This past week I wrapped up my internship by spending time with the staff of Backscatter in Monterey, California. The week was full of diving in kelp forests and getting up close to animals I just worked on my macro-photography skills with the Olympus TG 4 camera donated by Backscatter. I was amazed by all…
I have spent the past few days in Canada with Julie Ouimet and Michel Labrecque to start working on my video presentation for next year’s Boston Sea Rovers convention. It is absolutely bizarre that this summer is coming to a close and my adventures as “the intern” will be ending soon. But before I get…
Two puns in one title?! I am on a roll! Anyways, this past week I spent time with some excellent divers! My week started with a flight to Orlando, where I was greeted by Amy and her daughter Aallie at the airport with a big welcome sign. Round two of the welcome committee was at…
This past week I spent some time in Woods Hole in both the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI). On Monday, I met with Roger Hanlon, a professor and sea rover, who conducts research through filming various behaviors of cephalopods. Cephalopod translates to “head foot” are a class of marine…
Today I joined 80 other divers for the New England Aquarium Dive Club’s “Great Annual Fish Count.” After helping volunteers set up the registration and food tables, I joined Vin and Ted at Popplestone Beach in Gloucester. After a rocky entry, we descended in hopes to find fish that we could enter in our count…
This past week I spent time with Dan Dolan, a long-standing friend of the Sea Rovers, at the New England Aquarium. The first day, we dove right in – literally. After a brief tour of the diving area, we set up our gear, and hopped into the 200,000-gallon Giant Ocean Tank! We went to the…
On our way back from the sub races, Vin dropped me off to stay with the curator of large-fish exhibits and the dive safety officer of the National Aquarium, Holly Bourbon, along with her husband Billy and Wally the dog. I spent the first day with them catching up on my blogs, and reviewing footage…
This past week I joined Vin and Kim Malkoski, and Kim’s boyfriend, Sean, for what one could definitely call “an experience”. After eight hours of driving, DJ’d by Vin himself (who knew he was a Lady Gaga fan?!) we finally arrived in Bethesda, Maryland to kick off the fourteenth biannual International Submarine Races (ISR) sponsored…
Recently I spent the past few days with previous intern Rick Simon at his farm in Connecticut. After a late night sitting in on his Advanced Nitrox and Tech class, I was greeted by the not so enthusiastic welcome committee of Rick’s four dogs, who clearly were not informed that a guest would be intruding…
This past week I spent time with Ted Maney, at Salem State University, collecting data from an ongoing research project which included counting sea urchins and other mobile fauna off shore. Since there were two other people joining us, Ken and Breckie, we had a tight squeeze onto a twenty-foot center console. In case you…
I have spent the last two days with previous intern Kim Malkoski at East Coast Divers in Brookline. In this time, I learned how to help customers find the perfect fit for a mask and basic dive gear so they could put their best fin forward as they earn their open water certification. In addition…
For the past few days, I have been with a previous intern Kim Malkoski. Our first day we had a pool session to break in my new gear and practice basic underwater skills, such as air sharing and mask clearing. The next day we planned on diving Back Beach in Rockport, but because conditions were so…
Today I went to Beverly to meet the owner of Undersea Divers, Whitney Boyle. As usual, the shop was buzzing with people who were getting ready for another dive season. As we all know, diving is a gear-heavy sport, and I was entering the Eden of dive shops. For a store that was moving to…
I would like to preface this blog with a bit of a warning. I am not a writer, I’m a diver. Well, I’m working on improving my skills so I can truly earn the title. So, bear with me, and hope that I figure out this blogging thing within a few posts. I am the…