Our 2021 interns started almost three weeks ago and have been busy learning all they can about fisheries and resource management. To start things off, the interns learned about the Treaty of Neah Bay, the court cases that created the current fishery management atmosphere we work in, and toured the Makah Museum as a reminder of the cultural context that underpins all our work. Then they dug into the work we do at Makah Fisheries by participating in olive snail surveys, monitoring stream temperatures, performing an archaeological review on a potential endangered Sockeye salmon spawning habitat restoration site, checking air quality, surveying for marine mammals in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and sampling our salmon fishery for coded wire tags.
They also engaged with some of our off-Reservation research partners by learning about the value and uses of scat sampling with Zoë Lewis from Western Washington University, surveying for dead seabirds with Julia Parrish from COASST at the University of Washington, hearing about the causes of large whale entanglement and disentanglement procedures from Doug Sandilands of SR3, and performing foraging surveys on sea otters with Shawn Larson and Amy Olsen from Seattle Aquarium.
They have also started working on developing professional research skills, including mark recapture survey methodology through a bean lab. They then toured Peninsula College with Barbara Blackie, who filled them in on exciting opportunities to continue their natural resource education through running start or full-time enrollment. Ryana also got a head start on her independent research projects, starting with setting and checking traps to find out where the crayfish are distributed on the Makah Reservation.
Read below to meet the interns and hear a little about what they’ve been enjoying so far.
Shilaily
I’m Shilaily, I just graduated from Neah Bay High School. I’m going to University of Hawaii Manoa. This is my first time being a part of the Makah Fisheries Program and over these past two weeks has been very busy but also a great adventure; I learned a lot of new information. Living on the reservation I grew up knowing certain topics but actually doing research and the study behind the projects you see it from a different perspective. The first day we listened to presentations and also got to go out to the beach to do a olive snail survey. Wednesday we went out with Travis to most of the river spots down in Ozette to measure the temperatures of the water. His job monitors the water temperature to protect the environment and the fish. Thursday and Friday we were down in Ozette working with Jon, Stephanie, and two archeologists Rebekah and Dave. We went to the small beaches on the lake by boat to survey the gravel to see if the salmon are going to be able to spawn. We also looked to see if there are any artifacts. After looking around each beach area on the lake we found that the gravel was not very good for the fish there was more clay than loose gravel so the salmon cannot spawn in those areas. The vegetation had build up over the years blocking the gravel from the water and so the gravel is harder because the water cannot mix up the gravel. We also found artifacts in some of spots we were looking at. Last Tuesday we worked with Courtney measuring the air quality making sure we have stable air. That afternoon we went to the dock and scanned each fish to see if they are tagged from hatcheries and also is they are marked (cut). After that we went to the lab and cut open the salmon head to receive the small tags and looked under a microscope to get the numbers off the tag so we can look up the information that was stored in the tag. We found two tags and the salmon are from Canada. Wednesday we listened to more presentations from Jon and Doug. Later that evening we toured the Makah Museum. Will presented to us and after we did a bean counting to represent what they do in the ocean or river to count the fish. Thursday Zoë presented on seal scat and we went out and counted seals.
Paul
My name is Paul. I was interested in the fisheries internship because it was a good way to learn about environmental science. These three weeks have been so much fun. I have learned a lot about what it means to work here at fisheries and what it means to be a marine biologist. During the first week what I found most interesting was the Ozette trip. During the trip we went to see if salmon spawning areas in the lake were in the right conditions for spawning. The most interesting part about the second week was a sea lion scat retrieval during which we went with a grad student from Western Washington University to Tatoosh Island. She had us retrieve the sea lion scat in order to get a better understanding of the population that lives in the Neah Bay area. While we are nearing the end of the third week the most interesting thing that we did was hike to sand point. We hiked with the Seattle aquariums sea otter expert. We watched the otters forage for food and observed their social behaviors. Next week starting Thursday we will be staying on Tatoosh Island. I am very excited for this.
Ryana
Hi my name is Ryana and some things I like to do is play basketball and hang out with my siblings. One thing that interested me during this internship was when we got to learn about tagged fish. Tagged fish can tell us where they come from and how old they are. During one of the weeks we got to go to the fish dock and look for tagged fish. One of the things we did first was see if the fish had a clipped fin or if they were tagged, we used mental detector to see if the fish had any tags. After that we would bring the tagged fish over to a different table and they would cut off their heads where the tags were, then we would write the information on a piece of paper and tie it to the heads. We then left and went to the lab to find the tags, to find them we had to use another mental detector and a machine. When we found the tags we put them under a microscope to write down their numbers and then search them up. We found out that 2 tagged fish came from Canada and they were about 3 to 4 years old.
Ethan
Hello my name is Ethan I am 14 years old and I work for fisheries. I think the most fun part about this job is when we go out into the field and get to learn what happens in the wildlife and how we help the animals survive in the wild. I think it was pretty fun when we got to go to the dock in Neah bay and wait for the fisherman to come in then we used a metal detector to look for tags. After we looked for the tags we went back to the lab and chopped chunks of the fishes heads open and find the tag. After we found the tags we went into a room with a different type of microscope and looked the numbers and letters on the tag. The next day we got a presentation from Zoë the presentation was about sea lions and their scat and how to tell it’s a female or a male, I also learned that there’s all types of fish in their scat. Later that day, we went on a rock to pick up sea lion scat. Later that week we went to Hobuck beach with Julia, we had to look for dead birds on the beach, but we found 0 birds and I also had to count my paces up and down the beach. For the third week we set crayfish traps for my co-workers project, for the second day of the week we went to check the cray fish traps. For the third day we went to go hike the Ozette trail and the when we got to the beach we looked for sea otters and timed how long they were on the surface for and how long they were under water for also what kind of food they got and if they gave it to their baby. For the fourth day we got a tour around peninsula college.
MFM Summer Internship Program 