Week Nine

Happy Spring Break!! 

It's so nice to spend the week back home in Washington. I have been able to spend time with close and extended family, make my favorite non-cuddly cream retriever cuddle with me, hang out with my nephew, and see two of the people I love (absolute inspirations) get married in the prettiest Tacoma venue. I couldn't be happier for them, nor could I feel more lucky to be home. 

Because this week is technically a week off of my internship, I have no real obligations to continue working on editing and assembling some of the b-roll footage I've been shooting for the NCCOS video Prairie and I are making on the wildlife of Kachemak Bay. However, it's nice to get that done without deadlines looming, so I've been making some slow progress there. 

In other areas, I've completed midterms (yay!) and have even finished the presentation and literature review I'm going to submit in a few weeks for Global Climate Change (BIOL446) and Conservation Biology (BIOL473) respectively. I will link those here once the deadline has passed, just in case there's any need to update the content. 

***NOTE FROM EARLY APRIL: changes were indeed made, on both projects. In the case of BIOL473's literature review on threats to the conservation of the Cook Inlet watershed, all of the water quality data I had used to base my reports on were removed from public access.  After scouring the internet, contacting ADEC, and reaching out to state employees I knew, it sounds like all state/federal water quality data is no longer required to be public access, although supposedly you can file a FOI request to access the data. I say 'supposedly' because, as of today, it's been about three weeks and I've heard no response, although my contact in the state department requested the documents and recieved them with redacted info (including the actual water quality data). For BIOL466's presentation on deepsea mining, United States company The Metals Co. announced April 2nd they would be mining the deepsea, so a lot of the information I had found was suddenly more critical than ever. I'm still unsure of the impact of deepsea mining, as are a lot of ISA officials due to lack of sufficient evidence that deepsea mining wouldn't have massive consequences on local benthic ecosystems. To see more, please check the Week 13 blog post***

This spring break, I'm also going to add a few pages to my website. Mainly, I want to add a photography section and show off my out-of-class hobby that tends to give my projects a huge boost behind the scenes. For surveying wrack and other biota, the pictures I take can help me identify species I don't recognize, making my data more accurate. Even with general class presentations, such as the BIOL446 presentation on the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, I used one of my own photos for the background of the slides, which made it stand out from peers who may use a blank template or the stock images Canva provides. 

Additionally, I will continue applying to seasonal positions and employment opprotunities in the natural science field. I won't let the current state of federal employment deter me from my dreams of working in natural resource management; I have 70+ applications in and I'm determined to get a master's degree in aquatic or environmental science so I can continue learning how our ecosystems function in order to support legislation that keeps our communities healthy for generations to come, without unreasonable impact on disadvantaged communities. 

That's all for now, see you next week!