It was a busy and eventful summer for this year’s interns, who were able to experience and learn something new every day. The days and weeks flew by for our interns, thanks to the engagement and support from our internship collaborators who offered their time and expertise to share their work throughout the program.
The internship kicked off by diving into the Treaty of Neah Bay and learning about how the treaty plays a role in the work that the Makah Fisheries Management (MFM) Department carries out. This gave added meaning and value for the many inter-departmental experiences that the interns took part in by understanding how their work directly benefits themselves and their community as members of the Makah Tribe. Some of those experiences, led by MFM staff, included abundance surveys of purple olive snails at Hobuck Beach, using microscopy to identify phytoplankton while learning about Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) and their effect on water quality and shellfish, trapping invasive European Green Crabs and documenting species bycatch, visiting air quality monitoring sites to learn about air chemistry instrumentation and data collection, and a day exploring water chemistry of local streams from data loggers, and its role in juvenile salmon ecology.
The interns also spent some time on the water, surveying for marine mammals and fishing for salmon while learning about the research and management that the tribe and federal agencies conduct to ensure that local and regional fisheries are sustainable. A highlight from this year’s internship was the coordination of a career panel with tribal staff representing the habitat division, environmental program, upper leadership, forestry program, and the European Green Crab program. The interns heard from the panelists about career paths, higher education, and what a day at work looks like, among other pieces of wisdom that were shared.
Many people and organizations from outside MFM met with the interns and provided a diversity of engaging, hands-on activities as well.
Colleagues from the NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center shared how they use SCUBA surveys to measure the abundance of species in various habitats and led the interns through an activity to learn about different methods to measure species abundance.
The Seattle Aquarium visited twice to teach the interns about kelp forest ecology and the use of remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), equipped with video cameras, to survey kelp forests and urchin barrens. Colleagues from the aquarium also hiked with the interns from Lake Ozette to Sand Point and set up spotting scopes to observe and document the foraging behaviors of sea otters.
The interns also learned about how citizen science contributions can lead to scientific discoveries about species and ecosystems by attending a talk by Dr. Julia Parrish, the founder of COASST and professor at the University of Washington. The interns then learned how COASST volunteers identify dead birds that wash ashore, and even had the unique opportunity to come across a stranded sea lion and learn about the development of a stranded marine mammal identification guide by COASST.
This summer’s schedule also included a tour of the Makah National Fish Hatchery, where the interns saw how the facility would collect and fertilize salmon gametes and then raise the offspring before releasing them in the Tsoo-Yess River. While at the hatchery, Dan Spencer from US Fish and Wildlife also demonstrated radio tag retrieval, taught them about juvenile salmonid identification and physiology via a hands-on dissection, and gave a talk on career preparation.
We also met with natural resource professors and outreach coordinators at the Peninsula College in Port Angeles where the interns had the opportunity to tour the campus, classrooms, and lab facilities and hear about the resources available for them if they choose to pursue higher education at the school. They also tried their hands at using rangefinders and other common forestry tools to measure the dimensions of stands of trees on the campus.
The interns helped Jonathan Scordino with the third year of vegetation removal at Lake Ozette to improve sockeye salmon spawning habitat. This work is part of an ongoing collaboration between Olympic National Park, tribal staff, and volunteers from Coast Guard Station Neah Bay and the local area. This is a project that requires long days of physical labor, where being self-driven, hardworking, and having a positive attitude go a long way in restoring the lakebed. Each of the interns stepped up to the plate to make meaningful contributions to this endangered species recovery effort, while finding ways to make the work fun.
Professors Tim Wootton, Cathy Pfister, and their PhD student Maddie Tanda joined the interns on Tatoosh Island for three days, showing them the sites of former and current research projects and allowing plenty of time to explore the incredible diversity amongst the tidepools.
The interns were also able to help the European Green Crab program with the first trapping efforts on the island to document whether the species is present or not.
Maddie and fellow UChicago PhD student Emma Stanfield also engaged the interns in other activities to share their expertise. Maddie led an activity exploring the effects of ocean acidification on shell-building organisms, and Emma mentored Cosmo through their research project on eelgrass microbiome.
We are so grateful for the support and involvement from all of our internship collaborators who volunteered their time this summer to make it an immersive and enriching program, and for a great group of interns who applied themselves, tried new things, and asked great questions along the way!
MFM Summer Internship Program 