Too Much Fun!

This year’s internship schedule was packed to the gills with activities, visits from collaborating researchers, and job shadowing with Makah staff. They learned about a wide range of natural resource management topics including wildlife monitoring, invasive species management, habitat restoration, and abundance estimates. We greatly appreciate all the people and institutions who donate their time and energies to developing the next generation of Makah environmental leaders!

Week 1

In week 1, we started off strong with some awesome visitors. Katie from Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary teamed up with Ole and Jameal from NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center to talk about rockfish surveys, scientific diving, long-term monitoring, and just how difficult counting can be! TeJae was indisputably the best counter of the group, and proudly wore his crown for the rest of the internship.

A team of three from UW Applied Physics Lab – Pete, Tatiana, and Carlyn – showed up to talk about ocean currents, primary productivity, and oceanographic sampling. Tatiana brought an awesome phytoplankton imager she designed and built and used it to show the interns all the teeming life in the water samples they had collected together in the morning.

Zach from Seattle Aquarium packed up his ROV and drove out from Seattle to dive below the waves off Tatoosh and spy on some urchins and rockfish. The interns got to see the mosaic of life down there and even take turns driving it!

On Friday, Julia Parrish brought her seabird sampling supplies out to Hobuck and showed the interns how to systematically search for dead seabirds on the beach and use a dichotomous key to identify them to species. This was a great introduction to species ID, which the interns continued to do throughout the following weeks!

Week 2

Week 2 was full of chaos with both the 4th of July holiday and the start of the annual Tatoosh trip. In between, the interns surveyed for olive snails on Hobuck beach to monitor their abundance and learn more about their size distribution along the elevation gradient.

The interns spent some time with our water quality team who were busy checking water samples for harmful algae blooms (HABs) and other detrimental contaminants. TeJae also got a head start collecting data for his research project by walking the Tsoo-Yess river and documenting abandoned ghost nets along the way.

Week 3

Week 3 was spent shadowing Makah staff during their work around the Reservation. With the marine ecology team, they dissected olive snails to check for parasites and measured invasive green crab samples. In the afternoon, they helped sample the commercial halibut fishery. For Jerriq, this was important exposure to how his halibut data had been collected in previous years. The interns went out with the wildlife team to check cougar clusters and track radio tagged elk. The next day they returned to the woods to monitor fish habitat with Travis where they found some frogs along the way and had fun tromping around the forest together.

With the marine mammal program, the interns spent time out the Swiftsure bank surveying humpback whales. The whales were very active showing off their flukes and spouting close to the boat!

They also went out salmon fishing (one of many many fishing trips during this internship) to collect data for William’s project. All the interns brought fish home at some point during the internship and had a great time reeling them in!

Week 4

To start the week off, the interns visited the Makah National Fish Hatchery, where Dan showed them around and led them through a salmon dissection!

They spent a whole day out with Amy from Seattle Aquarium recording sea otter foraging bouts off Sand Point, which is part of the Ozette Triangle. The weather was beautiful and sunny, and they even saw a bear along the hike!

The rest of the week was spent helping out with the Lake Ozette sockeye salmon beach spawning habitat restoration work and dragonfly larva sampling. So much fun in the sun!

Week 5

During week 5, the interns enjoyed their last few field days before hunkering down to work on their research projects. They spent a couple mornings trapping for invasive green crabs in Neah Bay, and some time on the boat with visiting gray whale researchers. They also spent a couple days in Seattle touring labs and visiting the Aquarium!

Week 6

The last week! The interns got down to business working on their projects, posters, and presentations. On Friday, they presented their hard work to the community! Check out their posters here, or read more about their presentations here!

This year’s group of interns were so curious about the world around them, respectful of each other, asked great questions, and brought a lot of positive energy to each day. We were so lucky to work with them this summer and wish them all well in the school year to come!

Thank You!