The End Has Come
- Ana Noel
- May 1, 2022
- 4 min read
Updated: May 4, 2022
Date: 4/28/2022
Hours: 1.5
Event: Final evaluation with Caroline and Debbie and final presentation
Today Diondre and I met with Caroline and Debbie to go over final thoughts about the internship. Caroline started off by saying that she really appreciates our work since we responded to 69% of the otters reported (43/69). That being said, she noticed that the number of hours we had each week was low and asked if 20 hours/week was unreasonable. Diondre and I felt like it was hard to meet this goal as we got around 10 hours per week. Debbie stepped in and said that other interns in the past usually meet this requirement, but she also said that this was the first time this internship was offered in the spring semester. At the beginning of the semester, it was hard to respond to otters due to less people walking the beach and reporting them and them being frozen when we got to them. In addition, covid caused us to not be able to do as many things such as usual. But Caroline said that she saw us respond every time there was a stranding report. Even when we couldn't go, we communicated that we were busy and so she said we had really strong communication. She also wanted to know if we had any suggestions for her or the internship in general. Diondre talked about how we wished someone was in Homer, since Caroline was always in Anchorage, to train us and be available to help us or provide local opportunities. Caroline totally understood but she said that they are based in Anchorage, and they are trying to create a space for someone to be in Homer but as of right now they haven't been able to do that. I also wished that we were given more direction like we were given tools to pull teeth but never actually got trained in doing so I wished there was someone who could properly train us. Even working getting Aimee swabs was a learning curve since we had to read the protocol and try to learn based off of that. I also wish we got to give presentations to schools or at the Forum because I know how interested people are. All that being said, I got so much out of this internship and even though we worked mostly with dead otters, I always had fun responding. It really inspired me to want to continue this work and get more experience working in rehab. I got so much out of this internship, and I think it will help me get further in my career. In addition, working with the public was a great opportunity because I didn't have as much experience with this so being able to table and talk to people while in the field has helped me learn how to communicate effectively with the public. Overall, Caroline appreciated our work, and I really enjoyed getting experience in the field working with marine mammals.
Later on, Diondre and I gave our final presentations on our internship. I focused on the data aspect and talked about some memorable strandings. Diondre talked about beach walks, the study, the SeaLife Center training, and live otter strandings. Overall, I think we both did a great job and Caroline was glad to see some statistics on the otters we responded to.
In addition, there was a news article on the Marine Mammal Forum:
Date: 5/2/2022
Hours: 1
Event: Behind the scenes tour of the Alaska SeaLife Center
This week my mom and grandma came to visit me and one of the things we did was go to the SeaLife Center. We took the normal tour of the facility which was fun because I got to show them all the organisms that they have. I also saw seabirds, harbor seals, and a Steller sea lion which I didn't see last time I was there.
But what was really cool was that Halley was able to give us a tour of the rehab section where they work with the rescued animals. They didn't have any animals at the moment, but that allowed for us to get a full tour. She showed us the enclosures where they put animals. They have a little pool so seals and sea otters can still have access to water. They have an enclosure dedicated to baby sea otters so they can easily care for them since they require a lot of care. They also had more enclosures outside so that the animals can be outdoors. It was cool also because the enclosures are connected, and they can open them up so seals can interact with each other, or they can separate them if they need to monitor one more closely. She showed us the necropsy room, surgery room, and the care room where they have all the materials needed like medications, flipper tags, and much more. They also had a wall of pictures of some of the animals they rescued. She said her favorite animals to rescues are walruses. She talked about how they rescued belugas before as well. What was cool to me is that, if an animal can't be released into the wild, they will ship them to the lower 48 or other countries for a permanent home. She also said that walruses are rare in captivity and that the only way facilities like aquariums get them is if they cannot be released. This results in facilities moving these animals to new locations to breed them. She also said one time an elephant seal was found in Seward and was bloated and lethargic. They ended up rescuing it but released it a few days later since all tests came back normal.
The SeaLife Center rescuing the elephant seal.
Overall, I thought it was such a great experience and I asked her how she got to where she was. She said she is an animal care specialist and that she volunteered and interned until they offered her a job. She started out by cleaning enclosures but eventually was able to move up. I am inspired by her story and am inspired to work hard to get where she is.
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