Along with diving during my stay with Julie and Michel of Anticosti Ecotours, we also spent two days exploring the island itself! The first day was a more private tour with the three of us as well as Nick. We started the day by driving to the northern shore of the island. Anticosti has unique…
Diving in Anticosti was going to be exciting; even though most of my diving experience had been in New England waters, I had never been that far north. These northern waters meant it was time for some more practice in my drysuit! For my first dive with Julie and Michel, I got to tag along…
For one of my longest stints of travel during my internship, I got to spend 10 days exploring the Canadian Island of Anticosti! Anticosti is a large island occupying approximately 3,000 square miles in the gulf of the St. Lawrence Seaway. Although the island is quite large, it is populated by as few as 250…
For my last day at the aquarium, I got to take a look behind the scenes at how some of the many galleries in the New England Aquarium are run! I spent the day with Summer, the head aquarist for the tropical galleries, as well as her intern Nick. We spent the first part of…
Today was another special day at the Aquarium since I would get to dive in one of the most well known exhibits, the Giant Ocean Tank (GOT)! Before we got to that however, there was work to be done and things to see. I started off by observing and helping with the food prep for…
For my next day at the New England Aquarium, I was lucky enough to get to shadow the caretakers of the Penguin Exhibits! The aquarium is home to about 50 penguins, including a mix of African Penguins and Southern Rockhoppers, with each individual penguin being marked by a colored band in order to make them…
For an adventure closer to home, I got to spend time at the New England Aquarium! For my first day, I met up with Dan Dolan at the Aquarium’s Husbandry Facility! Dan has been a volunteer diver for the aquarium for many years, and for the past few years has been working at their offsite…
After completing an amazing week with Holly Bourbon at the National Aquarium, I got to head right into my next assignment. I got picked up from the aquarium and we started the journey to our new home for the week. After picking up another member of our crew from the airport, we arrived at our…
Sadly its my final day at the National Aquarium, luckily however I got to squeeze in some fun things in the time I had remaining. I started the day meeting some of the aquarium’s husbandry experts, giving them a hand preparing food for the animals in the Blacktip Reef. Because there are so many different…
We started today at a different location! Today I got to tour the National Aquarium’s Animal Care and Rescue Center (or the ACRC). The ACRC is a state of the art facility which is responsible for housing and treating any incoming animals, putting them through a quarantine process to ensure their health and that of…
For my third day, I got to see a much different perspective of working at the aquarium! To start the day I got to watch three of the assistant dive safety officers all work together to clean the Blacktip Reef using a pressure washer. It’s was super impressive to see how well the entire team…
Today was a super fun day checking out the other massive tank at the National Aquarium. Our day started nice and early so that the dive team could test some of the safety measures around the dive-able locations. One of the places we checked in on was the aquarium’s dolphin exhibit. I was so surprised…
For my first day at the Aquarium, I got to do two dives in their Atlantic Coral Reef tank! The tank is a large ring that allows guests to walk up and down within the tank, providing a super dynamic environment for guests, as well as a fun diving experience. For our first dive, Holly…
For my first adventure out of New England, I get to fly to Maryland and spend a week with Holly Bourbon at the National Aquarium! The national aquarium is a staple of Baltimore, and has been around since the early 1980’s! It runs as a nonprofit devoted to inspire conservation, diversity, and inclusion. Holly is…
Today I got to help out and observe how the MA Division of Marine Fisheries goes about sampling certain species of fish. I met with Vin Malkoski, and two other workers in order to launch the boat. The plan for the day was to pull up five fish traps throughout the bay, and take samples…
Today I got to work with Vin Malkoski, and the Division of Marine fisheries (DMF)! The DMF is a body of government which manages the states commercial and recreational fisheries, as well as other marine environments and communities. Vin is the Senior Biologist as well as the Dive Safety Officer for the DMF. I met…
To finish off an amazing week with Rick Simon, I got to join him and a number of experienced divers on a trip to the Grecian! The Grecian was a 263 ft long freighter that sank a few miles of the coast of Block Island in the 1930’s. The entire crew met at Ricks boat,…
Today, instead of meeting at Ricks Boat for a day of work, we met at his house to drive to a new site for the day. On the way Rick bought us a great snack to get us ready for the day ahead. Shoreline’s Job for the day was to find, free, and relocate an…
Time for some work on the boat! Today we’re doing some work on the deck of Rick’s boat; the tiles on it needed to be pulled up and replaced with a new surface that’s easy to clean and safe to work on. The original tiles were laid down with roofing tar, so this took some…
Time for day two of work with Shoreline Diving. After getting prepped for another days worth of work, Rick, Dave, Austin and I headed out for a ride around the harbor to plan where the new moorings would be anchored in. Rick was able to plan the new moorings to be neatly in line with…
Hi everyone! My name is Brady Watson, and I’m so thankful and excited to be the 2023 Summer Intern for the Boston Sea Rovers! For my first assignment of the summer I get to work with Rick Simon and his crew from Shoreline Diving. We started the day meeting at Rick’s boat in Connecticut bright…