So, back to the good stuff. My summer adventure officially began last Friday, June 15, which is the day my mom and I began our ~800 mile journey to Corvallis by car from Monterey, CA. We made a nice trip of it, enjoying the scenery and lots of beaches and state parks over a 2 day trip up the coast.<\/p>\n
Monday we had our orientation and I finally got to see Sarah, Eric, and the rest of the Summer Scholars in person. I was really surprised at the diverse group we have. I am the only person from CA, but there are people from Utah, Maryland, and Illinois also! We also learned that a total of 40 students will be living at the Hatfield housing this summer! It will be quite a crowd!<\/p>\n
I must admit, I was a little intimidated of what was going to be happening on Tuesday for my first day of work. I got an email on Friday from my mentor telling me to be prepared to be at the office at 5:30am<\/em><\/span> for fieldwork. I liked the idea of having the chance to do fieldwork right away, because that is the fastest way to get a good understanding of what your job is. But I was also dreading that first morning because I would have to show up so early and get to know my team and figure out exactly what we were doing all while wandering around an unfamiliar environment. RAM<\/em>=Rapid Assessment Method <\/em><\/p>\n On Friday I had some real fun and got to go digging for clams! We were out at 7am (which felt awfully late after 5:30am & 6am start times earlier in the week!) and went to the flat behind the EPA office at Hatfield where we know gaper clams are found. Now that I am more settled here, I’m hoping to have some time to explore the area in my free time. I went to the farmers market this morning with 2 of my housemates and we bought a big pot of herbs to grow and use all summer. Some other things we want to accomplish over the summer: surfing, ukelele, host a clambake, a trip to Seattle\/Portland, and I’m sure we will think of more. Maybe we should make a big bucket list and hang it on our fridge\u2026 (and I would love recommendations!)<\/p>\n I’ll leave you with a picture of me with one of the gapers I dug up on Friday morning, this one with it’s shell intact.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n ~Maryna<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Boy, has it been a whirlwind first week here at the Hatfield. But before I get into that, here’s a brief introduction to myself and the job I’m doing. My name is Maryna Sedoryk and I’m from the University of … Continue reading
\nLuckily, my colleagues are wonderfully nice and did their best to fill me in as we worked. I eventually figured out the easiest jobs and did those while I tried to figure out how everything else was completed. I spent Tuesday in the sandflats under the bridge, and Thursday in some sticky (…very sticky…) mudflats doing some RAM transects.<\/p>\n
\n<\/em>RAM is basically the first step in doing the overall clam population study. It involves going to a randomly picked location and taking data such as sediment temperature, sediment type (mud\/sand), and the species present for invertebrates, algae, and eelgrass. The whole process takes maybe 15 minutes per site – hence the “rapid”.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nI have never dug for clams before in my life, so this was completely foreign to me. But eventually with the help of a shrimp gun and some careful digging I was able to pull a few out. I was very surprised at how delicate the shells actually are. I was told at the beginning to be careful with the shrimp gun because the water pressure could break the shell, but I broke a couple shells just from the pressure of my hand digging out the sand\/mud! It was definitely a learning experience but I enjoyed sliding around in the mud and getting my hands dirty (and a little scraped up from shell fragments in the mud).<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/seagrantscholars\/files\/2012\/06\/Screen-shot-2012-06-23-at-7.26.19-PM.png\")
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