Last weekend was one of the best yet. Elliott drove down from Portland for a visit and I proudly toured him all around campus and showed off everything I’ve been working on. We spent the rest of the weekend camping - a couple of days of cooking meals on the grill, drinking campfire coffee, hanging out down on the beach. I even snuck in some tide pooling. It was bliss. The fieldwork for my personal research project began on Tuesday and oof... it was a learning curve. I did my best to plan everything out ahead of time but when I got into the field - I just hit hiccup after hiccup. Some hiccup examples include figuring out how to harness myself to the shore as a safety measure while I waded out across the mudflats until I was belly-deep in the estuary's water, or how to ensure the crab traps for my high-intertidal zone weren't in the way of pedestrians and vehicles on the shore but still at the right height. I worked so slowly that I ended up racing the incoming tide. Even so, I’m proud that I kept focus and took the time to find reliable solutions. I’m also excited to say that I expect to have some preliminary results by the end of the weekend. On Friday Sebastian and Gavin, a volunteer from the Charleston Marine Life Center, came out to help with trapping. We harvested a good number of green crabs and even caught a few gunnel and sculpin for the aquarium in South Slough’s visitors center. It felt pretty damn good to share what I’ve been working on with them… it was also really nice to have some help carrying the heavier equipment from site to site. Some other highlights from the week included Adam, South Slough’s Monitoring Technician, taking Jay and me out on a nutrient run. Nutrient runs are part of a long-term monitoring project at South Slough that tracks nutrient levels in the estuary’s waters, creating a base reference of data to compare to as we see ecological shifts from climate change. We took the boat out to collect our water samples, starting down at the mouth of the bay and collecting periodically all the way up to the top of the Slough. Jay and I both assisted with the water sampling, learning how to collect clean samples from just above the sediment floor. Being out on the open water and participating in fieldwork that didn't include trekking through mud while carrying nets full of crabs was a much-appreciated break and helped get me re-energized for the next day of trapping. My last highlight was the beachside potluck that South Slough held for their summer interns. The Slough’s interns are diverse in their areas of focus and are spread out in different locations across town so the potluck gave us all a chance to all meet and connect while eating some delicious homecooked food. At one point in the evening, each mentor stood up and spoke a little bit about their interns, giving each of us a nickname that reflected on our time here and a certificate to make the name official. It was really sweet to see how much both the interns and mentors appreciate one another.
It's been a busy week with another busy one to follow. Signing off, Colleen “WOW, What’s that!” Walker
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AuthorHello! My name is Colleen Walker. I'm a New Yorker now living in Oregon where I am pursuing an AS in Biology at Clackamas Community College. This summer I'll be studying the European green crab alongside Dr. Shon Schooler at the South Slough National Estuary Research Reserve. Archives
August 2022
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