My last day at the National Aquarium was spent looking around at the exhibits that I didn’t get to see the rest of the week. I couldn’t dive because I was flying home later that afternoon. I looked around at the Rainforest and Australian galleries and their complex tanks. The diversity of life at the…
On my fourth day at the Aquarium we went to the Animal Care and Rescue Center (ACRC). There Holly and her team did training in one of the pools with divers figuring out best methods to save an unconscious diver and help if need be. Holly’s team of Josh, Jackie and Taylor Grace all helped…
This morning Simon the stingray was overdue for a spine clipping. In the morning I worked with Katie, Emily, Jennie Janson, the assistant curator of Blue Wonders and a diver, and Josh Foronda one of Holly’s dive team. Katie and Jennie went down to catch Simon while Josh tended the divers (made sure nothing happened…
My morning started by getting food ready for the aquarium’s many animals. I cut up a crab, and stuffed squid and bait fish with vitamin pills for the sharks and rays in Black Tip Reef. I worked with Emily Anderson and Katie Diciccio, divers and aquarists who help run the Atlantic Coral Reef and Black…
After my short flight to Baltimore I met Holly Bourbon. Holly is the DSO (dive safety officer) of the National Aquarium, and an associate Sea Rover. Holly runs the entire dive program at the National Aquarium, not an easy job managing people who are diving with sometimes potentially dangerous animals, in precarious places, and you…
I spent the day with Vin Malkoski working with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries. Our goal was to find a spot that would be a good site for an artificial reef. An artificial reef is a bunch of large concrete that is molded into certain shapes that marine life can grow on, live in…
Finally the week ended and we got to the competition, the part everyone was waiting for. There are lots of prizes for a multitude of categories including wide angle and macro, both traditional and unrestricted (without and with editing), a fluorescent category, and sharks category, and of course video. I only entered the wide angle…
My last dive in Roatan was with Cristian Dimitrius, a filmmaker for National Geographic and BBC who filmed Wild Brazil, he has presented at the Sea Rovers clinic in the past. He came part way through the week from shooting on assignment. I went to his classroom presentation about visual storytelling where he showed us…
Towards the end of the week I decided to try out a Pegasus Thruster, a small scooter that attaches to the back of the tank and you control with the push of button. I was a little anxious to try it out because it was hard to control at first and I would end up…
After getting sick so much on the boat dives I decided to do shore diving through the rest of the week. The shore diving was just as amazing as the reefs we went to on the boat, and I had more time to spend with the marine life without worrying about getting back to the…
To complete my deep dive training I was helped by the dive shop instructor at Coco View. One morning we went out on a shore dive snorkeled out past the Prince Albert and dropped down to 70 fsw, swam along Newman’s wall down to the the edge of the wall which was exactly 103 fsw….
After my day of fumbling around with macro I set myself up for wide. I was also signed up to go on the shark dive, so macro wouldn’t help me very much. Because this whole week is a competition I had this dream of taking a photo of the sharks using a slow shutter speed…
While waiting in the Miami airport, eating my delicious airport chinese food, Sea Rover Woody Tinsley walked up, also on his way to Roatan for the Kids Sea Camp, while I was on my way to The Digital Shootout. It’s a week long photography competition and is hailed as the world’s best learning experience for…
I spent the past few days with George Buckley, Sea Rover, Harvard Extension Professor, Boston Malacological club director, and much more. I took a couple of his Harvard Extension classes and I was hooked. George is responsible for inspiring me to become a SCUBA diver, and encouraging me to apply for this internship. I owe…
My first task as the intern was to get my advanced dive certification. I worked with Rick Simon, a past intern and an excellent diver. He owns Manta Industries, Shoreline Diving and a farm. I met Rick at a dive site called Ft. Wetherill in Rhode Island. This site is all too familiar to me….
My name is Jake Stout. I am a recent graduate of Cambridge Rindge and Latin High school. I am excited to have the opportunity to be this year’s Boston Sea Rover Intern. I have been an avid photographer for 9 years and took 4 years of photography classes in high school. Which means I tell…
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…
The final stop of my summer internship landed me in Lexington, Michigan where I stayed with Jim and Pat Stayer. Jim and Pat are diving and videography experts with lots of experience in these fields. I enjoyed diving with them in Lake Huron, exploring the wrecks that lie below. I dove on three of the…
Newfoundland also had lots of wreck diving to offer. I was lucky to make two dives on the PLM-27. Located off the coast of Bell Island, this ship was sunk in World War II and is one of four wrecks with a similar story. I loved exploring this wreck – the largest I had ever…
One of the highlights of my trip to Newfoundland was receiving my sidemount certification with OceanQuest instructor Mark McGowan. I had never before tried sidemount diving, but in the span of three days I discovered and practiced this style of diving. I enjoyed my five certification dives in locations where we saw interesting wildlife like…
From the warm waters of Bonaire, I made a quick transition to northeastern Canada where I spent a week in Newfoundland with Rick Stanley, his wife, Debbie, and OceanQuest Adventures. I had never before visited Canada, so I was thrilled to begin exploring right away with a snorkel around historic Bell Island. Rick took me…
The island of Bonaire had lots to offer as a unique destination to explore. In between dives, I had the opportunity to visit ‘downtown’ Bonaire a number of times. Lining the tight, colorful streets were lots of shops and restaurants. In one store, I found my favorite flavor of soda: bubblegum. Throughout the course of…
Alongside diving on my free time and with the adults, there was lots of time to be spent in the water with the stars of the week: the kids! Kids Sea Camp offered many different courses throughout the week for children of all ages. I was lucky enough to spend a bit of time with…
While in Bonaire, I was able to log a total of nine incredible dives, bringing my dive log up to its one hundred and fourth page. A few things are rather predictable in Bonaire: warm water (typically in the low 80s), great visibility, lots of tropical fish, and lively, spirited divers. Yet amidst these known…
My first two days at the National Aquarium were exciting and full of diving and getting involved with Aquarium operations. My first morning, Holly took me into the Atlantic Coral Reef (ACR) exhibit for a checkout dive. We practiced basic skills including buoyancy, mask removal, weight removal, and BCD removal. After this, I explored the…
My third day at the National Aquarium kicked off with an early dive in the Shark Alley exhibit which features sandbar, sand tigers, and nurse sharks as well as sawfish and crevalle jacks. Though the sharks were gated off while we completed our work, it was still lots of fun to be in the water…
In addition to the action packed days with Holly at the National Aquarium, my visit to Baltimore afforded me the opportunity to explore the city and the Inner Harbor region where the Aquarium is located. The Inner Harbor area is home to many interesting and historical buildings and landmarks. I spent some time walking through…
It was great to go back to Undersea Divers and volunteer at the shop for a few days. I enjoyed reconnecting with Whitney and Shaun and helping them out with an array of different tasks. By the end of my time at Undersea Divers, I knew the shop much better and gained a greater understanding…
I was excited to get in the water with Mike Lodise from Backscatter and try out my new GoPro rig. The setup that Backscatter has donated for my internship consists of a Hero 3+ camera in a dual-grip tray with two Sola 2000 video lights. Mike took me diving at Nubble Lighthouse in York, ME…
My second day with Rick we dove at familiar dive site, Fort Wetherill. This day was dedicated to practicing new skills such as fin maneuvers, properly using my new reel, and deploying surface marker buoys. I learned how to use my fins to frog kick and even move in reverse. These techniques can be useful…
I was lucky to spend two days with accomplished diver and former Frank Scalli Intern, Rick Simon. Rick has an incredible amount of dive experience especially in the fields of technical and commercial diving. He passed a number of tips along to me and certainly made me a better diver. I look forward to hopefully…
Today, I completed my DFA Pro course with instructor and friend Chris Millbern. Chris is an EMT, so there was no one better to teach me this hands on class; he had lots of personal insight to offer. This course provides divers with the knowledge and skills necessary to conduct primary care at the professional level….
I was excited to dive with Vin again. This time I was able to observe and take part in his work with the Department of Marine Fisheries to monitor the health of artificial reefs at Sculpin Ledge in Boston Harbor. Our day started bright and early at the State Pier in Gloucester, MA. We then…
Last Wednesday, I had the opportunity to dive with Ted Maney, a biology instructor and underwater researcher at Salem State University. I participated with two of his graduate students in an ongoing sea urchin survey project at Halfway Rock, a landmark roughly halfway between Gloucester and Boston. The urchin count began over 40 years ago…
I had a great time with Mike Lodise while visiting Backscatter East in Derry, New Hampshire. Backscatter is a company which specializes in underwater photo and video. They have another location in Monterey, California, which I hope to visit in the future. During my time with Mike, I learned quite a bit about the mechanics…
For our second day of diving, Vin took me (and Chris) to King’s Beach in Rhode Island. Our mission for the day was to acquaint me with my new Diving Unlimited International (DUI) drysuit and with some of the techniques and skills necessary to be a successful drysuit diver. (A big thanks goes out to…
When I heard Vin would be taking me out to dive in Rhode Island, I was really excited. Despite being born and raised in the Boston area, I had never actually been diving in the New England region. Having never scuba dived in water much colder than 75 degrees, I wasn’t sure what to expect….