Rachel Crane

We are proud to announce that Rachel Crane of Duxbury, MA is the eighth Frank Scalli Annual Summer Intern.  Enrolled at Unity College in Unity, Maine, Rachel is pursuing a degree in marine biology with a particular interest in coral reef ecology and conservation.  Rachel was home-schooled and began her college career at the age of 14.  Four years later, she is a junior at Unity and a member of Marine technology Society, Marine Biology, and Wildlife Clubs.  She has also participated in the University of Miami’s Summer Scholar Program in 2008 and Camden Conference 2010, an annual conference focusing on global social and political issues.   Rachel works part-time as a life guard and is a relatively new diver certified in the Lake George area of New York.

Sarah Brightman

The Sea Rovers proudly announce that Sarah Brightman of Westport, MA is the seventh Frank Scalli Annual Summer Intern.  Enrolled at the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine, Sarah is pursuing a degree in marine biology with a particular interest in shark biology. A graduate of Westport High School, Sarah was a reporter, photographer, and photo editor for her school newspaper, The Villager, winning an award for one of her news photos. Sarah also participated in the International Exchange Club, studying in Okinawa, Japan, and was an active volunteer for the Westport River Watershed Alliance. A member of the SCUBA club and a volunteer at the UNE Marine Animal Rehabilitation Center, Sarah is a fairly new but classic New England diver certified in Portland, Maine.

Daniel Turner

The Sea Rovers proudly announce that Daniel Turner of Harvard, MA is the sixth Frank Scalli Annual Summer Intern. A freshman in the honor’s scholars program at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Daniel is pursuing a double major in marine biology and film studies. As a science-based filmmaker, his goal is to produce documentaries to educate and offer solutions for chronic environmental problems. Graduating a year early from high school, Daniel participated in a Sea Education Association program off Catalina Island and Broadreach summer programs in the Baja Mexico and Dutch Antilles. He has been diving for seven years and holds PADI Advanced and Rescue Diver certifications. In his spare time, Daniel has volunteered for the New England Aquarium Marine Mammal program, practiced beekeeping, and works at film making.

Kim Malkoski

The Sea Rovers’ 2008 Frank Scalli Annual Summer Intern is Kimberly Malkoski of Marion, MA. Kim graduated from Old Rochester Regional High School, in 2007 and is currently a studying at the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine. She is majoring in marine biology with the ambitious goal of becoming a marine veterinarian. In addition to her college studies, Kim works as a life-guard, is the Vice President of the University Scuba club, and volunteers at the Marine Animal Rehabilitation Center. As a high school junior, Kim was awarded the Ruth Turner Scholarship and completed the Ocean Environments class at Harvard University. Having grown up around the ocean, Kim has been a New England diver since the age of thirteen and enjoys wreck diving and hunting for lobster.

Ryan Hunter

Ryan is a graduate of Xaverian Brothers High School. His interest in the underwater world began when he built his first ROV at the age of twelve, the same year that he started diving with his instructor dad. Certified as an advanced openwater diver, Ryan also has been diving with a variety of surface-supplied equipment including a Mark V diving helmet through his association with the New England Diving Equipment Group. As well as scuba diving and ROVs, Ryan’s interests include robotics, world politics, and web site development.

Katy Marston

Our 2006 Frank Scalli Intern, Katy comes to us from Higganum, CT. A National Honor Student, Katy attended the Sea World Career Camp for two summers and volunteered at the Mystic Aquarium, assisting with the Aquarium touch tank and working as a laboratory assistant. Katy earned her openwater and advanced openwater certifications in 2005, capped off by a dive on the U-853 off Block Island. Katy is currently majoring in Marine Science at the University of South Carolina.

Ricky Simon

The 2005 Frank Scalli Intern hails from Coventry, Connecticut. Benefiting from a life-long exposure to diving, Ricky has been certified for 6 years and has earned a full cave certification as well as numerous specialties. Outside of diving, Ricky has long been active with the Boy Scouts and has earned the prestigious rank of Eagle Scout. In his spare time he enjoys both wreck and cave diving, hiking, climbing, and working as an assistant scout master. Ricky has worked with the Cambrian Foundation studying underwater cave systems and plans to pursue a career in diving after college.

Kate Douglas

Kate Douglas was the first recipient of the Frank Scalli Annual Summer Internship for the Boston Sea Rovers. During her internship she dove on freshwater wrecks in Lake Huron, ventured into caverns in Orlando and kelp beds in San Diego, learned how to spearfish, and explored the warm waters of Bonaire, among many other exciting adventures! Her fascination with the ocean and marine science has led her to study Biology and Marine Science at Rutgers University.

Beautiful Bonaire!

Sunday- After flying out of Boston, changing planes in Houston, suffering through layovers that seemed to last forever (mostly because of all my excitment), I finally landed in Bonaire! Pat and Dave Morton picked me up at the airport at about 5am and gave me a

mini tour of the island on our way to Captain Don’s Habitat in Kralendijk. I had seen pictures of Captain Don’s online or from other interns, but nothing can compare to the real thing. Unlike other dive resorts, Captain Don’s believes in “Diving Freedom.” While other resorts can inhibit a guest from diving because they say when a guest can/cannot go out, Captain Don’s lets you dive as much as you want, when you want! 24-hour access to the incredible reefs below!

The resort overlooks crystal-clear water with a beautiful reef right below the surface and equipped with everything a diver needs from gear rentals and boat dives to rinse stations. I went on two shore dives today and burned through my air so quick. The reef and all of the tropical fish are all so beautiful! This was my first time scuba diving in the Caribbean, so it was super exciting. I was pretty scared seeing my first spotted moray eel, but I couldn’t wait to see more of the reefs on my first boat dive tomorrow!

Monday- Today, Pat, Dave, and I went on the 8:30 and 11 o’ clock boat dives. The dives were at Mi Dushi and Knife, which are both on Kline, Bonaire. Kline mean “Little Bonaire.” It is a small uninhabitated island off the west coast of Bonaire. Everything in Bonaire is just so beautiful, especially under the water’s surface. After diving, I took my Nitrox course with Leo Hoogenboom. I learned all about how to dive Nitrox and Leo also showed me how I would analyze my tanks for the dives tomorrow. At night, we stayed at Captain Don’s for the “Meet the Captain Party.” At the party I got to meet the general manager of Capt’n Don’s, Jack Chalk, who not only is sponsoring my accommodations and diving in Bonaire, but he practically runs the whole resort! I was also able to meet his wife Karen and his daughter Joi Jenkins. I would be working with Joi later in the week because she’s a STINAPA Marine Park Ranger! I was really interested in all of the work STINAPA was doing with the lionfish problem, so I’m excited to get out in the

field with her. Last but not least, I met Captain Don who signed his book for me entitled Reef Windows: Opening Bonaire’s Dive Sites. I have heard so much about the Captain and all of the good things he has done for the island, so i cannot wait to read his book!

Tuesday- Today we went on the morning dives and then at dusk, I was ready for my very first night dive! Diving at night was a little scary, but amazing. As soon as the sun set, thousands of brittle sea stars emerged. They were everywhere and it was so cool to see. I was also proud of myself for finding a spotted moray!

Wednesday- I got up early for breakfast & got my gear ready. On the way to the dive site, we saw dolphins! There were about six of them. It was a great way to start off the morning and they were definitely a good luck charm because our dive was amazing!  We kicked off the day diving at Salt City. This was a really unique dive. It was a drift dive in which we

saw three sites in one (the north side, the salt pier, and the south side).

Diving around the columns of the pier was unbelievable. There was so much life and so much to see! I saw barracuda and a dozen squid all swimming together! The boat met up with us at the other end of the pier so we didn’t have to back-track. This was probably my favorite dive so far!

In the morning, I was a guest. In the afternoon, I was an employee! I learned how to fill tanks, and also how to be a dive master. I shadowed dive master Maximi St. Jago (Max) to find out what it takes. The main things to remember are to (1) keep the guests safe and (2) keep the guests happy. It was interesting to dive from another perspective. Throughout the dive you must be aware of yourself, but also the guests. They were definitely all safe, and Max and I kept them happy too! He found a lobster hiding under a coral formation, and I found a spotted drum!

Thursday- I did more diving in the morning today, and worked around Capt’n Don’s in the afternoon. I’

m definitely getting used to waking up in paradise everyday! After diving in the morning, I worked with Joi in the afternoon. Today, she was working with a class of students from

the ages of about 7 to 12. The class was learning how to snorkel, and Joi was there from STINAPA to help out. In addition to learning to snorkel, the kids are also educated about the different fish and organisms. Education is very important because many of these kids don’t know what is in their own backyard! It was a fun way to spend the afternoon!  In the evening we met up with Jack, who was all dressed up in his Harley atire for his club meeting.Bonaire is truly a Diver’s Paradise and I don’t want to leave!

Friday- I worked with Joi again today. We went out to Kline, Bonaire. We were taking the full trash bins off of Kline, replacing them with clean ones, and bringing the trash to the landfill. After that, we went patrolling around part of Bonaire. Since Bonaire’s reefs are protected by STINAPA, a person can get in huge trouble if you don’t follow the rules. For example, in order to dive in Bonaire, you must purchase a STINAPA tag which can go on your BCD. The tag is good for a year, but if you are caught without one by STINAPA, they can confiscate your gear!

In the afternoon I worked with Leo’s wife, Zsuzsanna Pusztai. Zsuzsanna is amazing photographer/videographer who spent her afternoon showing me more about my camera and Gate’s housing, and took me out diving with it! I was itching to use it all week and now it was my chance! As I filmed and took photographs of my own, Zsuzsanna was filming me. I had so much fun and I can’t wait to keep using my Gate’s set-up!

Saturday- It was my last day in diver’s paradise. My last dive before flying home was at Country Garden. We saw dolphins on the way to the dive site, so I was sure I had enough good luck to finally see a sea turtle! This was my second favorite dive, mostly because everyone on the morning dive got to watch our dive master, Max, catch a lionfish! A ten minute swim from the boat and about 85 feet down brought us to this strange fan-like creature. At first I didn’t realize was I was looking at! It was so cool to watch, and I even filmed the whole thing!

My trip to Bonaire was definitely complete with a lionfish capture. After spending the rest of the day with Pat and Dave and riding around on Jack’s Harley, I’m sad to leave Bonaire, but I know I’ll return…especially to Captain Don’s Habitat!

Horseshoe Crab Surveys & Backscatter East

I woke up early on Tuesday and Thursday and headed to Swifts Beach in Wareham, MA. During the two high tide points in the early morning and night (during the full moon period), Senior Marine Fisheries Biologist Vin Malkoski and I counted the single, mobile, and spawning pairs of horseshoe crabs. After we randomly picked which end and how far down to start on, we set up our transect and moved down the beach. We end up counting a few single crabs (and recording their sex), and several mobile and mating pairs. The surveys were pretty short, especially with teamwork, and it was really cool to do actual field work for the state!

After the morning counts on Thursday, I made my way up to Derry, NH to Backscatter East. Fred Dion spent his afternoon teaching me how to work my Sony HD Videocamera in my Gates housing that John Ellenbrock from Gates Underwater Products donated to the Scalli Internship! He showed me everything I need to know about my Gates housing, told me about his business, and even lent me his camera light to use in Bonaire. Then, Dave Morton met me at Backscatter East to give me even more dive gear. Bill and Lisa O’Malley from WJO Sales donated a 5mm Henderson wetsuit and a rolling gear bag, which was perfect for my upcoming trip! Also, I received Sherwood Kinesis fins to use with my dry suit (which fit over my DUI rock boots!). By the end of the day, I was ready for bed…and Bonaire!

DUI Dog Days

With my brand new DUI gear packed up in the Malkoski’s truck, we were off to Gloucester, MA for the weekend for the DUI Dog Days Rally. I was ready to do some diving in my new dry suit!

I first helped out in the morning with checking the volunteers in, and then started diving. My suit took a little getting used to, but I was so comfortable in it underwater. After two dives that day I was exhausted, but nice and dry!

I stayed warm in my Polartec dive jammies, and I was kind of sad I never got to try out DUI’s new electric jammies prototype! After my dives, I met up with Pat and Dave Morton to discuss my upcoming trip to Bonaire in 2 weeks!! After packing up the gear at the end of the day, we went to the volunteer’s dinner. Faith presented her slideshow about her recent trip to Antarctica and it blew my mind! The pictures of the icebergs were so amazing. It made me want to go back to Antarctica with her in 2016!

The DUI Dog Days weekend was so much fun and I hope I’ll be able to go back next year to help out and go diving again!

Beneath the Sea

The dive show was bigger than I expected! There were so many people and tons of booths. I was able to meet the North America Our World Underwater Scholar Josh Stewart, and everyone at the Diving Unlimited International booth. Faith Ortins (Vice President/Sales) of DUI fitted me for my new suit. I had never tried on a dry suit before, so I was really excited to get measured for my very own custom-fit TLS350! I am so thankful to DUI, Faith Ortins, Susan Long (President and CEO), and Dick Long (Founder and Chairman of the Board) for providing me a suit for my internship. I can’t believe how much support and generousity the sponsors give to the Frank Scalli Internship!

The day was busy, but I made sure I went to Jim and Pat Stayer’s presentation about the Maldives. After watching all their video footage, I wanted to go back to the Maldives with them! I’m pretty excited to be able to stay with them this summer like all of the other interns have. I want to learn more about underwater videography from them.

Beneath the Sea was so much more than I expected, but it just makes me even more excited to see the Sea Rover’s Clinic next year at their new venue!

COMS

Today was the Sea Rover’s Career Opportunities in Marine Sciences hosted by George Buckley. I carpooled with Vin and Kim Malkoski to the Boston Public Library where we set up and handed out programs. The speakers included George Buckley, Dr. Skomal, Jim Clark, Sarah Taylor, and the 2004 and 2008 Scalli Interns Kate Douglas and Kim Malkoski.

Unfortunately, the 2009 Scalli Intern Dan Turner was in Costa Rica for COMS and couldn’t make his presentation. However, Kate and Kim described what they did while they were interning, and the job opportunities they had after their internships. Not only am I excited to be the new Scalli Intern, but I’m also excited about the doors that are opening for me.

After COMS, we grabbed a quick lunch and Kim, Vin, and I headed to Beverley, MA to Undersea Divers. Unfortunately, Bob Boyle of Undersea Divers who donated my gear wasn’t there, so Shaun Maguire outfitted me with my gear. It was Christmas all over again as I received my Aqualung Pearl BCD, Suunto D4 dive computer,  scuba tank, 8mm Aqualung SolAfx Wetsuit, and Aqualung Titan regulator and octopus with Sherwood depth, air, and compass gages. I couldn’t wait to go diving and use my new gear!

From the dive shop, we headed back to Boston. Kim and I had dinner with some of the other interns (Kate Douglas, Rick Simon, and Sea Rover Mike Zappala). It’s really nice that everyone is so close with one another, and I feel so welcome as the new intern!

Sea Rover’s Film Festival

Tonight was the night I had been waiting for! I was so excited to be named the Boston Sea Rovers 2010 Frank Scalli Annual Summer Intern!

I was nervous the whole hour car ride up to Boston. After I met up with Pat and Dave Morton, we headed out to the Board of Directors dinner. The food was amazing and so were the people! As the first intern, Kate Douglas, helped me network the room along with Pat Morton, I was able to meet people I’ve only read about: Dr. Silvia Earle (the emcee for the evening), shark biologist Dr. Greg Skomal, cinematographer Peter Scoones, speaker and the Sea Rover’s 2010 Diver of the Year Wes Skiles (who wanted MY autograph), and cinematographer DJ Roller to name a few. I met everyone from deep-sea explorers and cave divers to the volunteers that help make these functions possible. This internship has already introduced me to a world I’ve only dreamed about!

After dinner, I headed over the the New England Aquarium IMAX Theatre where the Film Festival would take place. I was so excited to see everyone’s presentations. At one point, Dave Morton asked me to stand so he could introduce me as the new intern. I was lucky I didn’t have to walk down any stairs or get up on a stage like the other interns, so I had it pretty easy! Everyone’s presentations were so interesting. I only hope that one day, I will be presenting my life’s work at the Sea Rover’s Film Festival too!

After the Film Festival, everyone headed to the docks for the Reception on the Water. There, I was able to see some familiar faces like Patrick Scalli, and also talk and take pictures with the speakers and interns. I met many more sponsors and Sea Rovers.

The night was a success, and I think everyone (especially me) had a great night! I was even more excited to get my summer started!

The Great Annual Fish Count

The route from my house to Gloucester is fast becoming ingrained in my mind, as I made the trip for the third time this week in order to participate in the Great Annual Fish Count, hosted by the New England Aquarium Dive Club and the Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF). My destination for the day was Stage Fort Park, where I met up with Holly Bourbon, a former Senior Aquarist at the NEAq and current Biologist and Dive Safety Officer at the MA Department of Marine Fisheries. We suited up to do our survey at one of the park’s beaches; given the rain of the past few days we weren’t expecting much in terms of visibility, but once we got a bit off shore the water cleared up to about 15′ or so of vis, enough to get some decent fish ID in. As I dove, I compared this fish count to the numerous surveys I conducted in Panama; though the objectives were the same in both cases, it was clear that doing research up here, in cold, murky water, required a distinctly different skill set and approach that that of working in tropical conditions. Though my powers of observation paled in comparison to Holly’s, I managed to spot a few well-camouflaged sculpins, as well as a number of small winter skates, a couple of lobsters, and countless hermit crabs.
Once back on shore, we met up with Bob Michaelson, the New England coordinator of the Great Annual Fish Count, delivered our findings, and helped out as dozens more divers showed up over the course of the day with their own data from sites all along the New England coast. The final tally was 119 divers conducting 140 dives and spotting 45 species of vertebrates, making this the largest fish count in the GAFC’s 8-year history. It was great to see so many divers turn out for this event and collect so much useful data. We finished the day off with a raffle, where I unfortunately did not win the grand prize trip to Bonaire, but instead ended up with a quite useful backup dive light. I’ll certainly return for next year’s Great Annual Fish Count, and not just because I want another chance at winning that trip…

Diving the Chester Polling

My DUI drysuit came in handy again today as the male members of the Frank Scalli Interns — Rick Simon, Ryan Hunter, and myself — met up at Cape Ann Divers to dive one of the most popular Gloucester wrecks, the Chester Polling. We were the only divers that day, so we had the entire 45-ft charter boat to ourselves; more importantly the weather and water were perfect, with minimal swells and no current, and once we got down to the stern we were treated to 30ft visibility, ideal conditions for this dive. On our first dive, Rick showed me around the base of the hull and into the massive hole where the bow sheared off from the stern section. After lunch, I took the videocamera down to the deck of the Polling and recorded the diverse organisms that reside there, ranging from baby seastars to anemones to schools of red snappers. A good set of easy, interesting dives; I can see why the Polling is so popular, as I certainly intend to return sometime and explore it further.

Cat Cove Marine Laboratory

After a short break in the internship, I set off to Salem to work with Dr. Joe Buttner at the Cat Cove Marine Laboratory. Dr. Joe and Salem State College have been working with the Massachusetts Department of Marine Fisheries since 2006 to study methods to restore softshell clam (Mya arenaria) populations in the Boston Harbor and surrounding area. Upon arrival, a lab assistant showed me around the Cat Cove lab, where millions of softshells are raised from birth–when they are roughly the size of a grain of rice–until they are large enough (>10mm) to be seeded in the intertidal zone of nearby beaches. Dr. Joe explained how clams in these seeded plots not only reach maturity and full size quicker than normal but also attract softshells already in the ecosystem, further increasing the population density and reproductive rates at the seeded beaches. After touring the facility and going over the data collected so far in this program, I grabbed shovels, waders, buckets, and a pair of waterproof boots and hopped in a truck with Dr. Joe and three of his assistants to ride out to Quincy. We planned to sample softshell sizes from a series of plots seeded the year before, and were racing to take advantage of the low tide.
Once we made it to the beach I witnessed an impressive phenomenon; though the change at low tide was only expected to be -5 ft, the extremely flat profile of the beach we were at meant that, at low tide, almost a quarter-mile of the intertidal zone was exposed! When we arrived only a corner of the nearest plot was visible, but within minutes the first line of plots, which measured 12ft x 50ft, were completely exposed; I could actually watch the waterline visibly recede after each wave passed by. Of course, what goes out must come back in, so we set to work immediately to try and sample all the plots before the tide turned and came rushing back in.
At each plot, we randomly selected 3 one-square-foot samples to dig out; the mud from each was then carefully sifted out in a nearby outlet of water, and any live clams were counted and measured. The first plot yielded only one clam, but we struck gold on the next few plots, pulling out 20+ clams in each sqft sample. These clams varied in size from 30mm to 70mm, and we even managed to find a few live razor clams among all the softshells. Despite starting an hour and a half before low tide, we barely had time to gather samples from half of the plots before the water poured back in and threatened to wash away all our equipment. We returned to the truck as the sun set on a day of hard, dirty, but thoroughly satisfying work; the life of a Marine Biologist might not be glamorous, but I think the grin on my face was evidence enough that it can be quite enjoyable.

New England Aquarium: Final Day

I started my last day at the New England Aquarium back at the Giant Ocean Tank; Myrtle was (as always) the most fun to feed, but I also had a great time working with the large porcupinefish in the exhibit, who hadn’t been hungry the last times I had surface feed duties. What’s so cool about feeding them (besides the fact that they are two-foot long puffballs that look like they could turn into a giant balloon at any moment) is how they eat; porcupinefish only have a flat plate of fused teeth on their upper and lower jaw, so to consume their prey they first ingest it and then spit it out partially and suck it back in multiple times, grating the food down against their plates each time and giving the impression that they’re trying to repeatedly blow bubbles with their food. The process by which they inhale their food (quite literally) is the same way that they rapidly intake water or air to inflate when threatened, and while I never saw any of the porcupinefish in that beachball-like state, I did manage to surprise a lot of the visitors when I coaxed one of the fish to break the surface and inhale (loudly) for its food, creating a sound very much akin to a whale’s blowhole (or a very violent sneeze.)
After lunch, I once again donned my Scuba gear in preparation for the 1:15 maintenance dive. It struck me how, in just the two months or so that I’ve been diving with this gear, I’ve grown quite used to it; at the start I never thought I’d want to give up my old BC, regulator, and dive computer (all of which I love so dearly,) but after over 30 dives in this gear I’m beginning to doubt I’ll go back. All the dive equipment that Bob Boyle (of Undersea Divers) donated has worked excellently for me, and for that I am very thankful.
But I digress–back to the Aquarium, where I prepared to jump back into the GOT for one last dive with Myrtle, the Sand Tiger Sharks, and everything else that makes that exhibit so unique and entertaining to experience. My dive buddy for the day was the assistant aquarist Dan Dolan, continuing the streak of dive buddies at the NEAq with the exact (or very similar) first name as mine. Dan was more than willing to get some footage of me in action, filming video while my family–who had arrived minutes earlier–shot still photos and waved excitedly through the glass. Apparently a number of the visitors remarked to my mother about that “brave young man diving in there with all those ferocious sharks,” comments that I’m sure made her very proud (and amused me to no end. Though I felt pretty good about them too.) I certainly didn’t want to leave the tank, and Dan was nice enough to let me linger a number of minutes past the planned run-time to wave to the visitors, film extreme closeups of the sharks passing at barely arms-length away, and scratch Myrtle’s back a few more times for good measure, but too soon it was time to surface again. I may never get a chance to dive in the GOT again, but the memories I have (to go along with the amazing footage I took) will always remain with me.
Speaking of amazing footage, after de-robing from my gear and wetsuit I had to race back downstairs, camera in hand, in time to jump into yet another wetsuit (of the much thicker 7mm variety) and help out with the afternoon feeding session in the Penguin exhibit. I had the opportunity to feed the Little Blues again, and this time I managed to avoid getting quite as many scratches on my fingers. However, the little penguins were still quite a handful to deal with. A number of them were entering into their yearly molt and, as such, were gorging themselves on fish; one little guy in particular kept bullying the other penguins out of the way (a behavior we don’t encourage nor reinforce,) and it took quite a bit of dexterity and patience to get each fish to the proper penguins without him snatching it out of my hand (or their beaks.) However, I still managed to get everyone fed, and after that I took the camera, still in its Gates housing, to get some underwater footage of the African penguins. I managed to get some great shots of the birds gracefully diving into the water and swimming by, while some of the more curious ones swam up to (and pecked at) their reflection in the dome of the housing, netting me some excellent close up footage. Feelings were again bittersweet as I left the exhibit, uncertain if I’d ever get to be in such close proximity with such interesting creatures ever again; but then again, the Aquarium is always looking for capable volunteers, and who knows–maybe next year will find me back on exhibit at the NEAq as a summer volunteer, intern or even co-op (a college credit program offered in many of the departments at the Aquarium.) I certainly had an amazing time in my week spent at the New England Aquarium; I owe a lot of thanks to the phenomenal staff and volunteers I worked with, who can somehow take the mundane acts of thawing fish, chopping up squid, scrubbing guano, and more and turn them into fun, unforgettable experiences.

New England Aquarium: Filming in the GOT

After seeing the film crew in action yesterday in the penguin exhibit, I was itching for a chance to use my own camera in the Aquarium. The opportunity came today when I headed back to the top floor to work once again with the dive staff in the Giant Ocean Tank. Don Stark–one of the dive volunteers–has his own underwater video production company, and he was more than willing to let me shadow him for the day, offer lots of useful advice and even film me diving in the tank. Before that, though, we had the two morning feeding sessions to deal with. Myrtle was a joy, as always; she not only gulped down all of her squid, fish, and protein gel in the first feed, but a whole head of lettuce and broccoli too! One thing she didn’t like, however, was the zucchini that had been put in her feed (I can’t say I blame her…) The staff mentioned that Myrtle fluctuates between periods of fasting and feasting; last time I worked with her as a marine mammal intern, she would eat just a couple pieces of squid and a handful of brussel sprouts, nothing more; whereas currently she’s been known to eat up to 10 heads of lettuce in a single day!
During the second feed I dealt again with the ‘cuda, needlefish, and porcupinefish, and helped set out the herring that were to be fed to the sharks. Feeding the sharks is quite an delicate task for the divers; while the two species in the tank are both non-aggressive and would never attack anyone in the tank if unprovoked, the divers must attach the sharks’ food to long poles so that no one’s hands are mistakenly crunched. Overall, the sharks are very well behaved, mostly due to how well they are fed (twice a day, whereas in the wild they might eat once a week at the most,) but each diver has their own tale of a close encounter; One story was told to me where all three sand tiger sharks decided to simultaneously go after the same fish, resulting in some spectacular underwater acrobatics by the diver to avoid being bowled over by a combined 900+ lbs of fast-moving chondrichthyes.
After lunch I suited up for the 1:15 maintenance dive, making sure my camera was properly set up and sealed in its housing. The dive was as excellent as my first in the tank–I don’t think I could ever get bored of the opportunity to swim just inches away from sharks, rays, moray eels, turtles, and much, much more, all gliding fearlessly by without a care. One of the more interesting things I had the opportunity to do on this dive was to clean out the gills of some of the hogfish and triggerfish on exhibit. Don taught me how to do this by feeding handfuls of sand into one of the four inflow vents in the tank; the fish soon clustered around the resulting plume of sand with mouths wide open, ingesting the grains and passing them along their gills to clean out any unwanted detritus. All in all, I got some excellent footage in the GOT, and am excited for tomorrow, when I’ll have the opportunity to film in the penguin exhibit as well!

New England Aquarium: Penguins Again

Back in the Penguin exhibit today, and while much of the day’s work mirrored that of Tuesday’s, two very cool things happened. First, Paul Leonard tasked me with feeding the Little Blue penguins. Little Blues, also known as Fairy penguins, are the smallest species of penguins–many visitors to the aquarium mistake them for juveniles–and also happen to be my favorite, so I was very excited to get to work so closely with them. Feeding penguins can be a bit tricky, as you have to put the fish directly into the bird’s mouth before they’ll grab and eat them. This leads to a delicate balancing act, as one must push the fish far enough that they’ll grab on, but not so far that they’ll grab onto one’s fingers. After a few minor bites, I got the hand of things, and managed to get everyone fed and learn to identify a few more birds in the process.
Once feeding was done, everyone jumped straight into cleaning the exhibit, with even more vigor than usual. You see, we’d just found out that morning that Jeff Corwin, of Animal Planet fame, was at the aquarium to shoot a PSA on global warming, and would be in the penguin tank at 11AM sharp to film with the Africans. This didn’t leave us much time to clean up after the morning feed, so we had to work extra hard to get everything looking pristine for the cameras. I had the privilege of staying in the tank while Mr. Corwin was being filmed, and used to opportunity to take some notes on how a nature documentary crew goes about their work. It was great to see Jeff speaking from his heart, rather than using a script, and the penguins sure loved him; Possession, an male African who had taken a shine to following me around the entire tank, climbed up next to Jeff and nuzzled his leg during the entire shoot, while Plum Pudding and In-guza, a breeding pair, took the opportunity to get a bit…intimate right next to him, resulting in a lot of laughs from everyone involved.
After the filming was done, Jeff toured the rest of the tank and then heading off to get some footage with the fur seals, while we all fell back into the same routine; celebrities may come and go, but the animals are always there, and they are always hungry!

Lake Huron, Day 5

Well, the weather almost didn’t permit, but we fortunately were able to dive the Mary Alice B on my last day here in Lake Huron. The morning weather reports, as well as the trees surrounding the Stayer’s house, indicated fairly strong winds that would not die off until the late afternoon–too late to wait for and still have a 24 hour interval before my flight the next day. We decided to take the boat out and judge whether or not the dive was doable once we made it to the wreck, located roughly eight miles northeast of Lexington Harbor. Upon arriving at the dive site, we encountered 1-2 foot rolling swells, which would be no problem whatsoever, if not for the ripping surface current. Jim and Pat Stayer were not planning to dive the wreck, due to some ear issues, so I was to go down again with Deb Dubeck. I got into the water and kicked with all my might to get to the mooring line on the bow, but Deb, who was diving with a set of doubles, could not make it up against so strong a current. It looked like the dive might be canceled after all, but Jim decided to give his ear a try and got suited up (thank goodness all his gear was still on the boat!)
Down we went on the line, unsure of what the conditions would be like when we reached the wreck. The Mary Alice lies in 92ft of water and often visibility is poor; as well, there can be a strong current on the seafloor, much like what I’d experienced diving the Regina. However, as we dropped down deeper and deeper, we found some of the best conditions possible, with no current whatsoever and 50′+ visibility–enough to see clearly from the bow to the stern of the sunken tug resting upright and pristine on the lakebed. The wreck is in such great condition that I was able to enter the wheelhouse, spin the wheel back and forth a couple of times, then go around to the galley, open the door (which peeled open without any resistance) hover over the kitchen sink, perfectly intact. After surfacing into now 2-3′ white-tipped swells, we decided not to attempt a second dive, and instead end the trip on that successful note. That evening, Jim and Pat regaled me with stories of conducting the first ever dive on that wreck–Jim found intact dishes still waiting to be washed in that galley sink–and we headed into town to film (and enjoy) the local fireworks display. All in all, a great end to a great trip, and another successful stage completed on this amazing internship. Next up–working with penguins and diving with sharks at the New England Aquarium!

Lake Huron, Day 4

Storm clouds threatened as we headed out to sea lake on the morning of my fourth day in Michigan, so we quickly adjusted our destination; instead of diving the Price, the first dive of the day would be the Regina. Both ships were large freighters that sank during a fierce storm in 1913; the Regina (250′ long) settled upside-down in 77′ of water. Though the lake surface was smooth as glass when we arrived at our mooring on the bow, we found a decent current moving towards the stern when we hit bottom. Unfortunately, Pat’s regulator started free-flowing from the primary stage as soon as we hit the upturned keel, but after getting her back to the surface I was able to complete the dive with the Stayers’ good friend Deb Dudeck; despite not having dove the Regina in a number of years, she proved to be quite the capable guide, helping me find crates of cargo, portholes, and the ship’s name, still legible on the bow.  We had intended our second dive to be on the stern of the ship, but the buoy was missing and the current too strong for us to free-descend; instead, we headed back to the Sport to get some more footage (this time, with the proper weights!) Tomorrow–weather permitting–we’ll dive one of the most intact wrecks in Lake Huron, the Mary Alice B. (discovered by none other than Jim and Pat Stayer!)

Lake Huron, Day 3

The storm finally left us overnight, and Jim and Pat Stayer were quick to jump on the opportunity to get some wreck dives in. We loaded up gear into their boat–including cameras to film both topside and underwater–and sped off to the first dive of the day, a 56′ tugboat named the Sport. This boat is famous for being the first tug built with steel to cruise the Great Lakes; despite sinking in 1920 she remains in excellent condition, with an intact hull and easily visible boiler, prop, and steering wheel. The first thing I noticed when descending the Sport, however, was how quickly I sank to the bottom; turns out I’d forgotten to adjust my weights for freshwater diving, and was a good 5 lbs heavy. This caused some buoyancy issues while filming, but I still managed to get some great footage of the wreck and the countless gobies swarming over it.
After diving the Sport, we heading back inshore to dive a shallow wreck located less than a mile off the harbor–the Eliza Strong. This 200′ wreck is in a bit more disrepair than the Sport; it seems that, not too long after sinking 1901, the Army Corp of Engineers decided to “flatten” the Strong with over half a ton of dynamite so that there would be at least 20′ of clearance over the ship. What remains are long lengths of deck boards, lots of scrap metal (including a number of large, hand-forged nails,) and countless fish seeking refuge in the scattered ruins. This time, with my weight corrected, I glided effortlessly around the wreck, capturing good footage of the debris (despite the runoff from the recent storm, visibility was at least 25′) and even discovering a sizable channel catfish hidden among the planks. On both dives, my new DUI drysuit continued to do its job perfectly; despite the water temperature being a good 30 degrees lower than Panama, I never felt cold at all.

Lake Huron and the Stayers, Day 1

After a weekend’s respite, I returned to the action again, this time at Lake Huron, where a surprisingly tenacious storm has blown out our chances to dive for the past two days. Fortunately, the extra time on land allowed me to catch up on logging and capturing all the footage I took in Panama. Pat and Jim Stayer, my gracious hosts (and excellent cinematographers) gave a number of tips for recording and managing all the footage I’m accumulating this summer, as well as some invaluable tips for underwater color correction (though the Sony HC3 captures beautiful detail in hi-def video, it’s auto-white balance leaves something to be desired.) My editing workload will be a lot more manageable–and less stressful!–thanks to their input and advice. And it couldn’t come at a better time, as the next few days promise to rack up the footage as the three of us head out to film some freshwater wrecks.

Panama, Day 12

Another deep dive today, to 120′ this time. Now that we had been exposed to some of the challenges of deep diving, we were given a more specific assignment, to document distribution of various marine species at depth. This time around, everyone was prepared for narcosis at depth, no matter how subtle, and as a result our dive went a lot smoother. Even though two divers experienced significant, noticeable narcosis, everyone performed their checks properly and recorded usable data at depth; the only “victim” was one diver who, lured by Terrence gesturing at something at the seafloor, hit 128′ before she realized what he was up to. But for that, the dive went quite smoothly, and we were rewarded with the spotting of a large hogfish at 110′–the first decent sized game fish we’ve seen this trip–as well as a pair of squid hovering over the reef at 30′ that pulsed various shades of blue as we drifted by.
The rest of the day was spent relaxing onshore, but as the sun started to set we cast off again, heading back towards Portobelo Harbor for a night dive at the San Marinas reef. Though lighting difficulties limited the quality of the footage I could capture on that dive, it was still very enjoyable to cruise around the reef wall at 60′, observing the bioluminescence, various crustaceans, and (finally) a definite glimpse of an adult octopus, who was unfortuantely securely buried in a rock face so that only his tentacles protruded out in sight.
Tomorrow will bring us our final dive, which promises to test our experience and take us to the recreational depth limit of 130′. These past few dives have been a great capstone to all the learning and fun we’ve had on this trip; Panama will sorely be missed, though I can’t wait to see what’s next to come in this incredible internship.

Panama, Day 11

On Friday, we hopped in the boat at 0900 to take a half-hour ride to a freighter sunk about a mile off the Panama Canal entrance. This roughly 150′-long cargo ship was intentionally sunk in the mid 1970s, and we wanted to observe how much coral growth and fish activity the wreck contained now, 30 years later. That close to the canal entrance, we weren’t expecting good visibility, but were pleasantly surprised when we broke through a murky halocline at 15′ and could clearly see the wreck, located 45′ below. For a fairly recent wreck, the freighter had considerable coral growth, especially on the sheltered stern side, where we spotted a few sea cucumbers and starfish. On the exposed top deck, multiple schools of fish flitted around, including a group of docile spadefish that let us drift next to them, just inches away, without flinching. One of the most impressive finds on the dive was a large blue tang, measuring about ten inches in length, that darted in and out of the exposed substructure and we coasted overhead. Overall, a great wreck; unfortunately I, assuming the worst for visibility, neglected to bring the Gates housing–make that one more lesson learned: always bring the videocamera!

Panama, Day 9

Today was the day we’d been planning quite some time for, the day we’d make a dive past the century mark! I know some of the readers of this blog will yawn at that number, but for myself and most of the divers on this trip, who are not deco-trained, any opportunity to further our training at depth is eagerly anticipated. The dive plan was laid out thoroughly, and Dr. Illife and Terrence gave everyone a few simple tasks to do at depth; they also cautioned us on the effects of nitrogen narcosis as depth increases, but all the students seemed to think, “We’ve felt fine at 90+ feet, how much worse could that extra ten feet be?” (I bet you can see where this is going…) Well, we did the dive, spent ten minutes at 110′, and then carefully rode our no-decomp limits as we gradually ascended the reef. Back on the boat, I was chagrined to hear of a multitude of minor problems that had occurred at the bottom–people forgetting to do some of the tasks, (which only involved giving our safety divers a time check at 5 minutes, a PSI check at 8, and then a “one minute until ascend” warning at 9 minutes,) or losing track of time, or even unintentionally breaking the strict 110′ depth limit we had set, and almost running into deco! I personally had felt no symptoms of narcosis, and had no problem completing the tasks mentioned above, but quite a few people appeared to have been hit in some small way. Terrence revealed that that was the point of this dive, and the tasks he and Dr. Illife had assigned; nitrogen narcosis does not necessarily manifest itself in obvious ways, but even at just past 100 feet it can have a considerable effect on a diver’s ability to function properly. I was glad to have passed the test, as it were; that dive was certainly an eye opener, and a reminder of the caution and alertness all divers must display whenever diving the limits of recreational scuba (and beyond.)

…But not all of today was about somber lessons! After lunch, while some of the group finished a rocky shoreline survey for the last research project, myself, Dr. Illife, and four other students went on a rain forest hike. We started on a sizable dirt trail, fording numerous streams as we viewed the wide variety of flora, but after about an hour the trail ended in a thicket of date palms, and we decided to bushwhack ahead and try to summit the large hill, or loma, that we’d already started to climb. The next half hour was a grueling experience, as we braved mud, entangling vines, spiky trees, and ants the size of my thumb (only slightly exaggerating,) but in the end it was worth it, for we made it to the top and had a stunning vista of Portobelo Harbor, Drake Island, and the Caribbean sea stretching out in front of us. The path down was just as challenging as going up–at times we had to use nearby vines as ropes and essentially rappel down the steeper portions of the loma–but the grins evident on our mud soaked faces when we returned to the trail made it clear that we had had quite the adventure. On the way back, we encountered a truck that had skidded off the trail, a group of young Panamanians splashing in a pool that, judging from their startled looks, mistook us for Los Diablos Blancos, and a passing flock of chickens, but we still made it back just in time for dinner! …Though we did have to clean up a bit, first.

Panama, Days 7-8

The halfway point of this trip found our group hard at work on a number of research projects. On Monday, we took a day off from diving; the morning was spent on a flat-bottomed boat, touring a series of mangrove swamps to collect data on the organisms found in such an environment. Besides the numerous crabs that scuttled up prop roots, across tree branches, and (occasionally) all over our boat, we spotted kingfishers, giant termites nests, scarlet ibises, green- and blue herons, squirrel cuckoos, and a two-toed sloth (who was moving far faster than one would normally expect a sloth to.)
That afternoon, we returned to the shallow bay we had explored on the 11th, in order to conduct some quadrant surveys on the large sea grass beds found there. Yours truly spotted a pair of small squid hiding among a fallen branch, and then discovered why it is a good idea to wear a weight belt when filming underwater, even if just snorkeling in swim trunks: I had to grab a rock about half the size of my head in order to sink down far enough to get a decent shot of the cephalopods.
We had originally planned a deep dive to 110′ for Tuesday morning, but had to switch plans when Terrence had to make an impromptu trip to Panama City that wouldn’t bring him back until later that afternoon. We delayed that dive until Wednesday, and instead revisited two sites near Drakes Island. At the first site, a large and and (apparently) curious Queen Angelfish followed us around the reef for the majority of the dive, while during the afternoon trip I got some excellent footage of a school of tangs and parrotfish grazing the algae off of a large brain coral specimen. That evening, I took the Gates housing to film some coral transects that we had set up just offshore from the hotel, and discovered another important thing to check for when shooting: make sure there is enough tape left! Fortunately, I got the footage I needed with not a second left to spare, and was able to unwind afterwards, playing guitar with some of the locals and learning a couple of new songs.

Panama, Day 6

Up until this point in the trip, all of our dives have been fairly close to shore, on fringing reefs generally within a quarter of a mile of land. Well that changed today, when we had the amazing opportunity to take a half hour boat ride offshore to dive a Cobia farm. This farm consisted of an octohedral shaped net (think two pyramids aligned base-to-base) that stretched a good 75′ tall, from 15′ feet at the mooring line to 90′ at the bottom, where a series of chains anchored it to 2-ton cement blocks at the ocean’s bottom, in 150-160′ of water. Inside the net were countless masses of Cobia, schooling around and feeding off a central support pillar–apparently over $1 million worth of fish were contained within that cage. We descended it in a ripping current and swell, crawled/slid down the top pyramid, then flipped over the side and descended, hand over hand, down the overhang of the bottom half–when we later watched the footage I had shot, Terrence remarked how we all looked like a group of howler monkeys descending down a massive jungle gym (it certainly felt that fun!) Our evening was spent relaxing after the strenuous (but thoroughly enjoyable) dive; at one point Ray, our go-to guy for just about everything at the hotel, produced a set of acoustic guitars and he, another student on the trip, and myself made our way through a series of songs, from Hotel California to Wish You Were Here, while other group members joined in on vocals and even bongo drums. Who knows, maybe at next Saturday’s live music night, the Tropical Ecology Class of Texas A&M might be playing a set or two for the patrons of this wonderful establishment!

Panama, Day 5

Today was a blast, but also a blur; it seems that, now that a routine has been established, these days will start to run by quickly, and all to soon I’ll be aboard a plane bound back for the US of A. But until then, I’ll keep enjoying every minute of the time spent here, and logging all my wonderful experiences.
Today’s first dive brought us back to the site where I’d first tried out my camera system; but this time, we planned to dive with the current–much to the relief of my legs, which were already sore enough after the lunges we had done for PT this morning while cradling full tanks. And what a difference going with the current makes! Even with the camera, I maintained the same air supply as most everyone else on the dive, and the payoff was great when we hit a vast swath of healthy reef at 20′ near the end of the dive–beautiful color, lots of fish, and a wide variety of corals to log and identify. Shortly before our second dive, a large thunderstorm rolled through our neck of the rainforest, forcing us to change our planned dive–of another coral tube system (for which I had my gloves ready!)–and instead head the opposite direction to a wall dive in somewhat reduced visibility. We rode out, already drenched and with reduced expectations of the dive to come, but as soon as I jumped into the refreshingly warm water and watched the raindrops pattering on the sea surface as I free descended, I knew that this was going to be an enjoyable dive. And I was not disappointed, for we all experienced one of the most relaxing and pleasant dives of our trip yet, an easy cruise along the reef wall at 70′, followed by another great spur-and-groove coral reef at 30-20′. I personally was able to practice with the camera a lot, not having to worry about a tugging current or steep drop-off, and saw some great sights, the most notable of which was a mature female reef crab, whose carapace measured a good 10-inches wide, at least; we all observed her from a safe distance, none eager to accidentally be on the receiving end of her vicious claws.
After the dives, we gathered around the big screen TV at the bar to review the footage I had shot so far, which amounted to about an hour’s worth; it was interesting to watch the noticeable improvement in the footage quality for each dive, as I became more and more used to handling a camera underwater. Terrence even offered some great tips and suggestions for further improving my camera skills, which I will gladly utilize on tomorrow’s dives. The evening found us all enjoying succulent grilled carne asada and live music from our dive master’s local band; I even had the opportunity to join in on the guitar for a rendition of Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight,” and promised to practice with the dive master all of next week so that I can try a few more songs at the next performance. Until then…

Panama, Day 4

‘Twas the fourth day in Panama, and already a distinct routine had set in place. I arose to the (now expected) 630 knocking on the door, signaling PT time with Terrence–there’s nothing like working out with a former Navy SEAL to give perspective on how out of shape you are. After the vigorous workout, we all snorkeled out into the bay to free dive a sailboat sunk in roughly 20′ of water, where Terrence once again showed us all up by doing laps around the 32′ vessel like the dolphin we’re pretty sure he secretly is. Breakfast at 730 sharp, then setting up gear for a 900 launch to our first boat dive of the day: Las Tres Hermanas (The Three Sisters.) I was able to get some great footage on this drift dive, including of a pair of scorpion fish and a large, rust colored trigger fish that no one has yet been able to identify. After the dive we motored over to a shallow lagoon to explore a red mangrove habitat and the shallow tidal zone, where I witnessed a tiny coral shrimp, no bigger than my fingernail, attack what I first took to be a drifting piece of seagrass, only to exclaim in surprise when I noticed the crab legs sticking out–my first ever decorated crab sighting!
Lunch followed the lagoon, then an hour break to nap, shoot pool, or catch up on our coral identification research, and by 1400 we had all loaded into the boat again for the second dive of the day: a downed Beechcraft airplane next to a series of coral swim-through caves. Due to earlier rain, the visibility at the plane was less than ideal, but it was still great to observe all the fish taking refuge in the shadow of an intact wing, and to stick my head into the fuselage and observe the sponge and coral growth inside the gutted shell. More intriguing were the coral tubes, which required a bit of dexterity, patience, and perfect buoyancy control in order to navigate through spaces barely wider than myself that rose and descended as much as fifteen feet and were often silted out–certainly not for the faint of heart, or inexperienced diver. Some of our group who had been diving in just a rash guard and swim trunks (and sometimes not even the rash guard!) emerged from these swim-throughs with a number of battle wounds and vows to wear a full wetsuit from then on (yours truly merely made a note to bring gloves next time any tight spaces and sharp rocks are involved.)
The evening was, as it always has been, a time for decompression; a time to enjoy the scrumptious local fare (I have developed quite the affinity for fried plantain) go over the dives of the day, discuss the dives to come, and then break up to listen to music, practice our trick shots, read a book, or just simply hit the sack early; these days are jammed packed, and by the time 2300 rolls around, it is a relief to collapse into our single beds, ready to fall into sweet slumber until seven hours later, when we’ll do it all over again.

Panama, Day 3

Our third day in the Republic of Panama started with a bit of a setback, as, due to strong currents that morning, we were unable to dive the 18th century Spanish tall ship wreck that we’d planned on. However, we still had a good reef and drift dive in the current, and I started to shoot with the Sony HC3 video camera and housing that had been donated to the internship by Gates Underwater Housing. It’s quite the learning experience to be swimming up a strong current with a large box, no matter how neutrally buoyant it may be, and I wasn’t surprised to find I was one of the first divers to hit the 500psi mark at the end of that dive. The afternoon found us in a spur-and-groove reef formation, where one of the group managed to discover a rare marine arthropod called a sea spider (no word as to whether or not they have sea webs.) The best part of the day came afterward, when we stopped to snorkel in a shallow bay and discovered a pristine beach that housed three distinct mircoecosystems–a rocky tidal area, a sea-grass bed, and numerous miniature reef outcroppings. in less than two feet of water, we managed to find a scorpion fish, two stingrays, a porcupine fish, juvenile parrotfish, a school of guppies, and countless wrasse, brittle stars, and sea urchins.

Panama, Day 2

Today was a day of many experiences, starting with our first boat dive of this trip. We loaded up our gear at 8:30 and jetted out to Drake’s Island, named after the infamous pirate Sir Francis Drake who rumors say was buried in a lead coffin not far away. We were uncertain what the visibility would be like, after having to deal with some silt on the previous night’s dive, but broke out a in relieved smiles when we moored in 35′ of water and could see quite clearly down to the sea bottom, and grinned even more when we jumped into the perfect, 83F water. Our first dive took us around a large circular reef, where I saw the biggest spiny lobster of my life (I swear his antennae measure a good foot long, alone!) as well as a mating pair of french angelfish and a juvenile spotted drum. After lunch (and the first of what promises to be many warm tropical downpours,) we headed back to the other side of Drake’s Island for a wall dive. Drifting along in a pleasant little current, we spotted a moray eel, more octopus gardens (but alas, no cephalopods yet,) and more exquisite specimens of coral; it’s quite remarkable how, for a coast with a significantly silty seabed, the coral just flourishes around here–not quite as abundantly as some pacific locations I’ve been too, but in size, some of the individual organisms give Hawaiian coral a good run for its money. The reefs here are definitely about quality, not quanity, and it’s been a pleasure so far to dive them.
But not all of our Panama trip is about diving! After our second dive, we hopped in a van and heading into the historic town of Portobelo, where we explored a 19th-century spanish fort, built out of local coral, as well as a local church that houses a giant carved statue of Jesus know as the “Black Christ” (for the dark wood used in the scuplture) that is annually paraded around town, carried on a platform supported by 80 men! Always eager for “authentic experiences,” we sampled the local soft drink of choice, which was (quite accurately) described as “moxie, but slightly more palatable”…definitely an aquired taste, that one. Upon returning to Octopus Garden, I attempted to maintain my run of victories at the pool table, only to be dethroned by none other that Terrence himself (don’t believe for a minute his claims of being “inexperienced” at pool.) Oh well, tomorrow holds the promise of a 18th century wreck dive, more excellent cuisine, and (hopefully) a shot at redemption at 9-ball.

Panama, Day 1

Waking up at 4 AM is usually never fun, but when the impetus is a trip down to the Caribbean side of the Republic of Panama, well, I can manage. A five-hour flight out of Houston landed myself and the rest of the Texas A&M University at Galveston’s Tropical Marine Ecology class in Panama City, Panama, and after a short bus ride (including a requisite stop at the famous Canal for pictures) we found ourselves at Octopus Garden dive hotel, in the historic town of Portabelo. Within minutes we were introduced to the small (but very friendly) group of hotel staff, and set up in air conditioned rooms (a blessing in the humidity of this country, which generally is, at minimum, 80%!) After a delicious dinner of the hotel’s signature dish–octopus in a coconut cream sauce–we set up for our first Caribbean dive, a night dive in sponge reefs just a stone throw from the hotel’s ocean deck. 20 feet down, when the visibility cleared, we were treated to a long reef wall, replete with large coral specimens, parrotfish, schools of vibrant blue gobies, and a few spiny lobster, not to mention a number of the hotel’s namesake octopus nests, or “gardens”. After a few rounds of pool (yours truly remains undefeated at 9-ball,) we retired to our lodgings, ready to get up at 6:30 tomorrow for a long day of diving!

The Great Lakes

The last trip of my internship was to the Great Lakes, more specifically Lake Huron for a week of wreck diving and video editing with Jim and Pat Stayer.  Jim and Pat are founders of Out of the Blue Productions and have helped find a handful of wrecks in Lake Huron. The first couple of days I was there, Sea Rover Cris Kohl and his wife Joan Forsberg were also visiting.  Cris also writes books about the Great Lake Wrecks.  The first day that we went out on their boat the Wildkat, I was astonished to be looking at the huge body of water in front of me.  It smelled and tasted like freshwater, but the amount of water and the waves made it look like the ocean.  We dove the wreck of the Sport.  The next day the weather was not good, so we could not go out.  Whenever there is a little bit of wind or rain, it gets rough really fast on the lake. Instead, I spent the day in the editing room.  The Stayers have an amazing editing room that they use to put together their films from their trips. Luckily, I was able to pick up using the editing program fairly quickly.  The following day the weather had improved, and we made 3 dives.  The ships that we dove on were the New York, Col. A.B. Williams, and the Charles A. Street. The shipwrecks in Lake Huron are located in a preserve so all of the portholes and metal are still intact.  This was really cool to see, because the shipwrecks in the ocean where I live have all been stripped down.  After a long day of diving it was back to the editing room to continue working on my presentation.  The day after we were able to get in a dive before the weather got bad; Jim and I dove the Eliza H. Strong.  The rest of my time at the Stayers was spent editing and sightseeing in nearby Lexington.  My visit with the Stayers was an amazing opportunity.  I dove so many wonderful wrecks and was able to learn their history.  I would like to thank the Stayers for their unbelievable help with the editing and the assembly of my presentation.  As I got on the plane to go home, it was weird to think that after my flight, I wouldn’t have any more traveling or planes to catch for a while.

I would like to thank the Boston Sea Rovers and the Scalli Family for the amazing opportunity, and although the internship may be coming to an end, it is just the beginning for me.

Intern Dive

Today my family and I drove to Gloucester, MA to meet Patrick Scalli, past interns, and other Sea Rovers for a day of diving and a cookout.  We dove from two boats in Folly’s Cove and caught some enormous lobster, most of which had to be returned because they were over the maximum size limit.  It was a day full of fun and catching up with old friends.

DAN

Before I knew it I was flying to North Carolina to visit the Divers Alert Network (DAN) headquarters.  When I arrived, I met with Eric Douglas and Donna Uguccioni from DAN.  Donna is in charge of the scholars and interns that come to visit.  Jamie Brisbin (2008 Our World Underwater Scholar) was also there to receive DAN training and take part in a “Flying after Diving” study (FAD).  These studies are done in the hyperbaric chamber at Duke University to measure the effects on divers who fly soon after diving.  For each study, 4 people went into the chamber to exercise for a set time at depth; we were in the chamber for 40 minutes at 60 ft.  We then spent time on deck between the “dive” and the “flight”.  When I participated, the time between the flight and dive was down to 5 hours.  We then went back into the chamber for a 4-hour flight.  During the flight the doctors would take Doppler and TE readings which enabled them to monitor our hearts for bubbles.  Each trial of the study decreases the time between “diving” and “flying” after a certain amount of people have gone through that time period and no one has gotten bent.  The goal is to bring the surface time all the way down to 5 minutes between flight and dive.  The training that I received while I was at DAN included AED, O_2, Advanced O_2, and First Aid for Hazardous Marine Life Injuries.  The time spent at DAN was a lot of fun and I met a lot of really cool people as well as learned an incredible amount.

Dutch Springs and Rescue Class

I was next off to Pennsylvania to take a Diver Rescue class at Dutch Springs taught by Andrea Zaferes and Lifeguard Systems.  The class consisted of one night of classroom and then the weekend of diving at Dutch Springs, with a mix of lectures and dives.  On land, we went over CPR, dressing different types of injuries, and other exercises.  In the water we learned how to handle an unconscious diver, out-of-air diver, and other drills that would be useful in an emergency.  This class was very helpful in better preparing me for what to do in an underwater emergency situation.

Great White Shark

Today I went to the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries office in New Bedford to take part in a great white shark necropsy being performed by Greg Skomal.  The shark had washed up on shore a few days earlier and was picked up by the Division. The necropsy was being done to try and figure out the cause of death and to take tissue and organ samples for further study of the fish.  The shark was a female and less than 1 year old, although, you would never know that from its size (6 feet).  This was an amazing opportunity to see a great white shark up close and to learn about sharks from the Division’s shark expert.

Advanced and Nitrox Training

After my work on the Quest, I was off to Connecticut to meet up with past Frank Scalli Intern Richard Simon.  I would be doing my Advanced and Nitrox class with him.  The first night, we got all of the gear ready to go to Block Island and then did the majority of the classroom portion.  There were a lot of materials to go through, since I was doing two classes.  Nitrox or enriched air is a mixture of gas that has a higher percentage of oxygen than regular air; the two most common mixes are 68% nitrogen, 32% oxygen, and 64% nitrogen, 36% oxygen.  The next day we drove to Point Judith, RI to take a boat to Block Island.  There are a ton of wrecks near Block Island, which is a perfect location for the advanced dives.  We dove on the Troydon, and the Heroine. The Troydon is a 90 ft clam boat lying in 135ft water.  The Heroine is a broken up steam fishing vessel lying at 80ft.

New England Aquarium: Giant Ocean Tank

I woke up this morning with eager anticipation; I was finally going to dive in the New England Aquarium’s Giant Ocean Tank, fulfilling a dream I’d had ever since I’d interned at the Marine Mammals exhibit there. For those who’ve never been to the New England Aquarium, the Giant Ocean Tank (or GOT) is a 23′ deep, 40′ diameter tank holding 200,000 gallons of seawater heated to 75F to simulate conditions in a Caribbean reef ecosystem. The tank houses a gigantic, 20′-tall fiberglass coral reef replica that over 600 fish (and a few turtles) call home. The species within the tank range from damselfish to balloonfish to tarpon to sand tiger sharks; pretty much every level of a typical reef food chain is represented in the GOT. One would expect this to result in a lot of bad news for the little guys in the tank–and a lot of tasty meals for the apex predators, like the sharks and the barracuda on exhibit–but fortunately that is not the case, thanks to the tireless efforts of the aquarium’s dive staff, who work all day to ensure everyone in the tank is well fed and taken care of. This group of dedicated staff and volunteers, whom I worked with for the day, prep four meals a day for the fish on exhibit; the food ranges from lettuce to zooplankton to squid to herring, with specific diets prepared for each species on exhibit. Some of the fish are feed at the surface, while the others are feed underwater by divers. In total, five dives are conducted each day, four for feeding and one for maintenance of the exhibit.
The workday started with food prep; nothing like the smell of countless buckets of thawing seafood to wake you up! Squid were debeaked and depenned, shrimp were detailed (as in tails removed, not cleaned like a car–that took me a while to figure out,) capelin were sorted male and female, and everything was chucked into buckets, bags, and tupperware containers for the feeding sessions to come. For the first feed, I handled the needlefish and barracuda, chucking krill, silversides, and capelin out to any hungry passersby. Second feed found me paired up with Myrtle, unofficial mascot (and definite prima donna) of the GOT. Myrtle is a 75-year old, 550-pound Green Sea Turtle, and she cavorts around with an attitude that can only come from living in the Giant Ocean Tank ever since it was first built 40 years ago. She also eats quite a lot, being the only animal in the tank that fed at each of the four sessions; during my session with her, she gulped down a full head of lettuce, a dozen or so brussel sprouts, and a head of broccoli and seemed eager for more.
After lunch came the moment I’d been waiting for, as I suited up and prepared to dive into the GOT. Paul Leonard unfortunately could not dive with me that day, but I was placed in the capable hands of Dan Laughlin, assistant curator of the Giant Ocean Tank and Penguin exhibits. He made sure to show me that, while diving in the GOT is a job with a lot of responsibility, it’s also a fun and incredible experience. We scrubbed the “coral”, noted deposits of damselfish eggs on the walls of the tank, brushed Myrtle’s back with a convenient rock, and then I had the chance to just sit back and observe all the amazing animals interact peacefully around me. And as I watched Dan blow bubble rings to the sharks cruising directly over our heads, while hundreds of visitors peered at us through the glass, I realized just how lucky I was to be in that position, and how I wouldn’t exchange the experience for anything in the world.

Quest and Multi Beam Sonar

My next location was Fairhaven Harbor; here I was on Eric and Lori Takakjian’s boat the Quest.  The Quest was being used by the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries to support a Focus II tow vehicle for using multi-beam sonar.  The two days were spent putting everything onto the boat and securing it to the deck. Setting up the system with the computers, to ensure that everything was being read properly took quite a while.  As with any big research project, we ran into some problems, so there was a lot of trial and error.  When everything was all set up, we slowly raised the Focus II and slid it into the water, for a float test. It was very interesting to learn about the system and how it all worked.   I am very grateful to Lori and Eric for inviting me out on the boat.

New England Aquarium: Penguin Exhibit

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 when I participated in a six-month Marine Mammal internship for the aquarium. This time, however, I was not going into Boston to work with the Atlantic Harbor & Pacific Fur Seals; instead, I was going to help out with the African, Rockhopper, and Blue Penguins! Once I arrived at NEAq, I met up with Paul Leonard, a Boston Sea Rover and senior aquarist in the penguin exhibit. He introduced me to the staff and volunteers on the exhibit, and then I jumped straight into work, helping separate and weigh the fish of choice for the day — Sardines (which are quite different from the fish sold in tight little tin cans in the supermarket.) Once the buckets for each species of penguin were filled with the proper amount of fish, we all suited up in nice, thick 7mm wetsuits and prepared to go in the exhibit. Though no one was going to be diving, those 7mm suits were crucial; the water in the exhibit is filtered in straight from the adjoining Boston Harbor, at an average temperature of about 60F. Furthermore, we were planning to spend about 3 hours in that water, which ranged in depth from waist-deep to up to my neck; after the first half-hour in there I was thinking I should have brought my DUI drysuit!
However, my attention was quickly drawn away from the cold when we started to feed the penguins. Working with Paul, I kept a tally of how much fish each of the 41 African Penguins on exhibit ate. Though the African’s have distinct markings on their chest plumage, it’d be almost impossible to recognize each individual bird by sight, which is why the penguins are all tagged with colored ID bands on their wings; left for the males, and right for the females. I expected to be overwhelmed by all the colors and corresponding names,  but was pleasantly surprised to find that by the end of the feeding session I could already identify a handful of the penguins. Once every African Penguin had been seen to, we put the food buckets away and pulled out hoses, disinfectant, and scrub brushes; even with a team of four or more volunteers, it takes roughly five hours of work a day to keep the exhibits clean and the penguins well fed–that means five hours in numbingly cold water, which is why I soon learned to be very grateful for the hot showers we took at lunch and again near the end of our shift. The rest of the day flew by, and before I knew it the kitchen was clean, blocks of frozen fish were set out to thaw, and wetsuits were all hung with care, ready for the next day’s set of volunteers to do it all over again. I’ll be back with the penguins later this week, but tomorrow brings a whole new set of experiences as I head up to the top floor to work with the aquarium dive team and dive into the Great Ocean Tank!

New England Aquarium

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 me where he worked and then got me started with helping to clean the Penguin exhibit; I have never cleaned so hard in my life.  It was now feeding time for the penguins, and for such little birds they eat a lot.  In the afternoon, he showed me around the aquarium from behind the scenes. The exhibits look different, when you are standing behind them.  The next day, I spent the morning working with the water quality team.  They have a very important job, because if there is something wrong with the water, the organisms can get sick.    During the afternoon I was allowed to watch and participate in a necropsy of cow nose rays.  A necropsy is like an autopsy, but for animals.  After the third one, an intern from the Veterinary staff and I did one ourselves.  It was really interesting.  The third day I shadowed one of the Marine Vets.  He had us running all over the place, between a very busy schedule and the emergency calls he received.  I was even able to go with him to the outside tank when he was giving one of the female harbor seals an injection.  The trainers would feed and distract the other seals while he did his work.

NEAQ GOT

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 have to wash all the containers that were used.  I had never done so many dishes!  Paul took me in for a tour of the tank.  It was so cool to see all of the different types of animals within one small ecosystem. I noticed very quickly how friendly the turtles are, especially Myrtle, who wants to know everything going on in the tank.  The next day, when I was doing a cleaning dive I was kneeling in an area known as the sand trap scrubbing some rocks, when one of the loggerheads came over and sat on top of my legs.  It was pretty funny to watch the turtle nestle in against me.  When I was not cleaning, I handled some of the surface feeds.  There are many fish, like the cobia, barracuda, puffer fish, needle nose fish that are fed from the surface.  Myrtle is also fed on the surface and her favorite food is Brussels sprouts.  The last day I was at the NEAQ, Dan Dolan took me into the tank and I was able to do some video taping for my presentation.  In the afternoon, I went back to the penguins where I got to feed them myself.  One of my favorite things about my time at the NEAQ was when I would first arrive in the morning.   It wasn’t open to the public yet so the lights where just starting to turn on and it was extremely quiet, all you could hear was the sound of the water and the animals.  I really enjoyed my experience at the Aquarium and learned so many things about how an aquarium works.

Orleans with George

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 Harbor, Pleasant Bay, and Nauset Beach to find Busycon egg cases and baby Limulus.  We unfortunately did not find any Limulus, but we did find conch egg cases.  We opened the egg cases and counted the tiny conchs, in each case.  The weekend was very interesting and I learned a lot about Limulus, Busycon, and sea shells.

Diver’s Market

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 visual tank inspections with the Visual Plus machine, put together regulators, and change o-rings.  In the end, I learned quite a bit about what it takes to operate a dive shop and I really enjoyed the experience.

Underwater Phototech

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 lines up to fit perfectly within the housing and what the different buttons on the housing are used for during filming.  This information will be extremely helpful for making my presentation.  I also learned how to put camera and housing packages together and how to make packing slips.

Dry Suit/Advanced Training

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 as a deck hand with Dave to help the divers with their gear.  On the second trip, Dave and I dove the Chester Polling, the wreck of a small tanker located off the entrance to Gloucester Harbor.  The visibility was amazing and we even saw a wolf eel!  On the way back to shore, Dave taught me how to drive the boat.  It was a lot of fun and the diving was great.

Horseshoe Crab Survey

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 if there were horseshoe crabs within the grid, tallied the totals, and Alison entered the information into the database.