Category Archives: Former scholars

Taking out the trash

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Today is a bit out of character in comparison to the other days of my work week. I am frantically running about to finish some last minute items that were thrown at me at the end of yesterday and trying to get ready to leave town in 2 hours. AH! Needless to say, this is going to be a bit of a whirlwind post. I’ve got caffeine roaring through my veins and I’m ready to conquer my to-do list.

I’m not going to spend much time in this week’s post commenting about what I did this week. The major items put on my plate were more impact statements and doing some metric reporting. Metrics are categories that you use to compare or measure the success of an institution. In my case, I was gathering data about how OSU marine sciences measures up against other ocean-focused universities. Once again, another tedious and slightly boring project, but it serves a necessary purpose. Since I am still in waiting for people above me to make some decisions about the workshop I was suppose to plan, I have realized that my internship has really evolved (or…maybe devolved) into supporting administrative tasks at OSG. As I described it to a friend at lunch the other day, I’m kind of the equivalent of a garbage person right now. I get punted tasks that no one really likes to do, but in the end need to get done. While its a bit boring and frustrating at times, I am involved in work that is a fact of life for any institution. Seeing as I eventually want to be a Director of a research institution or non-profit, it’s good that I’m getting experience with this stuff now.

Other news from Planet AnnaRose: I interviewed for a job to be a sea turtle ecology research assistant in Shark Bay, Australia last week. I have been notified that I am in the top 5 candidates for the position and I’ll be notified in the coming weeks if I get it. My work would be drastically different than what I do for Oregon Sea Grant. In the early morning, we would get up and use a ski boat to chase sea turtles into the shallows. Then, one of us will dive off the front of the boat and grab the turtle with our bare hands to bring it back to the boat. We’d then take measurements on the turtle and epoxy a camera to its shell that will pop off 8 hrs later when the epoxy dissolves. I’d then be responsible for helping out with the data management of the video. Way cool. Cross your fingers I’ll be an Aussie this coming Oct – Dec.

I’ll be off on vacation for the next week and then heading directly to the GREs (dun, dun, dun…..). I may be posting next week, but if not, I’ll write you a novel when I’m back.

Betty’s Big Adventure: Road Trip to Portland and Seattle

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Sorry I forgot to blog yesterday! I was caught up with getting my rental car and hotel squared away, confirming interviews, and driving up to Portland to start my trip.  Last week was spent revising my interview questions for producers and finalizing interview questions for other industry players.  I felt it was important to formulate two different sets of questions because of the diverse roles that the people I have been interviewing– this way I could encompass more of the marketing and shipping side of the industry.  At the same time, I’ve found it’s helpful to mix and match questions meant for producers and those meant for NOAA, ODA, freight forwarders, etc.

Another big part of the last week was looking around for more contacts in Seattle, which I’m happy to report came through.  I was able to get in touch with someone at Express Northwest, which is a freight forwarder that works a lot in international shipping.  I was excited especially because I was told that it wouldn’t necessarily be easy to get freight forwarders in Seattle to speak with me because it’s a busy shipping season.  I was also advised that FedEx would be good to get in touch with because they are the middle man for a lot of producers.  Unfortunately I haven’t gotten a solid response from anyone there yet, but hope that I can at least have a phone interview with someone by the end of the week.

On Friday I drove up to Tillamook to meet with the manager of the only shellfish hatchery in Oregon.  I was surprised to see the process of breeding oyster larvae involved the production of algae.  This was definitely an interview that contained a lot more biology than I’m used to talking about, but it was really interesting to learn the process.  Overall, our conversation was really productive in that we touched on all of the main issues facing the seafood industry.  I also appreciated his perspective as someone who is not directly involved in internationally shipping, but is undoubtedly affected by the industry.  After the formal interview we got a chance to talk about our experiences in China and I was able to talk jobs with him.  I was excited to find out that one of my contacts for this week is someone pretty crucial in the whole industry and that speaking with her could lead to other opportunities.  After the interview I went up to the Tillamook Cheese Factory for a little tour before heading back to Newport.

Most of the weekend was spent relaxing, but also trying to plan the schedule for this week.  I felt a little nervous about going on a business trip, so I wanted to make sure I had everything together.  On Sunday some of us headed up to Alsea to go swimming at Clemens Park (at a VERY cold spot on the Alsea River).  While I’m already done with my first day of interviews, I think that I’ll save recapping the whole week for my next post.  I can’t believe the end of the program is almost here, but I’m excited to put all of my work together and present it soon!

The writing process

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Hello – I totally forgot to blog yesterday! Oh no!

So here goes.

I spent the majority of last week writing both feature stories and student research highlights for the website. I also spent some time adding graphics and making minor changes to the existing content. I also did a lot of emailing to set up meetings with people who will be able to help me out with some things that I do not yet know how to do, but that need to be done.

Last week Jenna and I set up an agenda for the remainder of my internship. This week we will focus on a few things – getting the calendar set up and gathering information on student researchers. Also, some of the preexisting feature stories have some formatting problems which will need some work. So far this week, I have finished adding captions to all of the feature story pictures and I have inserted several videos. I have also checked out links in the feature stories to make sure none of them are broken, and I have worked on crediting all of the media files embedded within these stories.

Today I had a meeting with Sher Fenn of Central Web Services, and she helped me get the Marine Science and the Coast news feed, the Breaking Waves blog, and the calendar and events feed pulled into the website and looking pretty. Tomorrow I have another meeting with Jenna to review what’s been done, and then I plan to spend the rest of the week getting some emails out to people so I can start gathering information on student researchers to highlight. I am also hoping to begin working on an “opportunities” tab where I can list some of the internship opportunities within the marine sciences at OSU (such as this program!).

Unfortunately the kind of work I am doing does not allow for much in the way of pictures, but I can give you the link to the website if you are interested in seeing it (note that it is still under development). Feel free to email me if you are interested and I can send you the link – would rather not post the URL publicly until it’s ready to be published!

Have a good week all!

Shealyn

 

Mud

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Tired and covered in mud, I was ready for the weekend on Friday afternoon.  Last week, since we didn’t have any work to do for our chamber project, I was recruited to help with a sea grass experiment out at Winant Marsh which is a few miles up the Yaquina Estuary.  The purpose of this experiment was to quantify the amount of nutrients that a particular sea grass takes up from marsh water.  As I have explained in previous posts, marshes work wonders in cleaning water particularly by removing excess nutrients.

Collecting instruments from marsh

My role in conducting this experiment was to take a water sample approximately every ten minutes during two low tides at a certain location along the marsh.  There were two other people taking samples as well at two other locations.  After our samples are analyzed, we will be able to compare nutrient uptake of a sea grass bed versus a bare stretch of the main channel.

This experiment involved extensive preparation which meant we were out in the field Monday and Tuesday deploying instruments and taking measurements.  Luckily, I did not have to partake in a night shift, but I did have to get up extremely early on Wednesday and Thursday to begin sampling.  We were there both days from about 6am to 1pm.  Thankfully the work wasn’t that strenuous, so I was able to read scientific journal articles and study for the GRE in between sampling.  Weirdly, I can say that I enjoy getting up early.  It was a cool feeling to look at my watch at 9:00am and realize that I have already been away for four hours.   Waking up at 4:45am for this experiment was a little extreme, but I like being up with the sun.  I feel like I waste time sleeping, so I am now motivated to get out of bed early and accomplish more!

My field buddies and I

Anyway, on Friday morning we headed out to collect instruments and clean up from our experiment.  This week will be spent completing data entry as well as collecting a few more crucial pieces of data.  I never thought I would say this, but I’m enjoying sitting at my desk all day.  It’s a way deserved break from all of the field work that I have been a part of these past few weeks.  I’m sure by the end of the week, I’ll be sick of it and ready for next week’s crazy field schedule!

Check out my personal blog: Sara Duncan

Work |wk.6|

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Reflections

Week six was a bit stressful for me. I had numerous physics assignments due, and even though I was physics-ed-out from the exam weekend before, I had to push on. I’ve decided it’s tough working all day and then doing homework at night. For me, being at a computer ALL DAY is not cool. Summer is my favorite season because it’s warm and sunny and I get to wander comfortably outside without the impedement of snow or mushy, wet, thawed ground. (I go to Michigan Tech so it snows from November to April, with most of the snow gone by May.) Point being, I’m sad I’m missin’ out on the out of doors. However, it does make me grateful for my weekends, which are always awesome!

Last Week

No videos up on YouTube yet – sorry! I’m waiting for a job ticket to get processed which allows me access to a video folder so Bob (our web designer) can retrieve the videos and upload them. It seems as if transferring a video to someone for the purpose of uploading would be simple…but it’s not. ODFW has strict IT policies and access is required for a number of things. The waiting is a bit frusterating for me because my purpose here is to get these videos out! I wish I could make a one-stop shop and boom – access granted. Not so.

Screenshot of me editing a still in Adobe Premiere Pro CS4

Last week was a lot of video clipping. This week I’m focusing on compilation and design. I want to dedicate extra time this week to the project since last week I felt I was distracted by physics.

Last Weekend

Last weekend I dog-sat Selkie for Erin. Selkie and I beach-hopped Saturday from Seal Rock to Tillamook. The weather was beautiful and it was great.

Selkie on Moolach Beach

Sunday I spent the day with the girls in Alsea (Lauren’s hometown). After visiting a couple falls we went to Clemen’s Park and swam in the Alsea River, before laying out and enjoying the heat and sun of off-coast Oregon. We then visited Lauren’s house and her parents made us an unexpected and delicious dinner! It was a much-needed relaxing day. My only complaint are all the winding roads from the coast to central Oregon! They deceive you with the beautiful scenery but it’s fairly easy to get car-sick. :O

Oh, and while my phone doesn’t take the best pictures, it works!

I believe this is Anderson's Lookout point

Obscure journal articles to fill in the puzzle…of Oregon’s Nearshore.

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ODFW Adventures: Part VI

This week I decided to try an old family recipie that has been passed down–but not from my family. My boyfriend Marc constantly talks about eating a dish called “Machaca,” which the internet says is a dish of finely shaved beef, but the Aros family creates with chorizo (mexican sausage) con huevos (with eggs). Although I didn’t have the exact recipie, I used my best judgement in making the dish by also using bell peppers, jalepenos, garlic, onion, cayenne powder, cilantro, tomatoes, avocadoes, and tortillas. My creation was, in my mind at least, a success! I have always loved the multiple uses eggs can serve in cooking and baking (including several fried egg sandwichs I made this week), and creating a new taste treat with them is always a pleasure.

At ODFW I had a fairly slow work week as I finished up couning the herring egg samples, for real this time! Ali and I began using GIS to map all of the GPS points, but we will delve into the full proccess this week. This will include mapping local distributions into polygons including all egg counts that had similar numbers into one polygon, creating layers to the map. We will the use those polygons to estimate the total number of eggs that were laid in the bay, therefore giving us a viable number to base next year’s quota off of. I am excited to be in the final working stages of this project, and when I am done I will have learned so many techincal details about the computer software I’ve been working with and about how fisheries in Oregon are run and determined.

The Nearshore Strategy part of things was also a bit slow this week, as I only worked on the extensive annotated bibliography that I began a few weeks ago. In this process, I have learned that there are likely billions of scientific journal articles that exist in the world, in many many many extremely research-specific journals, that explain even the smallest niches of our ecosystems. Which is acutally a pleasant surprise, because I have also learned how many species there are that are important to the ecosystem they live in that people don’t generally know about, which therefore leaves them unprotected to any vulnerability. This week the bibliography will begin to be useful as my team members begin to draft out sections of the climate change task for this revision, and I will continue to read articles relating to Oregon’s oceanographic and nearshore climate change to expand the bibliography during this coming week. I hope to be able to report solid progress on that for my next blog!

Sea_Gil’s Blog Pt.6

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Another week of data mining and researching gone by. I finished up with the Reproduction and Development of Marine Invertebrates of the Northern Pacific Coast book. I also did some preliminary research on my question about the future pH differential between surface and deeper waters of the ocean. It’s looking like the differential won’t be too great by the year 2100, but I would like to find some definitive numbers. Hopefully I’ll get enough information this week so I can provide a more specific answer.

On Friday, I had a meeting with my mentor and we discussed the spreadsheet I had been working on. It can be concluded from the information captured that many of the bivalve species do spawn at some point during the summer which could make their offspring more vulnerable to the corrosive water from upwelling. We also discussed some other resources I could use to get more data on species that weren’t mentioned in the book I had been working on. I was given two new books: Oregon Estuarine Invertebrates and Intertidal Invertebrates of California. I imagine this week will be spent gleaning these books for new information. I will be receiving some PDFs on bivalve spawning , so I’ll look those over too. My mentor also mentioned that I should start preparing an outline for my presentation at the end of the summer symposium. It struck me how quickly this date was actually approaching. I will probably work on that this week as well and confer with him on how I should organize things.

This weekend was very enjoyable. Saturday, my roommate Betty and I attempted to go the beach because it was nice and sunny out. Little did we know that the beach would be super windy and after trying to lie out in the sun with sand being blown all around, we abandoned that plan. We ended up exploring the shops at Nye Beach and I found a really awesome octopus bag! For lunch, we ate at Paninis and I got a delicious portabella sandwich.

Some Sea Grant friends and I went to Alsea Falls yesterday. The falls were beautiful and I actually brought my camera with me this time so I was able to snap a few pictures. Lauren knew some spots where we could go swimming (I was determined to go swimming in some sort of body of water since I haven’t been able to do so yet). We scoped out some places and decided to settle down on a sport on the river at Clemens Park. The water was freezing but I still dunked my head under! After that, we headed over to Lauren’s house where we got a nice tour of her parents’ garden. The garden was absolutely wonderful and I got to taste some mint, raspberries and broccoli. Lauren’s parents invited us to stay for dinner which was very nice of them. There was some yummy food served and then we headed on our way back to Newport. All in all, I’d have to say it was a pretty great day.

Alsea Falls!

Saving Oysters in Oregon – week 6

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Call me Captain!

I now officially hold an Oregon boater’s license.  After two whole days of an online crash course, I should now know about the official road rules of the sea.. and the appropiate types of toilets for different vessels.  The course was very comprehensive, and after taking it, I know a lot about boating legalities and issues I had never even thought of before, but there was just so much information!  I hope I can keep straight who has the right of way on the ocean and what different honks mean.

The course, however, didn’t teach me HOW to drive a boat.  After I had my printed boating certificate, I excitedly got into our 16-foot vessel, and immediately realized.. “I don’t know how to START this thing..”.  I had two great teachers though – Ali and Adam.  Ali dealt with the fundamentals, like pump the gas to start the motor, and Adam dealt with the get-to-know-your-boat’s-limits, like quickly push the throttle to the max to see how fast it can go from neutral!  I’m starting to get the hang of it, but other boats should probably still watch out when I get on the water!

 

Oly-ROCS go into Mass Production

We are revving up for our first deployment of 10-15 Oly-ROCS into the bay!

It will happen next week, so I have been busy building.  Our prototypes seem pretty hardy so hopefully they’ll survive their new homes in the water.  If not, we shall see what’s wrong with this first deployment.  We’re also going to be testing different shell orientations in the cement – how they fare out against the elements, how well they attract native oyster larvae to settle, and how settled juveniles survive on them.

We have two different shell orientations we’re checking out:

1) Shells sticking up, and
2) Shells flat against the concrete.

 

Both orientations can be found in nature, the former usually found on the sides of smaller rocks or on rounded sides, and the latter usually seen on the flat sides of larger rocks (from my observation).

 

Also..

These are Pacific oyster shells (non-native, from Japan), that have native Olympia oyster juveniles on them.  Two years ago, these ‘shell bags’ were strategically put out in the bay to attract Olympia oyster larvae, but the oysters can’t stay in these orange bags forever.  Some restoration efforts have simply scattered those shells with the attached juveniles into bays, but they can be easily washed away with the tides or smothered with sand and mud.

Our idea:  A few Oly-ROCS will also be made with these shells, and we shall see if this is an option for them!

 

 

 

 

 

Octopuses…Guided

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Lesson #1: The plural of octopus is octopuses. NOT octopi. It is a Greek word, hence the weird ending. I will have to correct my freshman biology teacher.

Hi. Hello.

Sad, but true. I am writing this blog entry on a Sunday… at work, while most of my co-seagranters are going hiking somewhere in the Oregon mountains. Oh, the price you pay to play with octopuses.

This week was very productive. I had Monday off, which is a pretty cool thing because everybody in Hatfield is working, which allows me to really relax, or do work. I did both that day. And almost finished my interpretative panel (fancy word for poster) design. The entire days of Tuesday and Wednesday, I worked on my panel content. I tried to be all Mr. Graphic Designer, by using my Word program to design a panel, for which I ended up spending way too much time on, just to have the actual graphic designer tell me all I needed was text content. Here is what the first draft looks like:

1st Draft of my Interpretative Panel

 

Some of the titles will change, as well as the text content. The cool thing about this, that won’t be noticed until the end product is done in November, is that the skeleton on the top right corner will be an actual Steller sea lion rib-cage!

Thursday was a big day. We had a focus group moderator host a focus group for my panel. Seven people sat down and tore it apart, giving me a lot of good feedback and a direction in which to take the panel design. I am very grateful of this event. I almost forgot to mention that the visitor counter in the entrance marked over 2400, which is the largest group of people I have witnessed in the VC so far. I didn’t even get a chance to eat lunch until 3 pm on that day! Later on, we went to Cafe Mundo for open mic, where Betty Mujica, a fellow Sea Grant Scholar, got on stage to play her ukulele for the crowds for the first time ever. Did I mention she rocked it?

Betty and I on stage!

Friday, I had off, and Betty and I drove to a hatchery in Netarts Bay. I spent the morning hanging out in a bar in Netarts bay called Schooners, which I recommend to anybody. Later on that day, we went to the TIllamook cheese factory, a thrift store, where I paid 5 dollars for a pair of really nice rubber boots, and in Depoe bay to look at the beautiful Pacific Ocean.

Saturday… work! I gave an estuary tour to a couple of folks who kept me a bit longer, but they were so interested that I didn’t mind (what an information broker I am growing up to be!). The day went by a bit slow, because I spent the whole day working on my panel content again, which was starting to get redundant, since I felt I had finished on Wednesday, but now I had a lot of notes on how to fix the panel. I am currently about a third done with that!

Today… work! I will try to finish the text content, work on my curriculum design for the kids, and enjoy a Louisiana style fish fry later on tonight!

 

Sitting on the sidelines

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This week has been a pretty mellow week overall. Keeping in line with my experience with Sea Grant, I was recruited to other projects again. My post today will jump around a bit between all the different things I was up to, which is fitting to describe the events of this week.

Sunday I helped out with the Sea Grant booth at Da Vinci Days, a local arts and music festival in Corvallis. Even though it was raining out, I had a lot of fun. Most of my time was spent working with kids teaching them about watersheds. Once upon a time, I worked in childcare for four and a half years. Working with kids is hard, but incredibly rewarding, and working at Da Vinci Days reminded me of that. The best quote I took away from the day was from a young boy, who said this in response to a question regarding how we prevent motor oil from getting into the ocean:

“We could dig a hole in the middle of the ocean, put a plug in it, and when we want the bad stuff to go away, we’ll pull out the plug, let it drain, and have the ocean fill again.”

The most eventful day of my week was Wednesday. That day, I was given the task to write up a proposal outlining all the different options that have been considered for the Workshop I’m planning. The deadline was pressing; I had to turn around the proposal that day. Needless to say, I spent my Wednesday furiously writing to meet the quick turn around that was needed. I actually enjoyed having the quick deadline. Maybe it’s the adrenaline junkie in me that likes the thrill of a challenge that gets my blood pumping.

The rest of this week has been low key. Like I mentioned before, I’ve been recruited to doing impact statements, which have been the main task of my week. I’ve finished most of my projects I was given to complete, so right now I’m sitting and waiting for other projects to develop. While it’s not particularly thrilling, I’m actually really enjoying not being under perpetual work stress. My senior year of college was unbelievably busy where I was constantly under pressure of deadlines, working myself to the bone. Having work days that are mellow and don’t force me to run at 100 mph 24/7 is actually really refreshing.

Other breaking news of this week: the incredibly annoying, man-eating wasp that has been bothering me in the office all week has been slayed! Earlier today I let out a yelp and ran out of the office because the wasp was buzzing around my head. Rick, a Sea Grant staff member in the office, came over and killed it with a magazine. Whew! Crisis evaded.

And that is the news from Planet AnnaRose. Stay swell and remember to eat your vegetables.