Semester by the Bay
Semester by the Bay in partnership with the Kachemak Bay Campus of Kenai Peninsula College, a branch of University Alaska Anchorage offers undergraduate students the opportunity for a hands-on, immersive, marine mammal concentrated academic experience
Week 1
Introductory meetings with SBB program coordinator Dr. Debbie Boege- Tobin, and internship hosts Marc Webber and Ingrid Harrald.
At the end of this week, we took a feild trip to Seward, Alaska where we visited the Alaskan Sea Life center and took an Eco-tourism cruise around Kenai Fjords and Resurrection Bay
Week 2
This week we had more in depth meetings about what's expected of us for our internship with both Marc and Ingrid
At the end of this week, we had an osteology lab where we learned the basic skeletal articulation of marine mammals in Alaska
Week 3
We started this week with a field trip in Inner bay where we saw two humpback whales, about 20 harbor porpoises, and a raft of sea otters
On Tuesday, we had a meeting with Ingrid about an upcoming outreach event using the bones from our previous osteology lab followed by a survey boat trip into Peterson Bay with Marc where we saw seven harbor porpoises
On Wednesday, we took a boat trip outside Kachemak Bay where we saw humpback whales, killer whales, and hauled out sea lions
On Friday we took a trip to Kenai, Alaska for a monitoring session with Alaskan Beluga Monitoring Program,we also took eDNA samples from two locations on the Kenai river
We ended this week with a boat trip into Halibut Cove lagoon where we took an ethogram of sea otter behaviors
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Week 4
On Wednesday, we went out on a boat trip with Marc to Kisitsna Bay where we saw 20-25 harbor porpoise and three possible mating behaviors
On Thursday, the interns with KBNERR hosted a section of trivia at the local bar for National Estuaries Week as part or the education and outreach portion of our internship
On Friday, we performed a necropsy on a harbor seal found on Bishop's Beach September 10, 2023. We determined the cause of death was due to the three fishing hooks and line found in the seal's stomach and intestines
On Saturday, we took another field trip to Kenai where we did another session of beluga monitoring as well as attended a conference for Belugas Count! celebrating the 50th year anniversary of the Endangered Species Act
Week 5
Starting on Tuesday of this week, we began our skeletal articulation course where we got a quick debrief of the beluga we would be articulating. Specimen #2019405
On Wednesday, KBNERR were education and outreach interns by day, and harbor porpoise interns by night. We started our day with helping Ingrid with a Discovery Lab for homeschool connections students, during this lab we were all assigned a table that featured materials from our previous osteology lab. In the afternoon, we took a boat trip with Marc to look for harbor porpoises in Kasitsna Bay, but about three quarters of the way there the swell got too rough to see any marine mammals so we returned home quickly
On Friday and Saturday, we continued our Discovery Lab with Ingrid but this time the lab was open to the public.
Week 6
This week was a well earned week of rest and recovery. We continued to work in the bone lab on our designated projects on tuesday, my group measured and weighed all our caudal vertebrae for the future bone atlas for our beluga. On wednesday we tried to go out on another HAPO survey but unfortunately only got out as far as the harbor before the captain deemed the water to rough to go out, on friday we began working on our research posters for the Sympoium in early November.
Week 7
Continuing to work in the bone lab, we started 3D imaging our bones on Tuesday. On Wednesday, we had the first of several weekly meetings with Marc as an internship check in, just to give us a direction and tasks to be working toward prior to next weeks meeting
Week 8
On Tuesday we continued to 3D image and started 2D imaging our caudal vertebraes, Wednesday we had our weekly meeting with Marc, Thursday I presented for our conservation seminar course, on Friday we attended an emergency beluga necropsy in Kasilof, Alaska, and on Saturday KBNERR and Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies (CACS) hosted a halloween themed discovery lab at Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge
Week 9
This week was a slow week, on Tuesday we finished 2D imaging our bones and started putting them together and spent the rest of the week studying for our midterm
Week 10
On Tuesday, we continued ti put together our whale tail, we put all the caudal vertebra on a metal rebar and filled in silicon where the cartilage would be
On Wednesday, we had our weekly meeting with Marc
and on Friday, we all presented at a marine mammal biology seminar where we each presented as individual projects and group posters
Week 11
Since we're in November now the semester is winding down.
On Tuesday we finished siliconing the caudal vertebrae
On Wednesday we had our weekly check in with Marc and Debbie
Week 12
This week in the bone lab we started bending aluminum sheets into the shape of the flukes
On Wednesday we had our weekly check in with Marc and Debbie
Week 13
This week was thanksgiving so not much went on this week other than our weekly meeting with Marc and Debbie
Week 14
On Tuesday in the bone lab we finished our flukes (It was also my birthday)
On Wednesday, we had our weekly check with Marc and Debbie
Week 15
On Tuesday this week we finished our metal tail and attached it to the rest of the beluga
On Wednesday, we had our weekly check in with Marc and Debbie
Week 16
Finals week!
Thank you Debbie and Marc, and especially my other SBB classmates :)
