Week Three

Week three is a success! 

The Alaska Marine Science Symposium (AMSS) was a fantastic opportunity to learn from graduate students, federal researchers, independent organization leaders, and more. I was thrilled to hear from keynote speakers such as Anand Varma, Dr. Faith Kearns, the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission, and far more. The poster sessions each evening were a great way to mingle with other marine scientists (and community members!) and learn about new, exciting developments across numerous marine-related fields. 

The view from part of East End Road in Homer, AK. This was the sunset I saw post-field trip. 

Now that I'm back in Homer, I'm ready for round two of coastal wrack surveys. As soon as everything thaws out a bit and the fresh wrack isn't frozen to the beach substrate, we'll be good to go. 

On Wednesday, we went to the Pratt Museum in Homer and had the incredible opportunity to go behind the scenes and see their collections! I've always been curious about the inner workings of museums, so it was fantastic speaking with curators and biologists who run the Museum and public gardens. 

An American Coast Guard C-130 flies between Homer and Sadie Peak (tallest point). 

I'm working on creating a research project for the Exploration Ecology: Experiential Learning (BIOL 483) course led by Dr. Tobin. I wish I had been able to complete my experiment with Inspiring Girls back in 2020; how does glacial retreat impact intertidal biodiversity? I had been looking at beaches in Northwestern Fjord (Redstone Glacier Landing Beach, Northeastern Glacier Landing Beach, and Ojive Glacier Landing Beach gave us varying stages of terrestrial glacier retreat) and quantifying the species present (variety and quantity of each taxa). Kachemak Bay would be a fantastic place to continue a study similar to this; the AMSS featured many presentations from scientists who collect data from Port Graham, Kasitsna Bay, Halibut Cove, etc. in order to compare similar bay ecological backgrounds with varying presence of permanent or seasonal glaciers. Unfortunately, it's quite tricky and nearly impossible to get across the bay frequently and on an unpaid student budget during this season. So, I could either look into historic data collections from other researchers, OR select another topic to study. 

I'm also greatly intrigued by the proposal of a hotel in the Doyon area of the Homer Spit (base of the spit). It would be great to complete surveys to gain information about shorebirds/sea otters/harbor seals/invertabrates and their activity, abundance, habitat use, habits, etc. This would allow future researchers to see a 'before' and 'after' ecological analysis of the area, and I could even pair it with looking at the end of the spit (near Land's End Hotel) for anthropological interference. 

In the meantime, internship activity focused on creating a video to introduce Kachemak Bay to scientists and conservationists.