Category: intern-blog

Today was the first day of my Advanced Class with Ethan Gordon. Although diving skill is not gauged by how many cards or certifications one has, many dive charters require divers to be Advanced certified to go on boat dives. It is the next certification level up from Open Water, and requires the diver to complete a series of at least four specialty courses. My four specialty courses are deep diving, limited visibility/night diving, navigation, and boat diving.

My class with Ethan today covered navigation and limited vis skills. He had me navigate different courses, and then distracted me for a while, and I was supposed to keep bearings and get us back to shore. My favorite part of tonight’s class was the night dive- It was awesome! We saw many lobsters, at least three dogfish, and a whole bunch of different kinds of fish. When we turned off the lights, it was surprising to see how much natural light the moon provides, and also really cool to see the phosphorescence. I think that the coolest thing that I saw that night was a long-finned squid. I’ve never seen one before and it was amazing. They glide along so gracefully in the water, and escape behind a nice cloud of ink when spooked.

A group of graduate students from University of Rhode Island invented a neat new device, a forward mapping sonar system named Farsounder, and have hired Captain Lori for the past several months to test their invention in the harbor. I went out with the three inventors, Matt, Matt, and Evan, along with Captain Lori and Captain Mike. The Farsounder system is very interesting and has many practical applications; it has even sparked the interest of the US government, which has purchased a model. While many sonar systems map what is directly below the boat, the Farsounder currently has the ability to map objects at a range of 1000 feet in front of the bow, and the team is looking to go to 1400 feet in the near future. Unlike other sonar systems, Farsounder uses quiet sound waves that do not hurt or confuse mammals underwater.

Mounted on the bow of the Takakjian’s vessel Quest, Farsounder was able to chart the locations of bouys, docks, and approaching vessels on a computer screen. Large shipping cartons submerged just below the surface, uncharted shipwrecks, and even whales are extremely dangerous obstacles to vessels and can cause an unexpected sinking. Collecting data every two seconds, the Farsounder software can create a three dimensional image of the sea floor to surface ahead, helping a vessel locate and safely steer around such obstacles. We took the Quest to four different locations to test out the system. At each site we panned the area back and forth and back and forth in a cross-hatch pattern so that Matt, Matt, and Evan could eventually stitch together a full three dimensional map of each site.

First we went to Butler Flats right outside of the harbor; I got to stear for a while and quickly learned that you need to compensate for drift caused by the wind and current. The next site, the Great Ledge, was another area where they wanted to stitch together a topographical bottom map, but we had to leave before getting very far because it was too shallow and the rocks became dangerous. We panned back and forth at the last two sites as well, Church Rock and Decatur Rock, and then finally Palmer Island Light before calling it a day.

Today Kim and I drove up to Scituate, Mass to dive with Tom Mulloy- and his dog Bailey. Before we got the boat ready to go, Tom showed us his artifact collection and the stained glass projects that he makes. Both were very impressive. He has a great boat to dive from because the stern is very spacious. The first dive site was Mino Light. On our way out we stopped to say hi to Tom’s friend, a lobsterman who had just pulled and set his pots. The lobstering right now isn’t as good as it has been; he only had two in that whole catch!

Diving at Mino Light was awesome. The historic lighthouse sits on top of huge rocks that form mini canyons just large enough to swim through- which was awesome!. The rock walls are covered in all different types and colors of seaweed and are filled with fish and hiding spots for lobsters. The site is not too deep so it was a nice long dive-and oh yeah, I caught my first New England lobster! I grabbed it quickly but then dropped it when it started to bring its claws back towards me-Tom was laughing, but I got it again and brought it over to him. The lobster was too little to do anything with, but I was wicked happy that I caught my first one!!

Kim piloted us into the harbor where we docked quickly to see the memorial to the lightkeepers of the first Mino Light, then we were off to the next dive site: The wreck of the Forrest Queen. The Forrest Queen was a wooden hulled ship that sank in 1852, and has been worn down by the salty, current-filled New England water. Because the wreck was in 13 feet of water Kim was able to snorkel down to see it, and we were both surprised to see big looming chunks of conglomerate on the bottom rather than something in the shape of a boat . Tom taught me how to use a crowbar and hammer, and we found lots of stuff in the conglomerate-mostly all wine bottles, but I found a corset lacing snap, and Tom found some hand cut nails. It was awesome to think all this stuff was from the 1800s. After that, he let me try out his underwater scooter. Wicked cool, but I got totally lost underwater and ended up surfacing far far away.

Later, Tom took us to the local sailing museum. He’s found lots of treasures on the Forrest Queen, from intact Tabasco bottles, all sorts of hardware made by blacksmiths, and best of all a 73 lb silver ingot! Holy cow was that thing massive. He puts his treasures on display at the museum so local kids and citizens can learn about some of their coastal history. It’s all very neat.

Today my sister Kim and I were picked up bright and early (something I’ve noticed is really common in the diving world!) by Dave and Pat to drive down and meet Eric and Lori Takakjian at their dock in Falmouth. Kim finally got to see firsthand some of the cool stuff I’ve been doing this summer! We all went out on their research vessel, Quest, to go wreck diving off of Martha’s Vineyard. Captain Eric and Captain Lori run a business called Quest Marine Services, where they charter their vessel for oceanographic services. www.questmarineservices.com The Takakjians have found numerous shipwrecks off the New England coast, three of which we visited today. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get into the water at any of the three sites because it was too choppy, but it was a nice day spent out on the water. I was pretty lucky that we didn’t get in the water because I only had 1500 pounds in my tank just after we left the dock….oh boy did I learn my lesson!! CHECK YOUR TANK PRESSURE RELIGIOUSLY!!  I was petrified of telling the people on the boat, hahaha.  Check, check, recheck…even if the shop filled it a couple of days before….boy was that embarrassing, but it taught me.

Kim caught my expression on film when I realized that I had less than half a tank of air left before the dive…

Can you believe that all the food that the GOT animals eat is restaurant quality? All the way down to the cooked shrimp! These past two days I’ve spent most of the time feeding. Myrtle and the needlefish are the main ones that I’ve been feeding-the needlefish love the shrimp! Friday I worked with volunteers Jeff, Narda, Don and John. I love interning at the aquarium because every day I’ve met at least four new people. All the volunteers that I’ve met come from really different backgrounds ranging from freelance artists to computer programmers to college students.  Everyone has given me great advice on what to do after college, and how to stay in contact with the marine world.  A great idea that Tara suggested was that I should take advantage of travelling and studying abroad in college; if I want to keep traveling than working on live-aboards in Australia is definitely the way to go (that’s what she did).  It’s comforting to know that I don’t necessarily have to be a marine biologist to work with aquatic life.

Saturday was my last day at the aquarium  and I met Barry, Neal, and Dan.  I got to do two dives on the last day, both of them were with Dan. Dan took me on a great tour of the GOT; we went through all the passageways and holes above and below the reef, and he let me pat the giant green moray. Underwater it has the softest, slimiest skin- it felt like I could almost poke a hole in its side if I pushed to hard, it was so malleable. A very different feeling compared to the tough, sandpaper-like skin of the nurse shark that Holly let me touch the first day.

On the second dive Dan taught me how to use a lift bag and we each used one to transport buckets of sand from one area of the GOT to the main tray. It was really cool, but hard to swim with so I guess I didn’t put enough air in the bag. At the end of the day Dan took me on a tour of the galleries behind the scenes. It’s a room with holding tanks for the galleries, and many aquariums with one side displayed to the public. If you look down you can see the people looking in- but they don’t see you! The aquarium was a fun place to spend five days. I learned so much about the animals, and what it takes behind the scenes to keep the aquarium going (a lot!). Now I want to volunteer at an aquarium when I’m away at college!

Today started off with food prep again, but not for the GOT…today I prepared food for the Penguins! There are three types of penguins in the exhibit: Rock Hoppers, Africans, and Little Blues.  All three species eat smelt, a small arctic fish.  Some smelt are injected with water to keep particular penguins hydrated.  After the food was prepared, we pulled on wetsuits and got into the nippy water (it is 20 degrees colder than the GOT!). I followed Paul, the exhibit head, around on the morning feeding and the thing he warned me about most was that penguins are unpredictable animals.

We had to keep at least a 12” distance between any penguin and our heads and walk through the exhibit with fingers in palms to avoid a painful bite. My wetsuit had a small loop on the back that was a toy for one penguin, Benguela or Benny for short, who nipped, twisted and yanked on it consistently during the feeding. Every penguin has a color-coded beaded tag on one of its wings for identification. Females are tagged on the right and males on the left. At feeding time, a record of every fish that each penguin eats is kept, along with notes on behaviors and if the penguin is in a cave or sitting on eggs.

I got to see two eggs in the African exhibit, and a behind the scenes look at a Little Blue nest hidden inside one of the rock islands. Penguins are unique birds in that they keep the same mate for their entire lifetime. After the feeding, each penguin ate around 10 fish, we got out the scrub brushes, hoses and virkon (a cleaning agent neutralized by water) and scrubbed away at the rock islands to clean them of guano- a.k.a. penguin poop. After this first morning session, the staff records the weight of and how many fish were eaten, the temperature and humidity in the exhibit, and any other notes about how the feeding went.

I was lucky today because I was invited to do the 1:15 GOT dive between penguin feedings. After that it was time for the 2:30 feeding where I shadowed Logan, a college student at Wellesley and Paul in the exhibit. She taught me how to feed the Rock Hoppers! You have to present the fish head first to the penguin and then guide it into the beak. The penguin will then swallow it whole from there. With some older penguins, you need to push the fish to the back of its throat so it can swallow it easier. My biggest accomplishment was being able to successfully feed Penguino, a tough girl penguin who totally shreds up the fish with her beak then spits it out, thirteen fish! After the feeding, recording, and clean-up in the penguin locker room (no rock scrubbing on the second feeding), the day was done.

The second day at the aquarium was just as fun as the first, if not better. I started off the day with food prep again, and then was invited to help out with the Myrtle Project. Myrtle is the GOT’s oldest inhabitant; she weighs about 650 pounds and is estimated to be between 65 and 70 years old.

The Myrtle Project is an experiment researching the effects of different sound frequencies on turtles, in hopes to create a sounding mechanism that will help deter turtles from large ships. Kathy Streeter conducts the experiment and she let me be in charge of the sound and light. With the help of mammal volunteers Allegra and Melissa, we ran a series of tests on Myrtle using operant conditioning, which involves training Myrtle to do something through positive reinforcement. Two types of trials are conducted: light trial or light and sound trial. When Myrtle hears a beep from one of two speakers underwater, she must touch the sounding speaker. When she is successful, she returns to the platform and gets a treat (fish or squid).

After the Myrtle project at feeding time I got to feed the barracudas who eat whole fish, and finish up some office work like de-rust a scale, laundry, copy intern manuals, and clean-up clean-up clean-up! The 1:15 dive was really fun today, I felt more comfortable using my own BC and less weight, and had a few fish hang out really close to me while I scrubbed the coral. Another neat part of the day was watching an purple mouthed moray eel be removed from the tank and anesthetized so that the medical services team could determine why it had been acting sluggish.

I just got back from an awesome first day of interning at the New England Aquarium. The day started off with a quick tour of the aquarium and the places I would be working “behind the scenes” with Holly, followed by a briefing of volunteer rules and regs. The first thing I got to do today was help Trish, a Dive Volunteer, clean buckets and prep food for the feedings. The animals in the Giant Ocean Tank (GOT) get fed four times a day. The tank divers dive five times a day, one at each feeding and then an additional cleaning dive. I really like food prep, different animals get different types of fish…for example needlefish get cut up sardines while the big rays like chunks of smelt and capelin, and the sharks eat squid stuffed with fish and vitamins if they are hungry. Today I got to stand on the feeding platform and feed Myrtle, the giant green turtle, and the needlefish.

I also dove in the GOT! Holly gave me a nice tour of the tank and its inhabitants and let me pat a nurse shark, it was really cool. I was apparently intruding on one black fish’s space as I was cleaning the reef because it kept nipping at my wetsuit. I learned a lot about many different animals today, from the ones in the GOT, to a couple of fish in smaller aquariums in a laboratory that Holly showed to me. I can’t wait for tomorrow!

Owning and running a dive shop sure is a lot of work! For the past three days I’ve been at Bobby Boyle’s dive shop, Undersea Divers, in Beverly, MA. I can’t believe how much Bobby does and still manages to keep sane. The day starts with checking the oil level in the compressor, then off to unpacking boxes! I spent a bunch of time unpacking new shipments (a lot of which came in wrong and had to be corrected), pricing items, restocking the floor then storing the rest. I put together a bunch of tanks and boots, and organized rental wetsuits and gear for his classes. I really liked watching Bobby do the VIPs (Visual tank inspection required once a year) and learning about hydros (tanks have to be hydrostatically tested every 5 years), different wetsuits, and fitting masks and BCs. Its amazing how many people come in to get their tank filled, say they dive regularly, but haven’t had a VIP in years.

On my last day, I was pleasantly surprised by a phone call from Patrick Scalli! He wanted to check in to see how my summer was going so far (its awesome J ) and was about to stop by but unfortunately couldn’t make it. Bobby is a popular guy; he had a constant stream of customers and friends stopping by. On Saturday, New England underwater photographer Andy Martinez dropped by the store, it was really neat to meet him and he gave me a few good pointers about college too! Working at Undersea Divers I’ve definitely gained a new respect for businessmen, dive shop owners in particular!

Today I learned how to freedive and spearfish with David Sipperly in Rhode Island. The only equipment we needed to freedive was a mask, snorkel, wetsuit, fins, and a weight belt. Freediving is diving while holding your breath, instead of breathing air from tanks. It was wicked fun!! Dave, his friend Eli, and I took Dave’s boat over to Block Island and anchored off the shore to look for some fish. Dave is a great instructor and fun to watch. He was a past All-American freediver, so he stays underwater forever and makes freediving and spear fishing look like nothing.

We went to three different sites to look for fish, all in about 15 feet of water, and also looked for a small wreck to dive but couldn’t find it. I thought the second site was the best-there were stripers everywhere!! Nine or ten huge fish would swim by or circle us at a time. I speared my first striped bass here. I spotted four or five Stripers while snorkeling on the surface, dove down and lay between the rocks on the bottom, one swam perfectly in front of me and I speared it through its side! By the end of the trip we had a cooler full of stripers and tautog. After a successful day of fishing and diving, we went back, I learned how to fillet the fish, then Dave grilled them up for a delicious dinner!