Today found me up at 5:00 AM, getting ready to catch a train into Boston for a long day’s work at the New England Aquarium (NEAq). I couldn’t help but feel a strong sense of deja vu during the trip in to North Station; you see, I’d caught this exact train many times before, back…
Today was my first day at the New England Aquarium. I was wicked excited, because I have been going to the NEAq since I was very little, so it was cool to see the Aquarium from a different perspective. When I arrived, I meet up with Paul Leonard, Senior Aquarist for the Penguins. He showed…
The last two days that I was at the Aquarium, I worked with the dive staff and the Giant Ocean Tank (GOT) staff. I helped with food prep, feeding, cleaning and diving. The GOT animals are fed 3 times per day, so there is a lot of food prep in the morning. After feedings we…
The last weekend in June, I went to Orleans on Cape Cod, where I stayed with Boston Sea Rover George Buckley. We were working on a Limulus and Busycon projects. The Busycon cavia is the New England whelk or conch and Limulus polyphemus is the horseshoe crab. While I was there we went to Rock…
For three days I worked at Diver’s Market in Plymouth, MA. Wayne Gomer owns the shop and started me off with organizing rental equipment and painting weights. Then he gave me the job of rearranging the store and creating a new floor plan. Over the next few days, I learned how to fill tanks, do…
Today I went to visit Fred Dion, the owner of Underwater Phototech in New Hampshire. Here I also learned how to put together and use the camera and housing that I received for the use during the internship. The camera is a Sony HC-3 camera with a Gates HD housing. I learned how the camera…
This morning I headed out to Salem, MA to meet Dave Caldwell and Heather Knowles. We would be going out on their boat the Gauntlet, for dry suit and advanced training. Heather and Dave run the Gauntlet as a charter dive boat on the weekends, so for the first charter in the morning I worked…
Today I worked with Alison Leschen from the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries mapping horseshoe crab spawning behavior on Swifts Beach in Wareham, MA. To do the survey, we mapped out a series of 5ft x 5ft grids along the shore and into the water. We surveyed the beach from end to end. We recorded…
Bonaire is one of the small islands off the coast of Venezuela that make up the Netherlands Antilles. Our travels began early with a flight out of Boston and a layover in San Juan. When we arrived that night, the heat and humidity were still high. We stayed at Captain Don’s Habitat and I saw…
We were on the road early this morning to drive to Stage Fort Park in Gloucester for the DUI dry suit Demo Days. I was going to be able to dive for the first time in my new dry suit. Faith talked with me and Jamie Brisbin (the 2008 Our World Underwater Scholar) about our…
I have attended Rover Clinics for most of my life, but I arrived at the Boston Copley Hotel to begin the weekend activities not knowing what to expect. I could only imagine what the weekend would be like. Friday began with COMS or Career Opportunities in Marine Sciences, hosted by George Buckley for high school…