The beginning of anything new and exciting always seems to end up in a blur and last week at the Visitor Center was no exception. \u00a0What has struck me most since starting my internship is how much work goes on behind the scenes to make the doors open every day at 10am. \u00a0When I show up around 9:30 to turn on all the lights, the ball has already been rolling for a few hours for the aquarists. \u00a0Their job is to make sure all the tanks in the Visitor Center as well as in back are working properly. \u00a0Recently they have had issues with herring dying over night for some unknown reason. \u00a0I was able to work an aquarist and fish out the dead herring from an 8ft tank just before visitors started arriving. \u00a0It doesn’t sound like much but when you couple that with leaking shrimp displays, overflowing touch tanks, and whatever else the morning brings, it can be quite the adventure. \u00a0Troubleshooting these issues everyday really keeps the doors open to the public.<\/p>\n
Last week was also a lot of firsts for me and the most interesting was definitely the estuary tour. \u00a0We (the VC interns) give estuary tours at 11am every day to whoever wants to go. \u00a0My first tour had an elderly husband and wife as well as a mother with her two kids. \u00a0It was pretty fun trying to juggle the interests of the kids and adults. \u00a0I ended up using the “slurp gun” to dig out some shrimp from the estuary to keep the kids fascinated and then explained more about how HMSC functions to the adults. \u00a0Overall it went really well and I think everyone had a pretty good time.<\/p>\n
Lastly, the most interesting thing I found out this week wasn’t at the Visitor Center but actually up at Kelly’s Brighton Marina near Manzanita. \u00a0After catching and boiling a crab, I had the\u00a0privilege\u00a0of eating the heart of the crab as well as the crab butter. \u00a0The butter was comprised of all the liquified crab fat. \u00a0When the crab is done boiling, you flip is over, open the carapace, and voila you have crab butter. \u00a0It goes on anything!<\/p>\n
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The beginning of anything new and exciting always seems to end up in a blur and last week at the Visitor Center was no exception. \u00a0What has struck me most since starting my internship is how much work goes on … Continue reading