One of the things that I am enjoying most about giving the intercept surveys is being able to meet some very fascinating people while I am out in the field. One of the park rangers that I talk to frequently is a retired professor of veterinary medicine who grew up in South Africa. I enjoy hearing about his experiences with marine wildlife in South Africa, because I am hoping to travel there after I graduate. He also has a lot to say about marine reserves and I appreciate his opinions not only because he is very intelligent, but also because he has spent so much time in the area and he can see all the different dimensions to the situation. Another highlight this week was meeting a retired couple who were in the middle of a bicycle trip from Vancouver BC to Mexico, and they had some interesting experiences to share.

I have noticed a trend that an overwhelming number of visitors from out of town support turning Cape Perpetua into a marine reserve. On the other hand, locals tend to have more opinions on how the marine reserves might affect commercial fishing and recreation boating and are weary about how this in turn might affect their local economy. I had my first negative experience with the survey this week when one person, who was clearly against marine reserves, became very angry with me in the middle of the survey. This person misunderstood my role in the process and thought that the areas were going to be set aside so that students like me could do research on them. He began questioning my credentials, asking what I was studying and personally blaming me for the program. I just did as Melissa had trained me to do and explained that had no opinion on the matter and I am an just an intern who is trying to gather opinions. It also helps if I mention that I work for Sea Grant, because Sea Grant is not actually responsible for the implementation of the reserves like ODFW is. This method seemed to work and my interviewee started to feel bad and explained to me his back story about why he felt so strongly about the situation. I was pretty angry for having been slightly personally attacked after that survey, but when I stopped to think about it, I realized that as my sample size increases I am bound to get the occasional rude person so I am glad that I was able to practice dealing with it.

Next week will be my last week at Cape Perpetua and on Tuesday I am heading to Cascade Head with my mentor to stake out the best spots to do pressure counts, which I will start in August!