This week I have been working on a couple different projects, which has led me to learning more about problem solving. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we feed the stingrays and shark. Round stingrays eat invertebrates such as worms, shrimp, amphipods, clams. The tanks need to be cleaned at least every other day. I have been watching video feed for one of the graduates. She has video from diving and tagging giant sea bass. On the camera, there are two lasers placed 30 cm apart. These lasers show up on the bass and we can use a program to compare the pixels between the lasers to the pixels of the bass to find the length of the fish. The screenshots of the fish can be sent to UC Santa Barbara so they can get a more accurate census of this endangered species. The best day of my internship so far has been Friday, when the lab was called about a male juvenile white shark that was caught by a commercial fisherman. We drove a couple hours north to a marina. When we arrived, the graduates and Dr. Lowe began taking measurements and I was able to record some data. Then they performed the surgery to insert a transmitter and we released the shark. Nick, the fisherman who caught it, was so kind and asked us to come to his restaurant.
This weekend I took the metro for the first time to Los Angeles to meet up with my friend, Emily, and her mom. We went to Santa Monica and I was able to cross the Santa Monica pier off my mental bucket list.
I am excited for this upcoming week because on Wednesday I am going to Catalina Island to see how the drone project on the aggregation of leopard sharks is going.
Hi Finn,
What a great experience and hands-on learning! Catalina is a great island, it would be interesting to hear more about that drone project!
Keep up the good work,
Mr. Pankow
Finn,
Sounds like you are getting excellent hands on experience. Hope you are finding time for fun on the beach too. Can’t wait to hear about it next month.