The interns arrived June 21 and have already gotten off to a strong start despite the short week. So far they have participated in a full three-day round of trapping for invasive European green crabs, helping to set and check traps in both the Wa’atch and Tsoo-Yess river systems to remove these harmful pests from the Reservation. They collectively helped banish over 700 crabs in one week!
They also joined the marine mammal program for a survey of the Strait region, from Neah Bay to Sekiu. They observed harbor porpoise, harbor seals, and numerous seabirds. They even found a gray whale, and were able to collect identification photos and a biopsy sample using the crossbow! All along the survey route they also took turns deploying and retrieving the plankton net to search for gray whale prey items, like mysid shrimp.
On Friday they spent the morning with our fishery managers Will (groundfish) and Deon (salmon). With Will the interns learned about halibut management, fish sampling, and how to age a halibut using their otoliths. With Deon they learned about mark-recapture methodologies and population estimation during the classic “bean lab” activity.
In the afternoon they headed out to Hobuck beach with Dr. Julia Parrish from COASST (UW’s coastal observation and seabird survey team) to learn how to look for, identify, and report dead birds on the beach. They also learned about the importance of long-term monitoring datasets and how they can help us understand ecosystem health and large-scale environmental drivers.
Next week brings even more field work fun!
MFM Summer Internship Program 