Week 3, the dorms really felt like a summer camp this week. Seagrant interns and REU scholars have officially merged into one large group of amazing people. With the extended holiday weekend we left camp and explored the southern coast. We hiked along the Cape Perpetua Coastline to get a peek at the marine reserve, explored tidal pools and their large starfish and got completely drenched by a rogue wave slamming against the rocks. It was a lovely day. We spent the rest of our long holiday weekend seeing what else the town of Newport had to offer (that Fred Meyer place is pretty neat-o, we don’t get that place on the east coast). On the 4^th we celebrated in classic American style: beach, food, fireworks, mediocre country music and extensive temporary patriotism. We all pitched in to throw a big BBQ full of burgers, vege sausages, baked goods and corn on the cob (the key ingredient for a successful cookout).

Who would have guessed that a bunch of 20 somethings hiking, exploring and living together in one of the most beautiful states in the US would be an enjoyable experience? Well… most people would probably say that, 10/10 weekend for sure. The only thing that would have made it better is if we had gotten paid… Curse y’all Seagrants that got paid on the first day! We need that sweet sweet summer internship money. With that lets transition to the main point of the blog, learning the ropes of working for a government agency.

Coming back from the festivities we were stoked to get back into the work we were here to do. I dove right into the Marine Reserves human dimensions reports, looking to get a better understanding of our audiences and the kind of questions and misconceptions we would be tackling (also s/o to Haley for making them straight and to the point, you’re a great writer). These reports were conducted during the implementation and design of the marine reserves. They were loaded with public perceptions of the reserves, perceived and actual economic impacts of the reserves, and comments from both fishers and recreational users of the coastal waters.

These reports are free to look through on www.oregonmarinereserves.com! The entire website has loads of content ranging from reports, to blog posts, underwater videos, and even pictures of the amazing ODFW Seagrant interns.

Anyway, combined with discussions that I had with locals during the outreach events I was really starting to brainstorm story ideas on how to better communicate topics they wanted to hear more about. There seemed to be confusion on the boundaries and rules with the reserves and misconceptions of what research we were doing and why we were doing it the way that we are.

As I ran my story and communications ideas by my supervisor I met my first challenge of working for a government agency with such a large audience. Due to the fact that we have so many target audiences we have to be very careful not to polarize any of those groups. If we come out too positive and sound too supportive of the reserves we risk polarizing the fishers who argued against the reserves. If we were too negative or not supportive enough we risked polarizing the conservationists. Both groups are extremely important to the success of our reserves, so we are walking a fine line.

We had practiced this already during the outreach events, but it seemed natural during the human to human interaction. We were listening to the public to hear their perceptions and answer their questions. When we did speak it was factual, we told them what and how our research worked. Now it was no longer a two way conversation, it was us communicating towards a much larger audience. We could no longer change how our message was to be communicated for each specific person we were talking to. We had to create a single message that got the point across while making it as specific as possible for our target audience. Not only did it limit the variety of stories we could publish and how we wrote those stories. It limited how effective they were at changing attitudes. With a smaller target audience our specific tailored message could really resonate with their interests and answer their questions. With a one size fits all message it rarely resonates as effectively with anyone, but at least it raises awareness of the message subject.

This brings me to the second challenge, funding and work force. The entire ODFW Marine Reserves program communications team is essentially my boss Kelsey. For the limited resources that she has and the amount of constant things she is requested to do, I’m thoroughly impressed. She has done loads of graphic design, science communications, organizing events and manages our content creation for social media and website. It’s a massive job and I don’t know how she does it. Unfortunately because she is stretched so thin, she is almost forced to try and reach as many people with each post as possible. She rarely has time or resources to organize or make it to outreach events. I’m hoping that I can take some of that pressure off her shoulders so that more of these events can happen.

The example that really gets me the most is of the signs. Many of the people I talked to at the events were not entirely sure on where the boundaries of the reserves were or where they could access them for recreation. When I asked about this I was shocked to find there were no signs at the reserves. Surely there would be signs talking about the reserve, the rules, the boundaries, maybe a map?? But no, there ain’t. Surely that would be the first step to making the reserves more attractive to visitors and to help spread knowledge to those who were visiting. However, when I asked if creating signs would be possible I learned the process that it takes to make them. Finding a contractor, talking to multiple agencies to get permission to put in a sign, talk with the communities to get their opinion on what should be on the sign. Lots of work and lots of time. Unfortunately because this would not hit a large audience, this was not high on the priority list or even on it. It boggled my mind that this had not been addressed earlier. Surely there is a solution to this? I sure hope there is because it seems like a necessary thing to have at a reserve. Also I had this sweet idea to have lookout points over the reserves where the signs would go. These signs would not only have maps with boundaries and pictures of the land where the boundaries start, but also have QR codes that could be scanned to take you right to underwater footage of the reserve you were currently standing at. It would totally go along with the “take a deeper look” and “see what’s beneath the surface” thing we’ve got going. Maybe I can settle for some sick stickers with that slogan and code on them.

Anyway… going camping this weekend, that’ll be neat.