I can’t believe my internship is already over. The last couple weeks have been super busy and flew by. In my last post I talked about the island trip that I was going to go on. Well let’s just say that trip was the highlight of my summer. Everyone who was going on the trip (people from my lab and Bob Millers summer students) meet up super early friday morning and we packed the cars and headed out to Ventura. From Ventura we transferred all of our gear to a large ferry and packed onto the top deck. During the boat ride we were able to spot tons of sea lions and seals playing in the water and hanging out in large piled up groups.
After we got to the island we trucked to the field station (a spot owned by the University with lots of bunks, kitchens and bathrooms) and we dropped off some of our gear then headed over to the opposite side of the island. Sitting in the back of a truck for 2 hrs I really got to know some the undergraduate students pretty well. We stopped at this abandoned ranch called Christy’s, parked the trucks and headed down to a beach to set up a lab. The goal was to use plastic trash bags and wetsuits to recreate washed up rack on the sand. We tied down the materials and left the beach, we planned to return the next day and count the amount of beach hoopers, mites and other beach insects. I think the object of this lab was to help identify what these organisms look for most in rack, is it moisture or coverage..ect.? Then continued on this super sketchy yet thrilling dirt road until we reached the other side of the island we set up camp right along the coast in a spot that few people are allowed to explore. Since the Nature Conservatory manages the island, not all spots are open for public. Along this coast of the Santa Cruz island the area remains rather untouched by humans for most of the year. A group of us wandered along the coastline and then we came across a gully filled with washed up trash. We headed back to camp grabbed trash bags and decided to pick up all the loose debris in the gully. Besides a couple random articles of trash, this coast was magical.
After some burritos and chilling as a big group, we got into our sleeping bags and slept under the stars. It was an early morning the next day because we had to catch low tide in order to get to the mussel beds. The TA, Nick got us out of the camp around 6 and we managed our way, half asleep, over to an incredible cove with an abundant source of mussels and anemanies. The students performed a lab and Stephanie and I looked on and also we had to go and measure a couple of organisms that live in the cove area. Usually this cove is covered with Pisaster (I believe that is the species but not 100% positive) which is a keystone species starfish in the area. For a reason still unknown to researchers, the starfish population has greatly depleted, we only saw one very sad looking starfish while we were down there.
After our early morning lab we walked around that tip of the island a little more then we headed back to our campsite to eat and pack up. Since the lab finished so early we had the rest of the day to hangout. We headed down to this gorgeous spot and took out our snorkeling gear! There was a bunch of kelp growing pretty close to shore so myself and the lab assistant Jessica swam out to that area and snorkeled around for a while. We saw all sorts of fish, including the state fish; the Garibaldi a bright orange/red fish that is very territorial. Also we were lucky enough to see a manta ray as well! Swimming through the kelp off the island of Santa Cruz is not a bad first time snorkel experience! After that we headed back to Christy’s ranch and checked on the lab experiment.
The first two days of the trip were insane and incredible, but nothing would top sunday. On sunday we got up early again and traveled to another seclusive spot where there were tons of hermit crabs and snails. We collected a bunch of these two things along with shells and counted and identified them all.
Afterwards we went on a hike to another cove called Pelicans. This spot had some of the clearest water I have ever seen. Once again we got to snorkel around a ton and the water was actually warm enough that no wetsuit was needed. There were sooo many Garibaldis once again and also a lot of bright purple sea urchins cover the rocks and ocean floor. We hangout in the sun all day and towards the end Nick showed us a spot that you could jump off of the rocks and into the water. Two brave girls were the first to try it and one of them landed kinda leaning back and bruised her butt almost immediately. Most of us were recalculating if we should jump or not. Finally after some time Russ (another person who works in the lab) and I hiked up to the spot and jumped in. This was so fun!
The nights were spend chilling by the fire, eating really surprisingly awesome meals for a camping trip and playing lots of card games. All of us were sad to leave this magical island where cell service doesn’t exist and there is very little wifi, but we were all cut, bruised, burnt and beyond exhausted. It was super awesome that the people in my lab let me tag along on this trip, I got to experience the Santa Cruz island in a way that most people will never even be able to bribe for. Such a fun trip and so many cool people.
The week that followed didn’t slow down either, Stephanie and I continued to collect samples measure them and then grind them. We really perfected our system and I think she’ll be sad that someone won’t be there to always help her out with the large amounts of samples she has to deal with. Thanks to the trip I really got to know everyone in my lab a lot better and it was sad to think I will probably never see most of these people again.
Every night this week I tried to pack in some last minute exploring of Santa Barbara. One night my roommate and I went climbing in the gym with some friends then headed out for dinner. Another night we went on a hike and then went down to the beach to catch the sunset and headed into downtown to eat at their favorite pub. Also Daniella and I met up again one afternoon and got to tour the Horny Toad clothing factory which was really cool! A couple years ago they had a Pinhead Intern with them so everyone there was super nice. Another night I was able to meet up with this super successful businessman/entrapanuer and go to dinner with him, he gave me some tips on being successful and offered me an internship with his business anytime I was looking for something to do (but I think I’ll stick with science internships for right now!) And finally the last part of this week/weekend Im doing a volleyball camp here at UCSB. I wish I had more time to spend down here in SB and in my lab, but this experience has been phenomenal for the past 6 weeks and Im grateful for all the highs and lows that living on my own in a new town brought.
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