Off Shore At Last!

Sophia von der Ohe and Siobhan Ali, C Watch

Yesterday afternoon we arrived and anchored a little ways from the Isles of Shoals, right next to each other. One was a part of New Hampshire, and had an array of fancy-looking hotels. The other was a part of Maine, home to Shoals Marine Laboratory, and was a mix of nature, aggressive seagulls, and solar-paneled covered roofs and labs. Today, we ventured onto the island, to be greeted by very friendly scientists and interns. They gave us a tour of the island, showing us some of the projects they were working on, their environmentally friendly energy, waste, and water management systems, and even let us explore one of their intertidal zones (we went tide pooling!).

We saw many types of sea birds on this island, and because it was nesting season, we experienced a combination of admiring the cute baby birds and hoping that their mothers would not attack us. I (Sophia) especially enjoyed talking to the scientists and interns and the research that they were conducting, and I am excited to look into the projects on this island for possible future research/intern opportunities. I found the research about the crabs and mussels in the intertidal zones to be fascinating, and I was blown away by the fact that this island boasts 40 years of data on their intertidal zones; one of the (if not the) longest record of intertidal marine research on one location in the world! I (Siobhan) was very excited to go tide pooling, seeing all of the snails and crabs that lived there. I also enjoyed learning about the island’s waste management program. It was interesting to learn about how they composted their waste and sawdust. Can’t wait to see what’s next on our amazing adventure!

Sophia von der Ohe and Siobhan Ali, C Watch