some new education programs.

A view of Battle Rock Park and the Red Fish Rocks Marine Preserve

Education programs are a challenge in and of themselves. In order to create any kind of sustainable ecotourism, there needs to be interest in and knowledge of the environment since all tourism depends on the environment. The top obstacles to implementing education programs in schools are a lack of money and time to either: a). Fund teachers to receive the training to teach various marine and terrestrial science classes (assuming the teachers have the time to go through the training and find spots where the aforementioned programs would fit into their lesson plans) or b). Find someone who already had the necessary knowledge and is willing to give up their time (and probably any hope of getting paid). It is important to teach future generations that if the environment isn’t properly taken care of, lots of money and time will eventually need to go into fixing it. One problem whose solution I believe lies in marine education programs, is inspiring younger generations to return to fishing; but the problem is that getting them interested in fishing isn’t even the biggest obstacle to overcome. It’s extremely difficult for young fishermen to enter the industry because of limited entry and the high cost of permits, boats, and the necessary equipment. But if you can’t younger generations to join the cause, then how do you create non-fishery related business in communities who have fished for hundreds of years?

Ecotourism to the rescue! Now while this is yet another topic that an infinite list of possible setbacks and issues, as I said in my previous post, I believe (along with my mentors and some of the community members) that it is truly the way to increase tourism. However, before you create new ecosystem services, you need to get more people to stop and stay in each town. In Port Orford one way they’re trying to solve this problem is with a new visually stunning interactive Marine Center that would be located in the hub of the city at Battle Rock Park. The proposed center will have research facilities that can be seen by guests, a near water research facility, a deep ocean research laboratory, live fishery and fish buying , docent tours, touch tanks, and a seafood research facility. Since this would truly be a building unlike any other on the South Coast, it would be a great chance to link future research and programs with ongoing ones in Coos Bay and on the North Coast. Hopefully it will not only attract people who might want to work in the center or research labs, but educate residents and guests as well. It would be wonderful if the new center could facilitate educational programs for local schools; this would introduce science as something that’s interesting and going on right in their backyard!

For the rest of the week I will be getting ready for our Summer Scholars Symposium that’s this Friday at the Hatfield Marine Center. Next week is my last week in Oregon! Besides working on a couple Quest projects for Bandon, I’m not sure what else is in store for me, but I can imagine I’ll find something to keep myself busy.

Week 8: More Field Work

Posted on August 12, 2013 by Sarah Heidmann

This week was one of the busiest ones yet! It was basically a repeat of the field work we did in Willapa Bay, Washington, except it was here in Yaquina Bay. We put out cameras every day, in addition to fish traps and more tethered crabs. It was great to get so much fresh air, but I was definitely exhausted by the end!

One of our tethered crabs molted its hook (empty molt on the left and actual crab on the right); the size difference after just one night is incredible!

After all the hard work, I managed to get away to Seattle for the weekend, where I had never been before! My favorite part was seeing the Pike Place Market, where they were selling tons of fresh seafood.

Adult Dungeness crab for sale; it is easy to forget how large they get when you’re working with ones that are only 2 cm wide!

I did some walking around the city too, and even made it to a Mariner’s game. The trip was short, but oh so sweet, and I can’t wait to go back. It’s good to know Seattle loves the ocean as much as I do!

The coolest bike rack I have ever seen

Cool sculpture on the waterfront; the aquarium is in the background

Sadly, it doesn’t look like it will be possible to get through all our video before this wonderful adventure comes to an end. However, I may be able to do some analysis on other data, to get more practice. Our final presentations are on Friday, so I have this week to prepare for that and get as much video analysis done as I can. I can’t wait to see what everyone else has been doing!

To Road Trip or not to Road Trip: That is the question.

Posted on August 6, 2013 by Catherine Courtier

There are few things in this life more enjoyable than driving down Highway 101, taking in the stunning coastal views, and sipping on a delicious coffee! Last week I had the chance to get out of the office for a few days to visit the towns of Port Orford, Gold Beach, and Brookings. The purpose of this trip was to go over the asset list that I have amassed for each town, but more importantly to actually see all the attractions I’ve thus far only seen on a computer screen! Coffee in hand I departed Bandon early Monday morning and headed South where I met with the following: Jodi Fritts (City Administrator) and Sandy Vieira (Executive Director of the Chamber of Commerce) of Gold Beach, Annette Klinefelter (assistant principal at Kalmiopsis Elementary School) of Brookings, Tyson Rasor (Coastal Tourism Liaison), and Jim and Karen Auburn (the Mayor and his wife) of Port Orford.

Surprisingly the sentiments in each town towards coastal tourism were shockingly similar. They all understood that changes would need to be made, and were more than willing to do what it takes to improve the South Coast! But as eager as each city was, they were also cognizant of the possible push back from some community members towards an increase in tourism. Since I’m here specifically to increase tourism, I was baffled as to why anyone wouldn’t be for it, especially if it meant their town would be more prosperous. After discussing the problem at length I believe that I have a better understanding of where the locals are coming from. One of their worries is that by better advertising the town’s “secret and local gems” (things such as the best swimming hole, or a really great campsite) the number of visitors will increase and they will lose ownership of their local treasure. The second common concern I heard voiced was that people don’t want to add traditional tourist attractions that would change the character of their town (things such as a boardwalk with games and rides, or souvenir shops.) Furthermore there are those who think their town is fine the way it is, and they don’t think tourism is useful. The difficult question remains: how do you create more opportunities for tourism without changing the town? Presently the main problem is that droves of people pass through these four towns on their way up or down the 101. They will probably stop to get gas, use the restroom, buy a snack, and maybe even walk around for a while; but how do you get them to stay? Like an onion this question has many layers and on a couple occasions has made my eyes water in my attempt to find an answer to this big picture problem!

After determining that increasing ecotourism (something that the community members were interested in and something I feel is very tangible) would probably be the best way to increase coastal tourism, I was naturally faced with another slew of questions and drawbacks that were seriously messing up my plans! Sadly that is the reality behind this whole project. It is one thing to come up with ideas, research them, and find support, but it is another thing entirely to actually make it happen. For example: I’ve heard that the coast of Oregon has some of the best kayaking around, however, in my research I found that there is only one place that will take you out on trips and nowhere on the South Coast can you rent a sea kayak! Naturally my first thought was simply “Well, let’s put kayak rental stands out by the beach!” Problem solved. Case closed. Sadly this was easier said than done as I realized that the reason why no one rents sea kayaks is that the insurance is too high and because of the coast’s characteristic howling winds, much too dangerous for many to take kayaks out on their own. I ran into similar problems as I investigated similar ecotourism rental opportunities such as SCUBA, surfing, and snorkel gear rentals. The end product of this has been that I simply have no idea what to do, and after being highly annoyed with this fact for a number of weeks, I’m becoming more accepting of it.

The reality is that I am only on the South Coast for ten weeks, which is not nearly enough time to even scratch the surface of the tourism issue. So in my remaining weeks here my projects and goals (or as I like to call them, recommendations to the future me) are thus: 1). Look into the pros and cons of ecotourism as well as new activities to promote, 2). Work to develop “Quest” projects in the area (free-choice learning adventures that use clues and hints to encourage participants to discover the natural, cultural, and historical treasures of each place and its community.), 3). Look into the development and implementation of marine and terrestrial education programs that increase the understanding of issues and resources that are pertinent to each community, and 4). Finish my ecological “summit to seastacks” summary for the area that will be covered by the upcoming scenic bike pathway in Port Orford.

This past weekend I was visited by a couple of my friends from UC Santa Cruz! With all the hiking, exploring, s’more eating, and wine tasting, it was truly a wonderful weekend on the South Coast!

Week 6: Windy Work in Willapa

Posted on July 31, 2013 by Sarah Heidmann

I’m a bit behind on my blogging, but I intend to catch up in this post, as well as make up for the lack of pictures in my last two posts!
This week I was lucky enough to take a trip up to Willapa Bay in Long Beach, Washington, to finally do some serious fieldwork. I went with the Daniel Sund, the Masters student I’ve been working with, and Lee McCoy, our lab’s tech and general awesome go-to guy. We were out in the field for about 12 hours each day for a week, which was hard, but the work wasn’t too involved, and tons of fun!

Me on our little but sturdy boat

While we were up there, we deployed our cameras using the mounts we made, leaving them out for four hours at a time in four different habitats: oyster, Zostera marina (the native seagrass), Zostera japonica (the invasive seagrass), and clam. My lab has done this before, but they used to leave them out for three days at a time, while our GoPros are limited by their four-hour battery life, despite the battery pac accessory we bought for them. The video is meant to record the fish and crabs that wander through the field of view. It had to be video, rather than time lapse, because often fish spend only a second or two in the frame, and you usually need to look at their behavior to determine the species. We are going to look at the number, species, size, and time that each organism appears in the video.

The mount with a GoPro on the end when we went to pick it up- there was often a lot of seagrass caught on them

We put them out around high tide, which meant we had to go by boat. Since our trips were four hours apart, there was a lot of waiting around in which we often tried various restaurants, as well as a lot of time on the boat, since some of them were pretty far apart. Because of this, even when I was walking on dry land I still felt like I was swaying on the waves. It was pretty disorienting sometimes, but went away in a couple days. Deploying the cameras was pretty difficult sometimes, because of the wind and the waves. It was harder than we expected to slide our camera mount over the poles we placed in the mud, slide a bolt through holes we drilled in the poles, and screw on a wingnut, all from a boat that is moving up and down and drifting away.

In addition to putting out cameras, we also put out traps to catch fish, which we could use to compare the number and species of what we found in the traps to what we found in the video. We did this at low tide when we put out the poles the mounts would go on. We also wanted to look at juvenile Dungeness crab predation, so we (bear with me here) superglued small fishing hooks tied with fishing line attached to their carapaces. We tied them to a stake out in the same four habitats as the cameras, and left them out for a day. The hooks are supposed to catch whatever fish may try to eat the small crabs, and the fishing line keeps the crabs in one place so we can find them again the next day.

One of our juvenile Dungeness, all ready to go!

I thought we were tying up the crabs and leaving them to their deaths, but most of them survived the whole day! The hooks also came off pretty easily at the end, and we let the crabs go. We never caught any fish, and always found the crabs burrowed in the sediment, well hidden.

By the end, we had a little army of attack crabs on leashes

We had to go collect the crabs ourselves, so we went and sampled bags of oyster shells (which I have mentioned in previous posts), to try to find some for our tethering experiment. Most of them were across the bay, in deep mud, so because of my toe still being sensitive, I often supervised from the boat while the other two did all the work. However, I did try my first raw oyster while we were out there. Lee shucked it for me with a screwdriver, and it was probably still alive when I ate it (gross!), but I am proud to say I kept it down. Now that I have tried it, I never have to again.

Some cool colonial tunicates we found on the boat when we pulled it out of the water at the end of the week

One day during our free time in the afternoon, we went up to the lighthouse at the top of the point on the Washington side of the mouth of the Columbia. It was a great view, and I never realized how large the mouth is! It was a beautiful view. Also, at the end of the trip we stopped in Astoria for lunch, and got to drive across the bridge and see a bit of the city.

Overall, it was a week of trying new things and spending a lot of time outside. In addition to the oyster, I also tried thimbleberries, pickleweed, raw cockle, elk, and probably several other things I can’t remember. I’m so glad I had the opportunity to go on the trip, and am looking forward to see what kind of fish show up in our video!

Previously on Bandon by the Sea…

Posted on July 29, 2013 by Catherine Courtier

Greetings readers! I must admit that I have fallen a bit behind in my blog posts, but never fear because I have many new stories to tell, as well as some new adventures in my future! A couple weeks ago I was fortunate enough to sit in on a call between my two mentors and some of the people who work in NOAA’s fisheries management department; the hot topic of discussion, Coho Salmon restoration on the South coast of Oregon. More specifically the call was a discussion of how to go about creating a “universal salmon calculator” that would detail the benefits of restoration as well as identifying the permanent economic benefits such as number of jobs created. While most of the conversation went over my head, I managed to understand the key points as well as the bottom line. In order to get people to donate money to the cause, there has to be a way to determine the salmon’s value when populations return that is universal across all areas. Currently there are many different ways to calculate this, each more confusing than the other. One proposed idea was to look at the return in terms of its landscape value; i.e. how many total acres of salmon habitat have been restored or how many miles of stream have opened up.

In addition to the calculator conundrum is the lack of money to fund post-restoration monitoring. This is very unfortunate since examining any kind of project after the fact is the most important step in conservation and restoration! Without any kind of follow up there is no way to know if what you have done is sustainable, if it actually did what it was supposed to do, and if it is worth continuing. Furthermore, this post restoration analysis makes it possible to create a metric of success that will interest funders. Since money seems to be the issue, I think it would be a great idea to train community member volunteers to gather this post-restoration data. Not only would this be relatively free of charge (besides the time it would take to train people), but I believe it would also be a great chance to educate local residents on a conservation issue that’s right in their backyard and create pride and enthusiasm for protecting their environment. When dealing with any kind of conservation/restoration issue, the two main questions that I feel are most important are: 1. What are the benefits associated with restoration and 2. What are the values lost when harm comes to the environment?

As has been the case with other aspects of my internship, this phone call really exemplified the point that there needs to be better communication between the scientific and non-scientific community. Issues and topics need to be presented in a way that makes them seem approachable and like something that the general public could take part in.

In other news, I have finished my research for Travel Oregon! For the past four weeks I have been doing an online footprint analysis of each city’s webpages as well as collecting information on lodging, shops, food, places to go, things to do, and events and festivals. Eventually this will all be fed into Travel Oregon’s orb so it can populate the site and beef up the information on the South Coast (since it is currently lacking basically all areas of information). My next step will be to meet with people involved in the communities who are on our “Rural Tourism Steering Committee” to run all the information by them, and just get a general feel for each town as well as the possible pros and cons of increasing tourism in the area. My hope is that the end product of this project will be two-fold: 1. A community calendar will be uploaded to the Travel Oregon site so that local events can be better publicized and visitors can plan trips around them. 2. That an interactive map will be available for each town’s asset such that when you search for something, a map with its location as well as the locations of things to do around it pops up.

My internship has reached the halfway mark! This was celebrated at the Da Vinci Days festival in Corvallis where I got a chance to catch up with all the other interns and hear updates on their projects, work Sea Grant’s both at the festival, and explore Corvallis further. Although the morning started off slowly, by the time noon came around (and the awesome all bike parade!) the festival was bustling and the Sea Grant booth had more visitors than we could handle. While the occasional passerby was interested in our summer projects, the majority were fixated with the green turtle shell display and Bubbles our live and invasive red-eared slider. As much as I would have loved to talk about my project (and believe me I could go on for hours…) I was more excited that there were so many people who were curious about marine biology and were actually asking questions. Yay for the future generations of marine biologists! Another highlight of this wonderful weekend was getting the chance to hear the awe-inspiring Jane Lubchenco speak. To be in the presence of such a strong woman who has not only been an integral part in bridging the gap between the scientific and public communities, but is the first woman to serve as a NOAA administrator, gave me such hope for the future (not to mention many goose bumps)! I was however saddened to see that with the exception of my fellow scholars, there was basically no one else around our age in attendance. Just more proof that strengthening communication and involvement in science in paramount!

One trip down, one to go! This next week I will be leaving Bandon and venturing down to coast to the towns of Port Orford, Gold Beach, and Brookings! I’m so excited to get to visit the places that up till now have only researched on the Internet. Curry County here I come!

Week 5: Some Important Lessons

Posted on July 22, 2013 by Sarah Heidmann

This week was marked mostly by preparations for the trip I am currently on in Willapa Bay, Washington, just north of Astoria. We made and triple-checked lists of supplies, wrote out exactly what we were going to do each day at what times (which matters a lot because of the tides!), researching methods for a study we are going to do about predation on juvenile Dungeness, and finished making the mounts for the GoPro cameras we are putting out in different habitats.

While doing these preparations (I wrote out the protocol myself), I was asked at multiple stages to send my work to various people so they could look over it. Originally I thought that I would be the only one looking at some of it, so I had little notes to myself inserted in various places, and sentences that made perfect sense to me, but wouldn’t to anyone else. I also left out crucial details like exactly how to turn on the cameras and how to know whether they are recording or not. Not only would it be difficult for my coworkers to follow it, but if anyone wanted to copy the methods in the future, it would be very difficult for them to replicate. I learned quickly that you need to always keep your work extremely organized and readable by anyone who may want to see it, even if you don’t think anyone else will see it. At the very least, if you ever want to look back at your past work, details will help you remember much better.

Another lesson I’ve learned through this amazing opportunity is how to talk to people who are much older and more experienced than I am. Previously I have had difficulty with this, as I thought they would not be interested in what I have to say. However, as I talk to more people about a wider variety of subjects, I am quickly learning that is far from true. I am treated as an equal, and asked with real interest about my research. I have also been able to receive tons of good advice about biology research, graduate school, career options, and life in general. I have so many questions about it all, and everyone I’ve talked to has been so friendly and helpful! I am really grateful for the opportunity to be around so many people who are tackling important biological research.

I’m going to save talking about the trip until the end of this week, but I’m having a blast!

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