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The Calm After the Storm
The day after the race was kinda laid back due to there not being much work to be done. All that has been done at NMLC for two weeks was preparing for the race, and now that it is over no one knew what to do. Due to Ashley having the day off the office was extremely quiet. Kate sent us to work in the hospital after scanning and doing paper work for last year’s Kemp Ridley releases. This did not take too long and soon we were in the hospital doing the morning chores.
Personally, I have gotten really good at scrubbing floors. Not going to lie, I kinda feel like Cinderella! Our morning chores consist of cleaning the kitchen, boxing fish, and doing whatever dishes are in the sink. After about two weeks of doing that every other day Marissa and I have created a pretty efficient way of getting the chores done fairly quickly. While one of us scrubs the floors, the other washes the dishes and cleans the counters and fridge. Then after the floors are scrubbed down they get rinsed and the water gets pulled to the drains. This system only takes about 45 minutes then we are off to the next task. After chores we were sent back to Kate in the office to do the box turtles. Since the Discovery Center is open now there were little kids around watching us clean the box turtles. It was really cool to have the kids around because they asked a lot of questions.
After the box turtles were finished we got asked to make eight copies each for two presentations for the new interns. The first was 21 slides long and Marissa and I disagreed on how to get eight copies. I figured you could put the entire this in the copier then sort through them, but Marissa thought that would take to long. We settled on breaking the presentation into 3 parts and making copies and putting the parts together. Well this did not work as we had planned because we ended up losing sheets and having to restart. Today was one of those days where the copier was not our friend. After finishing the first we started the second. Both had to be double sided, so we put the first half of the second presentation into the copier hit double sided. Unfortunately, something happened in the first half came out not double sided. Because we did not want to waste any more paper, we decided to tell Kate. She did not seem mad, but she was not happy. Monday was a long and stressful day for me. I do not like making mistakes and Marissa and I did, so I was a little frustrated.
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Race Day
Sunday March 25, 2015 was finally hear! This meant it was finally race day and all the work Marissa and I have put in for the past two weeks is finally being put to use. I have copied fliers and counted them out into groups of 20, created raffle labels, painted and drew signs for a fun run, and completed a scavenger hunt to find everything needed for the fun run. Over two weeks I learned a lot about what it takes to plan and follow through with a large event. I never thought I would be copying 2,000 fliers and break them into groups from 18-26 and doing hours upon hours of office work, but it has proven to be a challenge. Between the copier always messing up and getting a ridiculous amount of paper cuts I have learned that office work is a lot of work. I’ve always kinda brushed off my mother when she says she has a lot of paperwork to do, and I know now that she actually has a lot of work to do.
Marissa and I’s job during the race was to man the Kids Rescue Run. Every Time a new kid wanted to run we dressed them up in scrubs and safety gloves and put them in the wagon to go to the rescue site. The run had four stations and at each one the kids would learn about how the rescue and animals and how to help them recover from their injuries. The first station was the rescue sight, where each kid would chose which animal they wanted to save. next was the Triage Center. Here the kids would find the size of the animal, feed it using a tube, give it medicine, and listen to the animal's heart. This station was used to show the children how NMLC helps the animals recover. The Rehab Pool was next. While there the kids fed the animals while they swam and got better. Lastly, was the Release site. During the entirety of the course Marissa and I had to talk the kids through the process and explain how we are helping animals to get better. I’m really happy I was on this job because the kids loved it plus we got to raise awareness about how humans affect the seals, dolphins, and sea turtles.
About an hour in Marissa and I were asked to be the seal and the dolphin for the end of the race. This meant we were specially chosen to dance around in the mascot costumes for about an hour. Of course we accepted the challenge with smiles on our faces. I got the pleasure of being Sally the Seal, yay me right?! during my time in the seal I had to dance and cheer on the runners as they finished and take pictures. At first it was a really nice day to be in the costume because it is so windy, but it got really hot really quickly. I found it to be fun after I got over being hot. After the last person finished we walked back to the awards and took pictures with littles kids. Soon Margo found people to relive us. After changing we watched the awards and then it was time for clean up. Race day was really cool. I’m really happy Marissa and I decided to come down for the event because it felt really nice to be apart of the NMLC team!
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Best Day at Cape Wildlife
Thursday was the best day I have had at the Cape Wildlife Center since we started the internship. We started the morning out much like every other. We got our plans for the day and got started. Our thursday job was to finish the barn, but we had very little left to do. We ended up finishing really quickly and with Lynn gone to Boston we had nothing left to do. Because we finished so early, the staff members decided we could sit in during rounds and then after spend the rest of our shift in the nursery.
Life up in the nursery was fairly uneventful, but it was still better than the basement or the barn. We observed Lauryn, an extern, and volunteers feed the baby squirrels and take care of the swan. Since the last time I was in the nursery there is a significantly smaller amount of squirrels. All of the squirrels over 226 kg were sent to outside pins. The swan in the nursery recently had his toe amputated because of a space between the bones, so he can not go in water; thus he is upstairs.
About an hour and a half into the nursery shift Marissa and I got asked to help clean sea bird cages with Amelia. Amelia and Jamie were giving the sea birds their daily fluids while Marissa and I cleaned out their cages. This is one of the most disgusting tasks I have done during this internship. It was smelly and there was poop everywhere, but I did it with a smile on my face because they allowed us to be around the animals. After the birds we were sent to help clean out the used crates from triaging new patients. This did not take long because we clean crates at NMLC. WE have gotten really good at cleaning over the past two weeks!
At three, when Lynn was back, Marissa and I were given the task of recreating a fox enclosure while the fox was being examined. Our main goal was to create another ledge for her to exercise her hurt leg. This was not a grueling job, so Lynn, Marissa and I took it upon ourselves to make the task a little fun and create a super creative and safe enclosure for the little fox. About half =way through the work Lynn’s walkie-talkie went off and told us they were euthanizing the fox due to muscle degradation in it’s back leg. It is only slightly sad that she got put down, but her quality of life was not worth the pain and troubles of having the hurt leg.
After the loss of the fox the enclosure was changed, again, into an enclosure for two fox pups, so our new task was to create a cage that has a lot of elements to promote the fox cubs playing and running around like in the wild. Although, a lot of the work for cage was done for an adult fox, it only took about 20 minutes to adjust what we did for the adult for the cubs. Today was the first really good day I’ve had at Cape Wildlife, but I’m sad it took this long.
The reading tonight continued to talk about the American Revolution. It introduced the readers with the importance of the cod fishermen in the naval fighting of the revolutionary war. Cod Fishermen used the schooners and attached old cannons to be used when any British ships entered the harbours. Through this tactic the Americans held a certain power. They could keep British reinforcements out of their country. During the fighting American men were both better fed and paid, thus they fought better. In 1778, the war was over and border lines, payments of debts, and fisheries were being settled over. History books never told school children that the hardest of those three to resolve was the fisheries. Americans wanted their original waters, while the British disagreed. Americans ended up with the original fishing grounds, but not for long.
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Visiting Day
On Wednesday Marissa and I received a special visit from some special people. Mr. Magee, Mr. Duncan, and Do IT’s new friend, Mr. Wilkinson, payed us a visit at National Marine Life Center. Our day started by doing some office work while the staff members were in their weekly meeting. When our guests got to the center they found us holding down the fort like good, little interns!
WE started the day by giving the guests a tour of the welcome center. This tour included the class room, offices, clinic, conference room, and the Discovery Center. After a quick stop at the canal to watch the exact replica of the Mayflower make its way down the canal. WE spent most of the morning giving interviews to Mr. Wilkinson for the Do I&T video. It was really cool to get the opportunity to share our journey before the TED talks on Thursday. Mr. Duncan, Mr. Magee and Mr. Wilkinson seemed extremely excited to be at the center and to see first hand what we have been doing for a week and a half. Getting to talk about it and have a rough shot at what we may talk about during our TEDtalk will really help us to better relay our experience.
Due to the upcoming 5k we have been doing a lot of office work in preparation for the big day on Saturday. Wednesday was another office day. We prepared the classroom for a presentation the following night, copied and folded brochure, copied and create new intern packets, and helped around wherever we could around the office. Personally, it feels very adult to be trusted with the amount of office work we are handed each day. This internship has given me a great picture of what real life working is like. I have endured an eight hour shift and it has not always been easy, but I’m glad I got this opportunity to experience something a little more grown up than I’m used to. In most every office movie or show there is always the joke about the copier never working, and I have experienced that struggle multiple times in the past week and a half. Thanks Do I&T for this experience!
The next ten pages continued to talk about the use of cod for slaves and about slavery in West Africa. The novel described the salt cods importance by including “an African slave population nourished on salt cod was rapidly growing” into the chapter about salves and cod. During this time you could buy slaves from West Africa three ways: cash, Boston rum, or salt cod. This relationship shows just how popular and important salt cod was during that time. The end of the ten pages introduced the reasoning for the American Revolution being a successful revolution. The revolutionaries wanted economic freedom. This included the freedom to buy and trade with whoever they want, but the British wanted to keep hold of their power over America by taxes and regulations of goods.
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Hay Loft Cleaning
Today marked the beginning our second week with the Cape Wildlife Center! The first week was spent cleaning and organizing as much of the supply basement as Marissa and I could, so this week we will be focussing on the loft to the barn.
The loft of the barn, like the supply basement, has a ton of crates and bunny cages. With this information you could probably guess the first step to cleaning out the loft: moving the crates and cages to the basement. This job is not very hard, btu is very time consuming. After bring the crates and cages from the loft to the back door, they have to be pulled in a trolley to the back of the main building. The barn is near the entrance from the road while the main building is down the long drive way. We banged out this task fairly quickly and moved onto taking down the bat cage. During the trekking back and forth mother nature decide we looked a little dehydrated. After taking the crates over to the basement we gave up and decided to do the cages either when it stopped raining or on Thursday.
The bat cage is a tall metal and net enclosure that has been nailed, screwed, sewed, and glued into place, so taking it down was a big job. To get the top off you have to cut the stitching between the top and the netting. Then the netting must come down. The bats tried to escape through various openings, so the netting was screwed into place on the entire perimeter and the barn wall. This made taking down the netting extremely hard. After unscrewing and tearing off the plywood the net was finally free. After the net was the structure. Originally, Marissa and I could not get the structure to come apart, but we found that if one pulled while the other twisted the parts came apart easily. After packing away the pieces to the bat cage all that was left was to clear the center of the room and sweep. This job didn’t take nearly as long as we had initially expected, but I was happy it was over quickly.
At about lunch time Marissa and I had our sweatshirt, shoes, and socks dried so we could continue working. Tuesday was a bit of a drag, but we pushed through. About halfway through the cages I began to get a little frustrated with the rain and the work, but I managed to finish the job and push onto the next part. Today was a good lesson in working through tough situations. The weather was not ideal, yet we finished our 9-5 shift and helped the center create more space in the barn!
Today’s reading brought to live the development of Boston. Many people came to New England to fish for the well known cod, but what people probably don’t know is that Boston was built on it’s cod market. Boston had cod and Europe and European colonies wanted it, and New Englanders wanted European products. New England was the most well set up colony north of Virginia. The ten pages also touched on the popularity of the cod fish. It was used in crests since before 1776 and was, at one point, seen to be holy. People openly worshipped the fish as the symbol of their wealth. With the cod market on the rise the need for cheap food for slaves in other countries was resolved. Salt cod became the staple food for slaves. Soon salt cod, slaves and molasses became closely linked.
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A Day at the Office... Literally
Today was an exciting day for me because we have made it through one week and get the opportunity to starts another. I’m super excited about working with Cilantro, Wasabi, and Dill, but also about the upcoming 5k NMLC is running. Marissa and I volunteered to come down next Sunday and help out if and when they needed it. We will be working with the little kids during the fun run and painting faces! I think helping out and offering our time will show just how dedicated and interested we are in what they are doing.
We spent the entire morning in the office, but we were hopeful we would end up in the hospital due to the incoming seal! We ended up meeting the elusive Kate today. She is super nice and has the seal’s best interest in mind. She gave us a small list of jobs to do before Ashley got in. First on the list was spreading mulch on the flower beds. It was Earth Day part 2! After spreading the mulch we went back into the welcome center and cleaned out the box turtles. This is where my day went bad. I forgot to turn one of the lights off and set it on the floor. Ten minutes later Marissa noticed the smell of burning plastic and realized I burnt a hole in the floor. When I told Kate she looked at the bulb and at the floors and said “Obviously this happens a lot”, motioning to the hole ridden floor. Next we had to scan turtle documents into the computer and save them. I manned the scanner while Marissa maned the computer. Each document was the evaluation sheet from the Kemp Ridley turtles last year. It was really cool to read about their injuries and the courses of treatment.
When Ashley got in we started the office work in preparation for the 5k this weekend. I made labels for the raffle prizes. I may or may not of gotten a little carried away with the labels and created mini turtles, starfish, and a whale tail using common shapes and lines. They turned out really good and Ashley was super impressed.
When the new seal came in we gave them the body of one the center got over the weekend, but, unfortunately, it did not make it through the weekend. This seal ended up biting Kathy, so his head was sent off to be tested for rabies. During the new seal admin. They let me write out his charts. It was super scary because I did not know what half of what they were saying meant, but I finished the chart. I hope I spelt everything right…
For Monday’s reading the main thing I picked out was the journey of the Pilgrims in America. In 1620 the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth landing to set up a new settlement and create a boatload of money from fishing. One thing I learned is that the Pilgrims came over with zero understanding of how to fish or survive on their own. The first hint of this is the fact they came over during the winter and had no idea of how to gather or catch fish to feed themselves. The story of the starving Pilgrims is known by almost everyone. By the next year the Pilgrims were starving to death. Although, they needed help, the Pilgrims would not take help from the Native Americans. They did not want to hunt, nor did they want to take the food given to them due to it being different. This chapter touched on how these people thought moving to America and fishing for cod would be a good idea, yet they had zero knowledge on fishing or the tackle to do so.
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Take Two
Today Marissa and I set out to experience the second part of this amazing opportunity. Yes, the ride to Falmouth is a haul and half, but as we got closer I got giddy with excitement thinking about the things we will get to experience in the upcoming week. I really hope we can learn more about seals in the wild. I would love to have a crash course on seals before we have to go. This week we are spending 3 days at NMLC (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) and 2 days at Cape Wildlife (Tuesday and Thursday). While at Cape Wildlife we are helping them do their spring cleaning. Last week we cleaned and organized their supply basement, and this week we will be cleaning both levels of the barn. It’s not my favorite work, but I will gladly help them in any way possible. Hopefully NMLC got a new seal pup over the weekend. Marissa and I’s first week working with both the National Marine Life Center and Cape Wildlife went really well. I would say it went better than expected. Not only did we get to witness the new seal pup’s arrival at NMLC, we also got to learn a lot about what it means to volunteer/work at a non-profit. Both rehabilitation centers are non-profits, and run strictly on volunteers and helpful donors. Throughout the first week I became confident in my desire to become a marine biologist. I now know that I want to have a future in marine biology work. I cannot wait to discover more about this field because I know I will only fall more in love with it. At NMLC Marissa and I got to experience all aspects of the center. We did office work, ground work, and work in the hospital. Although, we cannot touch the seals, it is amazing to simple watch the handling and care of these animals. Marissa and I ended up finishing the movie on Sunday night. Although, it is much different from Moby Dick, you can see how Herman Melville got the inspiration for the novel. The second half of the movie included the aftermath of life after the destruction of the men’s boat and of their mental health after the fight. Tom and another whalemen were exploring the island they took refuge on and found a cave with an old boot in the opening. Being curious as to whether the man died of starvation or of cannibals the two ventured further into the cave. The found a few skeletons and a note about the shipwreck of these men and their death on the island. Tom had to promise not to say anything about the possibility of death on the island. Owen Chase realized that the island had nothing left for the men and proposed they jump ship, not literally, and leave the island. The men broke up into groups and headed different directions to cover the most space. They ended up being lost at sea for 89 days. In these 89 day some men died of natural causes and others were killed to be eaten next. Like in Mr. Duncan’s class the topic of consensual cannibalism came up. The men drew from a hat to decide who was to be eaten next. This movie was a more realistic way to look at Moby Dick. Like In the novel the whale in the movie has revenge out for the whalers after they kill a fellow sperm whale.
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Travel Day Sunday!
Let’s just say that I was not nervous for my internship to start until the day I had to leave. As I ran around my house and the grocery store looking for any possible thing Marissa and I might find useful I realized how my fear had disguised itself as excitement. I started Sunday off by beginning to pack. It went really well until I was second guessing whether I should bring pants or shorts, and long sleeve or short sleeve. At that very moment I could feel the excitement morph into absolute fear. As the morning went on I tried to forget about my internship and focus on making my mom Mother’s Day breakfast. This helped a lot. My entire family was at the house making my mom breakfast and it felt really nice to hang out with everyone before I left. This was one of the first times since my brother’s accident that the entire family was together and could joke around about my brother’s nearly healed neck and sternum. I am extremely thankful that he is still here. After breakfast I went pack to packing with a different outlook: I can overpack and be prepared for anything. Although, I did not know exactly what to expect, I packed a little bit of everything just to be safe. My next stress induced headache was due to my over packing. What if Marissa’s uncle thought I packed too much? Of course my entire family thought my fear and stress filled head was a new, hilarious thing to make fun of. After packing pretty much everything I own my parents and I headed over to Marissa’s house. On the way to her house I quickly realized I had forgotten the eggs, my bike, and my lacrosse stick. So, being the wonderful man that he is, my dad drove all the way home just to grab them for me. As soon as we got in the car with Marissa’s uncle’s girlfriend I began to feel a little better. By the time we made it to the Wrentham Outlets. While there Marissa and I jumped around a few stores, but never stayed long for fear of buying something we could not afford. The last store we went into was the Converse store. There we bought little, baby converse keychains. I ended up getting the pair that matches my own shoes. When we finally got to Marissa’s Uncle Rick’s house we brought everything inside and unpacked and made dinner. While putting our clothes away I realized Marissa also packed a ton, so my nerves settled down. Our first dinner away from home was only mildly pathetic: peanut butter sandwiches. After eating and cleaning up we decided it was time for bed. As we were getting ready for bed we discovered the ghost living in the room liked to turn the lights on and off periodically. We were only a little spooked before bed.
Marissa and I decided to read Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World. The short novel is about how one fish revolutionized living across the entire world on several occasions. The books starts out by introducing the readings to a group of people called the Basque. The Basque live in a small area between France and Spain on the Bay of Biscay. These people speak a language that is extremely hard to translate and has an unknown origin. The people of Basque were able to survive as their own mini country by their ability to adapt to resources overtime. The Basque people do not associate themselves with neither Spain nor France, so they are left on their own for resources. They survived on cod for a long time without the rest of the world knowing about where they fish. Like the Basque, the rest of the world from vikings to present time have survived on salted cod because it takes such a long time to spoil. Cod was a staple food during the time of long voyages to unknown land or waters. Not only was cod a delicacy, but it was also a huge money maker because countries around the world had profitable markets for the fish that did not spoil.
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Best Day So Far
Today, by far, was the best day of the week. It was our third day at the National Marine Life Center, so we have learned almost everything about cleaning and animal care. We worked under Wendy, a volunteer, today, and she was amazing. Wendy gave us more freedom than anyone had given us all week and taught us a lot about feeding the seals. Today was also great because the center received its first harbor seal pup! He is only a few weeks old and is named Dill. Why Dill you may ask? This year the theme for names is spices and herbs. Little Dill was found abandoned by his mother, but we are waiting for x-rays and tests to see if he has any injuries.
After Dill’s admin Marissa and I went back to doing the morning chores. First we needed to box herring for the seals meals. The herring come in laptop size ice bricks, and to box them you have to break the fish apart and then inspect and box them. There are a lot of rules about the condition of the fish for the seals. When you inspect the herring you are looking for missing scales, a broken off head or tail, and gatches in their bodies. If the fish have any of these injuries they get put in the bait box. The bait box is given to local fishermen. Not only is boxing fish a tedious job, it is extremely cold. After about five minutes of holding the ice block of fish your hands become extremely cold. It may sound like a gross job, but it may be one of my favorites. Marissa and I have a lot of fun while doing it and it's one of our chores that isn’t cleaning.
After boxing the herring we cleaned the kitchen. this includes floors, counters, fridges, sinks, and doing the dishes. This takes about an hour because people add new dishes every 10 minutes or so. After the kitchen we got Wasabi’s lunch ready, so we grabbed his 2 kg of herring and filled it with water to thaw. At 12 p.m. I threw his fish to him. This was the first time they let Marissa and I feed Wasabi!After lunch Marissa and I learned how to make fish gruel, a delicacy at the hospital. Fish gruel is basically ground up fish, electrolytes, vitamins, and salt. This is used for seals who are not eating on their own. Cilantro gets tuped every day about 3 times, so basically he gets a tube put down his throat into his stomach and has the fish gruel pumped down into stomach. Dill was also tubed with baby seal formula.
So far I have learned a ton about seal care, but also about what it is like to work in a rehab center. Here are the main things:
You WILL go home every day smelling like fish
Your cloths WILL ALWAYS be wet and covered in fish or poop
Your hand WILL ALWAYS be pruned from washing dishes all day
You WILL get used to the smell of fish and poop
Friday night Marissa and I watched half of The Whale, a movie about the true story that inspired Moby Dick. The first half introduced us to Tom a young man, much like Ishmael, who wanted to become a whaler and joined a ship without any experience. Captain Pollard is a new captain who is trying to live up to the memory of his grandfather, a greatly remembered and known captain. After a almost deadly storm and a food shortage spirits are low until a whale is spotted. One of the whales was killed while the other made it away. A while later the boat is hit by a whale with tremendous force causing the boat to sink. The crew makes it to the whaling boats where they decide to make the 2,000 mile ride to Peru rather than risk the cannibals on a closer island. During this time Captain Pollard was turned became second in command to first mate Owen Chase. The last scene we watched was them on an island waiting to be rescued while tensions is high.
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