Category Archives: Summer Scholars

Week 9

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This has been a pretty exciting week! On Tuesday, Katie and I gave our final presentation for the EPA. For Week 10 I’ll mainly be working on trying to identify trends in some oxygen data from a previous salt marsh study. On Friday, all of the interns gave a five minute presentation and participated in a poster session for sea grant and other people from HMSC. This was a bit nerve-racking but an overall valuable experience.

This past weekend was packed with activities. We saw some bioluminescence on South Beach, stuffed ourselves with some of the best tuna I’ve ever had at the Great Albacore Tuna BBQ Challenge, Justin and I took a surfing lesson, we we all grilled some great shish kabobs, and had a movie night.

If you get the chance to come to Newport for the Great Albacore Tuna BBQ Challenge I highly recommend going. It is relatively inexpensive and it was the best seafood I’ve had in Oregon so far. Just having the variety of different types of prepared tuna made it worth going. My favorite was the one that the Chamber of Commerce put together. I wish I had asked what they were calling it but it seemed to be a take on a Chinese food appetizer. It was amazing.

Surfing was one of the best experiences I’ve had while here in Oregon. I love being in the ocean, which is one of the main reasons I initially wanted to spend my life studying it. Surfing is just another great excuse for you to spend a ton of time in the ocean, so of course I loved it! It was very obvious that I wasn’t at all a natural at surfing but I was able to stand up a few times which was all I wanted to be able to do. I was shocked to find out how exhausting it is. Looking back at it though it does make sense. In order to get down to the spot where we surfed in Agate Beach, you have to climb down a pretty steep dirt pathway and then walk pretty far with the surfboard until you even get to the ocean. From there you have to simultaneously fight being over-topped by the waves, staying on the surfboard, and also trying to stand up (in order to do that you have to basically do a burpee which is hard to do even on solid ground). Personally, the hardest part was the fact that beginner surfboards are HUGE. I’m 5’ 0’’ and the surfboard was so large I couldn’t tuck it under my arm. So I had to awkwardly carry it over my head or out in front of me. Not surprisingly, the next day I had some trouble walking and lifting things. But it was so worth it.

Me with a giant surfboard and a giant smile

Me with a giant surfboard and a giant smile

 

Finding a Love for the Waves

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You can’t live in the Pacific Northwest having never surfed. Okay, so it’s not really like that. But most days, you’ll find the beaches here packed with surfers either on their pre-work wave riding routine, taking a quick “lunch break,” or catching the evening swell before the sun sets. If there’s any truth to the statement above, I guess I can leave here with the pride of an Oregonian.

Waves breaking at sunset. Photo: Justin Dalaba.

Since a young age, I’ve always loved watching waves and felt drawn to them, but until now I never really had a means of riding one. Having a surfboard might have helped, but there’s a difference between learning to surf and putting yourself at the mercy of a big breaker with no clue how to either escape or ride the wave. Fortunately, living within walking distance of popular surf spots this summer made my goal of learning to surf much more attainable.

Jess Vaccare (left), our instructor (middle) and myself (right) heading out to surf. Photo: Skyler Elmstrom.

There are two things you learn right away about surfing the central coast of Oregon. First, the water is cold. And that pretty much never changes. It helps coming from a background of coldwater diving, but you’re still never really prepared for when that first wave breaks over your head, sending brisk seawater down your wetsuit. Second, expect the conditions to change pretty quickly at any point in the day. It rains basically half the year here and the accompanying wind and fog can be just as enduring. I learned how brutal paddling into the wind and waves can be during my second surf session when a sunny day was quickly consumed by wind and fog. So if numb hands and salty eyes don’t bother you, this is the place to surf.

Post-surf stoke. Photo: Skyler Elmstrom.

The hardest part about surfing (from a beginner’s perspective) is getting yourself in the water and learning to read the ocean. You can really wear yourself out quickly by paddling into waves and trying to get up on every one that looks worthy of riding, but if you’re patient and wait for the right one, there’s nothing that compares to the feeling of being on your feet with gravity in your favor. For me, that lucky wave came on my second attempt. Something just felt right as I rotated around, took a few long strokes and felt the surge of water tip my board down. Once I got into my stance, it was almost effortless as I let the wave do most of the work.

Evening swell on the Oregon coast.

I was stoked. All of my irrational fears about failing and tumbling down the wave had vanished. From now on, I’ll probably always associate surfing with my first experience here on the Oregon coast. I couldn’t think of a better setting with better people to surf with. But I think half the fun of surfing is finding new places and new buddies who can share their experiences with you. I don’t think this was just another bucket list item for me; rather this will be another outlet for me to explore what’s out there before it’s gone. Our ocean is such a great resource in many ways and in order to conserve it, we first have to appreciate it and find a love for it.

Tuna and Sustainable Seafood

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So just like that were at the end of it all (well almost). This week was a complete blur of data reconfiguration, R script, poster formatting, and presentation rehearsal. This was actually the very first scientific poster I ever had to make and present so the week was a bit stressful haha. I was really happy with the result however; I think it was a success! Getting to hear about everyone’s research in detail was also a really interesting experience. It’s hard not to get caught up in only your own research this summer so it was incredibly refreshing to see everyone else’s results.

In the celebratory spirit, we all went over to the Great Albacore Tune BBQ Challenge by the NOAA docks today. For just $12 each we got to try bottomless albacore recipes including pulled tuna, tuna gazpacho, and tuna teriyaki with pineapple. Best money I’ve spent in a very long time; absolutely delicious! As I’m writing this blog a thought occurred to me: is albacore tuna sustainably harvested in the North Pacific? To try and relieve the guilt I suddenly felt about having a belly full of delicious fish I turned to one of my favorite websites: seafoodwatch.org. Seafood Watch is a program run by the Monterey Bay Aquarium. In the site’s own words: “Our recommendations help you choose seafood that’s fished or farmed in ways that have less impact on the environment.” It allows visitors to the site to lookup seafood items (e.g. albacore tuna) based on where you bought it (e.g. North Pacific, domestic) and the site gives the source a rating based on sustainability. In the North Pacific luckily, Albacore tuna populations are being sustainably fished. Phew. Besides just making us feel guilty about our food choices, the website also provides ‘good alternatives’ to users. For example, my favorite seafood is scallops. When I search for this item I got three results, two east coast sources and one from Alaska. Those from the east coast are marked as ‘good alternatives’ but the most sustainable option is to but those from Alaska which was dubbed the ‘best choice.’ If you haven’t ever been to seafoodwatch.org I highly recommend you take a peak next time you’re setting a menu!

Skyler’s Weekly Review – Week 9

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The Buzz: Sea Grant Summer Scholar’s Final Symposium!

Final Symposium: This is it! Finally, the culmination of all of our summer projects are here to share! After many hours of creation and working in the details and minor edits, we each completed a poster and prepared a presentation to the Hatfield general public. I have embedded a link to my poster below for your perusal:

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My Poster & Display at the Final Symposium

While I still have a week of work left, it is a week of winding down and tieing loose ends. Saying goodbye is never easy, and I can never dole out enough thank yous to those who made this summer remarkable.

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

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I’ve been writing about buying seafood directly from local fishermen for weeks now. While I’d had fresh and local seafood, I had yet to purchase anything off the docks myself. With the summer almost over, I decided it was time to put my money where my mouth was and seize the oppor-tuna-ty to buy something at Shop at the Dock (writing posts for the Fisheries Extension Facebook page has brought out the best of my fish puns).

At the end of Shop at the Dock, I stopped at F/V (fishing vessel) Triggerfish to complete my survey and placed an order for a tuna. Triggerfish is owned by brothers, Ernie and Joe. Like many other boats, they often fish at the beginning of the week and come back Thursday night or Friday morning to sell off the docks over the weekend. Alternatively, there are boats like H/F/V (historic fishing vessel) Chelsea Rose that are essentially floating fish markets. Their seafood comes from other boats they own and other fishermen, so they are able to stay docked everyday.

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Joe showing off a beautiful 50 lb. tuna

Tunas average 10-20 lbs, but some can get MUCH larger. It is priced per pound for the whole fish and there is an additional fillet charge. I asked for a 14 lb fish, so Ernie weighed several fish until he got one about that size. The recovery rate (the amount of meat recovered after filleting) is roughly 50-60% for tuna, so I was to expect about 7-9 lbs of meat.

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Ernie picking out a tuna

There are a couple of things to do to ensure the freshness and quality of your fish:

  1. Ask when the trip started- fishing trips can last multiple days, so that’s the earliest it could have been caught
  2. Ask how the fish was cooled down- tuna are very warm fish and quality can decrease if it is cooled slowly
  3. Inspect the fish to ensure its quality (clear eyes, scales and gills still in tact)

I already knew that I wanted to split a fish with my mentor, so once I was satisfied with the fish, I asked for it filleted and split in half. It’s regulation that boats sell whole fish to avoid contamination, but most boats are willing to split the fish for you so you can purchase with other people. I made sure to bring a hot-cold bag and cash to pay for the fish (because most don’t take cards).

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Brothers who fillet together…

I kept the tuna on ice and when dinner came around I marinated it in brown sugar, soy sauce and garlic. I ended up having it raw, seared and barbecued and it all tasted fantastic. There is something really thrilling about knowing where your food is coming from. I love that I was able to see a whole tuna fresh from the ocean in the morning and eat it for dinner a couple hours later. It was quite the experience and I know I’ll definitely miss Newport’s seafood at the end of this summer.

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Mmmm

That’s all for now. Thanks as always for reading!

Winding down: The beginning of the end

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With just a few weeks left and after completing the first draft of my second project (the Rural Tourism Studio) I began my final project – updating the Orb. The Orb is a platform that can used by businesses, communities, or individuals to upload their content to share online. They simply have to create an account, be approved, and start uploading their information. Although it is currently just updated by some Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) and a few statewide groups, the aim of the Orb is to allow anyone to be able to share information about local deals, lodging, events, attractions, or photographs for any place in Oregon.

One of the products of the Rural Tourism Studio - now the produce sold at Bandon farmers market is a part of a network of local farmers that make up the Wild Rivers Coast farm trail.

One of the products of the Rural Tourism Studio – now the produce sold at Bandon farmers market is a part of a network of local farmers that make up the Wild Rivers Coast farm trail.

This creates “a centralized collection of data of all the tourism assets in the state…” (Davidson 2016) that is then shared onto the Travel Oregon family of websites, mobile apps, and many other locations. It allows smaller, community events to be easily showcased to the world, to “Tell the Oregon story” and make it easier than ever to attract locals and visitors alike.

For my third project, I am updating the datasheet of the Wild Rivers Coast, which includes the coastal towns from Bandon to Brookings. I am now making sure that the existing information on lodging, deals, and attractions in the region is to up-to-date, allowing more visitors to take advantage of the regional assets.

This past week I also got to check out a few neat places close to Bandon, such as the West Coast Game Park Safari, a walk-through Safari where I got to hold a baby Bobcat and Caracal!  They also had some large cats, like snow leopards, tigers, and panthers. One of my favorite parts (aside from holding baby animals, which is always awesome), was the free roaming deer. They were Mediterranean/European deer, and many had very large antlers. Although having such large antlers walking towards me was intimidating at first, all of the deer were super friendly (probably because they hoped that I had food for them). Some of them were also trying to get rid of the felt on their antlers, so they were as happy as a dog being scratched behind the ears to be pet!

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Aside from that, I agree with Claire’s last post, that I am definitely missing studying in my favorite coffee shops. I’ve been spending a lot of time researching for my senior project, studying for the GRE, and generally trying to prepare for post-undergrad life (woah). Since Bandon is a pretty small town, all of the coffee shops close at either 3 or 4 pm on the weekends, leaving me little room to procrastinate and/or sleep until the afternoon. I was able to make it the library (closes at 5:30) on Saturday, and settled for the “McCafe” on Sunday, but I can’t wait until my all-day study seshs in Springfield. Didn’t realize how much I loved those, and just generally studying. (But check out the great wildflowers spotted while procrastinating/playing Pokemon Go on Saturday, below!)

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The projects for Oregon Sea Grant are winding down, and I’m getting ready to jump into my own projects for my senior year – pretty exciting!

Final presentations on Friday! Stay tuned!

Week 8 – Milestones: First video!

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It’s nearing the end of the program now, but things have been busier than ever at the office. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my first post on the ODFW Marine Reserves Program website. Continuing on my communications roll, this week I was able to pull together all of my footage taken at Otter Rock and Cascade Head Marine Reserves and create a video on the diverse life found in Oregon’s tide pools. I had a blast just walking around and pointing the GoPro in every promising hole and at whatever little creatures caught my eye. Back in the video cave at work, learning how to use Adobe Premiere Pro – an industry-leading video editing software program – and finally putting it all together was equally enjoyable and gratifying. While I’m still no Steven Spielberg (lots of Google searches and troubleshooting…), this experience has definitely piqued my interest in the field, and I’m looking to churn out one more video before I leave.

So without any further ado, here’s the final product.

P.S. The music is kind of corny, but I think it fits the theme (it’s grown on me, having listened to it an infinity number of times throughout the editing process).

Week 8

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It’s getting to be that time where we can all start to see the light at the end of the tunnel and it is so sad! Only two more weeks in Oregon and there is still so much I wish I could have done/seen. I won’t get too nostalgic just yet though.

Week 8 was filled with presentation and poster prep. My blog post for Week 9 will be all about the presentations for the EPA and Sea Grant. Katie and I have our presentation for the EPA this coming Tuesday.

This past weekend I went to Corvallis and got a tour of the OSU campus. I really liked it and will definitely be looking more into the OSU graduate school. Also, Corvallis has a pretty awesome farmers market!

On Sunday Angus and I went to Neptune (just south of Newport) at low tide with Jody to look at some amazing rock formations and tide pools! I saw my first wild sea stars and more anemones than I’ve ever seen before. There was also a really cool cave called Creature’s Cave. It had a great view when looking out of it but it was definitely pretty creepy inside. There was a pretty beat up mattress, lots of mail (Todd Graham I think your mail is being delivered to the wrong place…) and a bunch of very…interesting graffiti. If you are adventurous you can camp out in there!

Starfish at Neptune during low tide

Starfish and anenomes at Neptune during low tide

View of the Pacific Ocean from Creature's Cave

View of the Pacific Ocean from Creature’s Cave

 

 

 

Week 7, or: Charter Boats and Coffee Shop Studying Withdrawals

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Week 7 was my last full week of doing interviews, and it wasn’t exactly a climactic one. It was a week of blustery, chilly afternoons…not the best for ocean fishing and crabbing. The bay crabbers I talked to seemed to be doing well, though; most were hitting their limits of 12 crab per person. I even talked to one group of 6 crabbers in Waldport that managed to limit out with 72 crab. 72. Friends from Missouri, can you imagine having the meat of 72 freshly caught Dungeness crab sitting in your freezer right now?

Although the week was slow for private boat interviews, I did manage to talk to a few charter boats about their crabbing gear. Interestingly, even though charters are pulling ~8-10 crab pots per trip and taking ~150 crabbing trips per year, most boats only lose 1-2 pots in a given year. Those are impressive numbers, and I was happy to hear that the experience of charter boat captains and deckhands seems to be paying off by helping to limit derelict gear and marine debris.

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After talking to the charter boats, Justin (my mentor) and I went to Local Ocean for lunch. I never take pictures of food (I know, I know, I’m a millennial and you probably don’t believe me, but I swear it’s true), but I just had to share a photo of this gorgeous, colorful salad topped with Albacore tuna. Medium-rare is the way to go:

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I wouldn’t ordinarily be so excited about a salad, but eating at a restaurant where you know the fish is bought locally and caught sustainably makes me feel good about what I’m eating. If you haven’t already, I encourage you to read some of the other scholars’ posts about buying local products (especially seafood) and sustainable fishing practices.

The following weekend, a couple of us made the trek across the bridge to spend some time wandering through the farmer’s market. Armed with backpacks and laptops, we then headed to Nye Beach to get a change of scenery, do some work, and have a cup (or two) of coffee. One of the things I’ve missed most about IU these past eight months? My favorite local coffee shop, a bottomless mug of coffee for $3.45, and ~8 hours of studying, listening to music, and people watching. Thanks to Carl’s Coffee for helping me get my fix.

Week 6, or: Crater Lake

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With Crater Lake being so far away, I was worried that I wouldn’t get the chance to the famous landmark before the summer was over. Luckily, my roommates were as anxious to see it as I was, so on Friday afternoon of Week 6, five of us piled into the car and headed for a small hotel room in Roseburg. We crashed early – after the 4-5 hour drive, 9 PM felt like 11 – and left at 6 the next morning to beat the crowds to Crater Lake National Park.

For those of you in the Midwest, Crater Lake’s reputation is definitely well deserved; it was every bit as beautiful as I had expected, and more. The water was a deep blue that was so vibrant it seemed almost unnatural, and the shallows were a clear turquoise that rivaled the Caribbean Sea. Of course, there was no way I wasn’t going for a swim in that. One of the park employees instructed vaguely that we could jump in “a little ways around the corner,” so we found a spot that looked good and went for it. Not quite as chilly as the plunge I took the weekend before, but not exactly balmy, either.

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After a steep hike back to the parking lot (during which most of my energy went towards trying to not look like I was dying as much as I felt like I was), we were ready for another hike. We decided to explore more of the area and head to Toketee Falls and Hot Springs in the Umpqua National Forest. We got lucky and had the hot springs mostly to ourselves. Unfortunately, the photographs don’t quite do them justice, but we spent a good hour soaking in the warm water and watching the stream below rush past.

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It was the warmest I’d felt in months.