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Today I will be heading to work with Rick at his company Shoreline Diving Services. We grabbed some tanks and headed to Rick’s boat which is kept about an hour from his house. There I met Elliot who would be tending, which means he is staying on the boat while we dive and making sure everything is running smoothly. The first job was cleaning the bottom of a 68 foot Riva, which is a really nice yacht. We used these power scrubbers and went underneath and on all the sides and got all the grime off. I was in my drysuit, as I want to get as much experience in it this week as I can, but I was definitely pretty hot at the surface. Some waves came in too, which made it harder to get the sides but the bottom was basically spotless when we got there. I took the two scrubbers back to the boat and Rick did a final inspection before wrapping up. The captain of the boat was very nice and kept the boat in great condition. 

After this job, we went to another job, but for a commercial fisherman this time. He was having a problem with his boat overheating so he called Rick up and asked him to take a look underneath. When we got under the boat, there was a ton of rope tangled in the prop. Like probably over 300 feet! Not ideal for the fisherman and his boat, but it was an insane experience to help Rick remove it all. I held the light for him so he could see the rope since it was darker down there, and he worked to cut through it and untangle it as he went. The picture below shows just how much we brought up. It was surreal to be holding on to the prop of a boat while it was in the water, especially one that was the size of me. Plenty of safety measures are taken though, to make sure nobody starts the boat or any other switches while we are under there. This wasn’t even the problem that the boat owner called us about though. The bottom of the boat was covered in mussels, like everywhere. This slowed down the boat, and made it so that some of its sensors didn’t work so well and caused the overheating. After this we had one more job, which was inspecting a mooring line. We got all geared up, and held on to the mooring line as we went down as there was really bad visibility. This was only about four feet though, and we were feeling the chain to make sure it was the correct thickness in the correct places. The sand can erode it down, so they need to be inspected for their integrity.

This was a great day of working, and my favorite part was helping to cut out the rope from the commercial fishing boats prop. We ended the day with Italian food (my favorite) at a local restaurant. Rick and I went and filled up a couple tanks at his Dads house before the end of the day. Tomorrow we will be diving a wreck, I am wicked excited!

After Rick and his wife Erins horses got their hooves trimmed, Rick and I headed to Brownstone Quarry. Rick decided this was a good place for us to start as it would be my first day diving in my drysuit. Rick’s good friend Ed Hayes, who is co-owner of Brownstone Quarry and Adventure Park kindly let us come and dive for the day. This place was so cool! There were zip-lines, inner-tubes, a beach, and a ton other things that made it resemble a water park. We were tucked in a cove that was reserved for diving. Back at Rick’s house I had analyzed our nitrox tanks and labeled them as I learned to do in the classroom portion of getting nitrox certified. We brought all our heavy equipment down to a picnic table near the water, and suited up halfway by the car. Even walking down to the water I started to sweat, which is a good thing as it will keep me super warm at depth. I borrowed a hood from Rick as I didn’t have one, and got all suited up. As I put on my gloves, I realized they had a big hole down the seam as the string had slowly been unraveling from previous dives. It’s alright though because the water isn’t crazy cold today.

Before putting our scuba gear on, we hopped in the water in just our drysuits to feel the difference compared to a wetsuit. I could feel the compression, and practiced adding and dumping air from the suit. I also flipped on my belly with my feet up and then would try to get my feet back down, and it was much harder than usual as all the air gets trapped at the feet when they are the highest part of the body. We got our scuba gear on and descended and swam around a little so I could get comfortable with the suit and the more limited visibility. I don’t have experience diving in New England, so the visibility is something I need to get comfortable with and understand the added measures in order to stay safe. One of those is a reel. It is basically like the part of a fishing pole you hold, but the line is rope. I started by tying off the rope to a mooring line and then continued in a direction until I came across a car. Yes, there were two sunken cars in the part of the quarry we were diving in! I then wrapped the line around a piece of the car so that the line was taught, and continued on. This is so that in limited visibility we can always find our way back to the anchor line (the anchor line would be the mooring line in this situation). We will be doing this on our deep dive on a wreck on Thursday. We also practiced what to do if the air in my drysuit goes to my feet and I start floating up feet first. I simulated that, and then continued to do a full 360 making sure I ended with my feet down so that the air could come back up to my shoulder and be released. We practiced tying and releasing a surface marker buoy, as well as holding myself in one spot and keeping good buoyancy. I was not so great at staying in one spot and tended to move my fins to try to keep myself in the same spot, which just moved me more. I am going to try to get better at controlling my buoyancy throughout the week. We did two dives in the quarry, and I am super grateful to Ed Hayes for letting us dive for the day.

On the way home, Rick and I stopped at Divers Cove and saw their drysuit repair facility and spoke with Ed and Chris, the owners of the shop. I was in need of a few extra dive gear pieces as I have an upcoming internship opportunity in cold water. Rick got me a new 5/7 hood, semi dry gloves, a knife, and a light. I am so grateful to Rick for getting these items for me, and I am excited to use them tomorrow and on my future dives. I end this day feeling more confident that I will know how to react in a situation. I can deploy a surface marker buoy, and by thoroughly planning my dives ahead of time I know how long I can stay at our targeted maximum depth (without just relying on my dive computer), and I know the maximum operating depth of the specific gas blend I am on. I had a great day, and I am looking forward to learning even more tomorrow!

Today I started my training with Rick Simon in Connecticut. Rick was the second Boston Sea Rover Intern in 2005. Now, he trains a lot of the newest interns by getting them more comfortable diving and gaining further certifications. This week I will be getting my advanced certification, which will include specialties in wreck diving, nitrox, underwater navigation, limited visibility, and deep diving. I will also be doing all this training in my drysuit given to me by the internship sponsor Fourth Element. Thank you Fourth Element! This first day consisted of finishing the textbook part of the class, as it was thunder storming so we couldn’t dive. We went through algorithms and ways to plan out a dive to feel safer and more prepared. I set up all my gear and Rick helped fix the way I did some things to make me look more professional. We went to his shop and borrowed a reel, SMB, and J hook knife as we will be using all of them this week. We will be diving on multiple wrecks in the area, and I even get to go on a job with him to clean the bottom of a super yacht! Rick and his wife Erin also life on a farm so I got to see all their animals, and beautiful horses. So excited for this week of diving, and learning to dive safe and prepared.

 

Instead of driving home after the day at the GOT, I drove to Dan and Dawn Dolans house in Hingham Massachusetts. Dan Dolan used to work full time at the New England Aquarium in the GOT, but due to covid now works part time at their offsite Husbandry Facility in Quincy. Since I would be going in to work with him on Saturday, it was best to stay the night there. Dan and Dawn took me out to a wonderful restaurant and I swear they knew the entire town! So many people approached them, it was a very friendly night. I had the best gnocchi pasta with a bolognese sauce that their friend who worked there recommended. After dinner we went to a local concert that their town has each Friday night and met some more friends and got to see the marina. I was exhausted from the week so I ended up going to bed early but it was a great night.

The next morning Dan and I drove into Quincy which was very close to his house which was so convenient. Aside from the husbandry, this is where the sea turtles are rehabilitated that get cold stunned off of the Cape during November and December. Dan gave me a tour and introduced me to the people he works with, and then I went to work in the sea turtle rehabilitation area all morning.

I worked with Colleen, a volunteer in this department, as the staff had to respond to a situation in the Cape. I started by cleaning all the toys and structures that were in the tanks and Colleen vacuumed. Once that was done we got to prep the food for each of the turtles. This consisted of cutting fish and squid. I was very good at de-beaking and de-penning the squid this time as I had practice from the day before. Colleen let me feed some of the turtles and I was able to understand how they had to meet a certain weight of food, not exactly a certain amount of fish or squid. I loved this one turtle and hung out next to his tank for a long time since there was glass on one side to see him. We also went outside and down to the water to collect a live crab to feed one of the turtles. They were training some of the turtles to catch their own live food as they were close to being released back into the ocean. I had a great morning learning about cold stunned turtles, and headed over to the Husbandry side for the afternoon. I have to mention, I had the best sandwich of my life at lunch. Dawn picked them up for us and it was just an amazing sandwich, with a perfect amount of every ingredient.

After lunch I helped feed the stingrays which was so fun! They were trained to swim to the surface to feed, and they suctioned to your hand to get the piece of food. Each stingray was fed out of a different container though, so I had to make sure I was identifying each of them correctly so they got fed the right amount.

I was also able to prepare chemicals that would be put into a drip into some tanks in order to regulate them. It was great to be able to actively help, and not just observe. Dan and I put our wetsuits on and got into the other tank that had stingrays as well. We cleaned the sides and tried to even out the sand in the center of the tank. No intern has been able to get in the water here, so it was a special experience! We ended the day with pizza, and I got to meet Dan and Dawn’s granddaughter! I felt very welcomed by them, and had a great stay. My time at the New England Aquarium has come to an end, but I hope to keep in touch with people I met and possibly become an intern here if I am living near Boston . I would love to work in Galleries or Penguins in the future!

Woohoo it Friday, and that means I get to dive in the Giant Ocean Tank!! This was supposed to be last Saturday but got moved around due a small covid outbreak. I am so excited! I did my morning commute to Boston, and brought all my dive gear with me. I headed right up to the Giant Ocean Tank (GOT) area and met the two interns that would be helping me that day. Doug was a year older than me, and would be showing me around as he was the most experienced. We started in the food prep room, and I worked with Mike O’neill on prepping food for half of the animals, while the other interns worked on the rest. It was very similar to how food was prepped in the Marine Mammals department. The one thing that was new was that I had to de-beak and de-pen the squid. I did this by squeezing out the beak like a pimple, which was pretty straightforward, but getting rid of the pen was much harder. I probably removed 3 pens in the time it took Mike to remove 7. The pen is this clear hard piece of the squid that is a few inches long. It is on the inside of the squid and lies under the part where the squid is darker in color. It was important to remove it as it is harder for the turtles to digest (I believe, there may have been another reason too).

Once we prepped the food, I got to go out and feed Myrtle the Green Sea Turtle. She is giant, around 70-90 years old, and around 590 pounds. She started with lettuce, as in the wild she would be eating seagrass. However, lettuce does not have all the benefits that seagrass does, so she is also fed some fish and squid to supplement that. We started with lettuce, as once she tastes the fish she has no interest in the lettuce anymore. She also gets fed a squid taco. This is a squid with three or four fish stuffed inside with her medications also inside. The medications are things like vitamins that she is missing by not eating what she would in the wild.

After the feeding, I got suited up for my dive in the GOT. We talked about how it would go and Mike and I hopped in. We did a lap around the tank without my camera to make sure I felt comfortable, and then I grabbed my camera. My mom got to come and watch me do this which was special because she has never seen me dive before. It was so fun to wave to the kids through the glass and be surrounded by so many creatures. We even scratched Myrtles back as she loves that. Mike was a great host and made sure my mom was able to get lots of pictures of me in the tank. After the dive, I showered off and went to lunch with my mom.

After lunch I fed Myrtle again, but this time the aquarium was open (in the morning the public wasn’t there to watch). I was asked questions about Myrtle and the GOT which other staff helped me answer as I was still learning. I helped the interns clean up the area and check off everything on the to-do list before we headed home. I had a great time at the Giant Ocean Tank. I honestly can’t decide which department has been my favorite as they are all so engaging and hands on. Tomorrow is my last day and I will be heading off site to Quincy!

I am working in the Marine Mammals department today! This includes the SeaLion and the Harbor Seal exhibits. I started by working with Caitlyn and Hailey, two interns from this department, in the food prep room. They showed me how to wash and disinfect dishes, read the charts for different animal food prep, and how each one liked their food cut. I loved working with the interns, they seemed like good friends by the end of the day.

I then got to go out and watch Mollie, one of the trainers, do some enrichment with one of the sea lions. There were also two divers in the exhibit cleaning, and this seemed like a regular part of their job. This sea lion was super timid and was the only one allowed to be on exhibit while there were divers in the water. The others would be too curious and bug the divers too much. I was super grateful to watch this enrichment, and I started to understand the different animals’ personalities and how that impacts their training.

Caitlyn and I then went over to the Harbor Seal exhibit with a big car wash type toy to do some enrichment with the seals. Unlike the sea lion exhibit, the Harbor Seals are visible to the public who haven’t paid to get inside the Aquarium and it is located right near where people waited to enter the facility. So, there were always plenty of people watching, and so many excited kids as this was their first look at what an aquarium has to offer. The Harbor Seals had feedings and training twice a day. This included listening to cues by their trainer, getting their teeth brushed, and one was even holding a paintbrush in her mouth and painting. The public loved that one.

Back in the main area, I was allowed to watch the Sea Lions get trained. They have specific trainers that are their primary person. For example, Serena (person) was Sierras (sea lion) primary. So when Serena was training her, Sierra listened and cooperated with her very well. The Sea Lions primary can’t always be there though, so they have a backup trainer. The Sea lion will be cooperative, but not quite as much as if it were their primary. This was demonstrated in the final feeding and training of the day. Serena was having Sierra do all kinds of movements to demonstrate their relationship, but the other trainer was having trouble as he was a backup to a backup of the sea lion he was working with. It was really interesting to see how much relationships have to do with these animals and how they act.

In between each session, the other interns and I would clean all the dishes and toys used and disinfect them, and make sure food was ready for the next session. We had some extra time, so one of the interns made jello molds to use as a toy for the sea lions. She said they don’t normally actually eat them, but they love to play with them. They even had emptied out a watermelon and filled it with jello and the sea lions were very intrigued by it. I had a great time working in the Marine Mammals department, and would have loved to be an actual intern for them for the summer!

Today I will be working in the Aquarium Medical Center. After a morning meeting, Charlie Innis who is the Director of Animal Health showed me around the area they work. We went up to necropsy and I was able to ask questions about procedures with different animals and he explained the medical side of an aquarium which I was much more unfamiliar with. I appreciated him explaining things to me, and now I have a better understanding of what they would do if an emergency situation arises. He showed me some of the labs where scientists are doing research. One in particular is trying to find a better way to get samples of hormones from animals without doing it through a blood or a urine sample. This is very hard to get on a large animal, like a whale. So they are finding ways to collect it through feces floating in the water, or even spray from a whale. I asked and he said that some scientists are trying to use drones to collect this spray, which I found very interesting. We discussed medicine as well. There isn’t a big market for medicine for animals that aren’t domesticated so they have to use estimations or compare to previous animals on how much medicine to give. I then got to talk with Nina Nahvi, who is the Aquarium Medical Center Manager. It was great to pick her brain about different career paths within marine science. They had a lot of work and meetings to do so Mike O’neill, from the Giant Ocean Tank, showed me around his department and explained how the dive in the Giant Ocean Tank would go on Friday. Ended the day early and was able to get some good rest as I will be working in Marine Mammals department tomorrow!

I met up with Bill Murphy who is a Senior Aquarist for Galleries at the New England Aquarium. He showed me around from the public’s point of view, and then we went behind the scenes to see how the aquarists and their interns run the Galleries. Bill is in charge of the species from New England (like this orange lobster on the left) and Olympia which is on the West Coast close to Canada. Bills coworker, Allison, has a Gallery which is the mirror image of his but she works with all freshwater species. When we were walking through this area, Bill stopped to help Allison clean the anaconda tank. The anaconda was 16 feet long! While in that area, I met Joe Masi who is my high school marine science teacher’s brother. Small world! Allison had an intern, Joseph, who showed me the electric eel. There were massive gloves that he had to wear when he would reach into the tank in order to protect himself.

Bill and I then walked back over to his gallery and I started food prep with his intern, Alex. We cut squid and other fish for chop, and Alex had already prepped the shrimp and clams before I got there. After cleaning up our space we brought all the food to the gallery and the task for the rest of the day was to feed all the animals. Some were easy to feed and some were being VERY difficult. In the first tank, we target fed certain fish by attaching the bits of food to the end of a pole and bringing the food right to the specific fish we wanted to feed.  We did this with anemones too. Then we threw in individual pieces of chop and whoever was the hungriest would scoop it up. In another tank we were feeding skates and halibut. There was one halibut that stayed at the bottom, and one that went all crazy and fed on the top and would often miss his food because he was trying so hard. The halibut who stayed on the bottom also was super far forward so we decided to come back and feed him later.

We moved on to the octopus, and I was so excited! We splashed the water and waved clams in the water to get her to come towards us and out of her corner. When she did, we stuck her food in her suckers. She got sucked onto my hand and it felt so cool, I didn’t know if she would come off since she was so strong. There was a sign with what to do if the octopus escapes right beside the tank, and I now know that is very possible for her to maneuver around and that sign is important to make sure she stays where she needs to be.

 

We checked on these baby sharks, and had to wake them up to feed them. We woke them up by dropping a little bit of chop on their head, it was very cute. Feeding took till about 3:30, and I had a great time doing it with Alex. He was so nice to me and we worked like a team. Bill toured me around the other Galleries that housed tropical and temperate fish. He had to help fix something in the freshwater area, so I toured around the aquarium and then headed out for the day. Working in Galleries was just wonderful, and the people really made it special. I didn’t feel like I was slowing their work down by being there, and Bill and Alex were some of the nicest people I have ever met. Tomorrow I will be working in the Aquarium Medical Center, and learning about what a normal day to them looks like.

Today is my first day at the New England Aquarium. I will be coming here for the next week and working in a different department everyday. Today is the penguin exhibit! I met Dan Dolan, who was a volunteer diver at the aquarium for years, and he showed me where to park and took me on a quick tour. He then handed me off to Lila from the penguin exhibit and I got my day started. There was an awesome group of people working in penguins, and they were all so welcoming. I knew it was going to be a great day. Olivia, an intern for the penguin exhibit who was my age, was picking through smelt (a type of fish) to prepare it for feeding. She had to compost any fish that was missing a tail or head, or had any holes in it. This is because they didn’t want any contaminated food getting to the penguins. I then got suited up in a 7 millimeter wetsuit and booties and showered off to make sure I wasn’t bringing anything into the exhibit that would contaminate it. 

This included removing any earrings or hair clips, and making sure my nails weren’t painted a bright color. The penguins are very curious with bright colors, and some of them will try to eat small objects so we had to be very aware of what we brought in and made sure we also brought it out. I was joining Brendan first and feeding the African Penguins. There are a total of 39 of them! I got to feed a couple, including Seneke who had the same birthday as me! When we finished feeding, Brendan showed me how to scrub the islands in the exhibit to get rid of the guano (penguin poop and pee) and keep the space clean. It was nice to be up on a rock and out of the water as I was able to warm up a bit. Then Seneke, my birthday buddy,needed a foot treatment. He had little calluses/blisters on the bottom of both his feet and gets treatments every two days to heal them. Brendan held Seneke while I cleaned the pads of his feet with Betadine, dried them, and then applied his ointment. I then sprayed an aluminum spray on his feet. I think the purpose of the spray was to seal the area so that the medicine didn’t just wash away in the water. He got 3 fish as a reward for being good during his treatment. We had a lunch break and I got to talk with some of the Aquarium interns which was fun since they were from different departments and had different goals for their time here.

In the afternoon, I was in charge of vacuuming.  Olivia showed me how to use the underwater vacuum and Jonathon (another intern) helped when I had questions. I patrolled the whole exhibit to pick up any fish bits from feeding, guano, and looked for any foreign objects that guests may have dropped in the process. While doing this, a guest dropped a toy boat, which I retrieved. Any objects have to be sanitized before they can be returned back to the owner. Then Emily, one of the pegui staff, needed my help. She was fixing an old sprinkler on one of the islands and there was a ton of built up glue around it. While she chipped the glue away I vacuumed it up before it became a hazard to the penguins. I definitely felt the cold once I was done vacuuming and a warm shower was so nice. That was the end of the day for me, just around 4:30pm, so I packed up my stuff and thanked everyone for showing me the ropes. On Tuesday, I will be in Galleries with Bill Murphy and look forward to the rest of the week!

I drove to Kim Malkoski’s house as she is hosting me for a couple of days at her workplace, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI). We left at 6:50am to get to WHOI and to get situated for an 8am small boat training course. I will be taking this course for the next 2 days and will learn how to drive, dock, and trailer two different boats. I have minimal boat experience, and have never felt completely comfortable being in charge of docking so I am excited for this course as it will make me feel more confident. We started with some lessons in the classroom. This went over leaving the dock, basic turns, and re-docking. We then all went down to the boats and went over how to start the boat and what to always check in order to be safe. The boats we were using were an Inlander Response and and a Carolina Skiff. We started by maneuvering the boat out of the dock slip. We turned the wheel all the way towards the dock and went forward so that the stern swung out. Then we flipped it in reverse and slightly straightened the wheel to kick the whole vessel to the side. It was all about pivot points and how they change based on forward or reverse motions. It took me a few tries but I got it. We then went out and practiced just driving and turning the boat  so we all got a feel for it. Since we had six people on each boat there was a lot of time watching others which helped me a lot with the harder maneuvers as I could observe what others were doing right and wrong before I did it. We then practiced approaching on a boat that was already moving. This would be utilized when weather conditions made the sea choppy. By both boats continuing forward together, they match up with the waves and it makes it easier to pass gear or people between boats. I did this one well and was super proud of myself! After a lunch break we expanded on our previous skills by approaching a boat straight on, doing a power turn, and then coming up beside it while the boat was moving. This one made me nervous because I really didn’t want to hit the other boat. My dads one piece of advice for me doing this course was “don’t hit another boat and you will be fine.” I ended up not hitting the other boat and actually doing the skill decently! After that long day, Kim and I got some pizza and watched the new season of Stranger Things. When we got back to her house I was over the moon happy because she had Boursin cheese and crackers and that is my current favorite snack.

The next day we continued with some classroom lessons and then got back in the boats. We reviewed skills from the day prior and got comfortable, and then started docking maneuvers. I ended up not backing into a slip since I didn’t feel confident that I wouldn’t hit the boat into the dock and it was a pretty busy area ahead of the dock and I didn’t want to get in the way of other boats. I was able to dock onto the side of the pier area with the wind pushing us towards it though which made me happy. We finished the course by driving a truck with a trailer on it and doing a three point turn. This truck was BIG. I did it eventually, but definitely had help from Kim and other people on the dock. Overall, I had a great time taking this course and it made me feel more comfortable operating small boats. I will practice and hopefully get fully comfortable operating soon! While at the Malkoski’s, I got to try on my new drysuit that was gifted by Fourth Element to the intern. It is quite beautiful and I am excited to use it later in the summer. Thank you Fourth Element!!