Hello! Week five at the lovely Outer Banks field site is coming to an end and I am here to let you all know a little bit about what went down. Since we follow the UNC schedule, we had a relaxing “wellness day” on Monday, which, sadly, meant no internship. Tuesday was class as normal where we learned about ecosystem services, NC ecosystems, and risk and adaptation. Andy finally gave us the many pieces of candy he owed us from the economic mini-games he likes to play in class. He owed me 17 pieces, a low number compared to many of my classmates. On Wednesday we all had our various internships. My internship is with the National Park Service and I get to look after little baby sea turtles all day so really no complaints there. We patrolled the beach for any beached animals and looked over the turtle nests, whose numbers are dwindling as sea turtle season comes to an end. We released a weak loggerhead hatchling whom I hope is living its best life out there, but highly doubt it made it much past the shoreline. Watching the tiny hatchlings enter an ocean that I would think twice about entering leaves me in awe of their strength and perseverance as they swim their little bodies out to the Gulf Stream. Thursday, we once again had class as usual where we continued learning about topics from Tuesday.
Now Friday, a rescheduled lab day from last week. Last week a tropical storm hit the coast and the water was much too rough to go out on our boat to take water samples so we rescheduled the lab to this week. Lindsay put much effort into organizing and preparing for the lab this Friday and unfortunately, not much went to plan. We all met at CSI and we boated out to the middle of the Croatan Sound where the boat rocked from the waves caused by the intense wind power that day. It was not an ideal day to be on the water. We started measurements nonetheless but soon found the
YSI device (the main technology we were using to take measurements) to have no battery life. And we had no batteries. Oops. The measurements of half a meter on the LiCor device were. Ashylnn and I were given the task to retape the cord every half a meter and let me tell you, we took our task very seriously. Because of the combination of the bad weather and the lack of batteries, we turned back to CSI. On our way, I was given another task (exciting, I know) to collect phytoplankton samples from the surface water. Although I collected more jellyfish (still technically plankton) than phytoplankton, I still deemed the task successfully completed. After observing our cute little plankton under a microscope, we set off in the van to collect water samples from three separate locations; Oregon Inlet, under the Highway 64 bridge leading to the barrier island, and in the Wanchese harbor. The first two locations went about as smoothly as they could considering the rough seas and wind and after we had completed those two locations, we stopped at Dunkin for a much-needed pick-me-up. Now, this treacherous trip led to the momentary destruction of the side view mirror of the van. Here is how the story goes; we were leaving Dunkin when a wild bird came out of nowhere and grabbed Laura’s donut! She then proceeded to grab the bird to save her precious, one-dollar,
donut. Unfortunately, during this exchange, the bird’s power broke the side view mirror. Sarah then jumped out of the van and ran towards the bird, angry at the destruction it had just caused. No one (except Sarah) is exactly sure what happened next but what we do know is that Sarah is okay, but the same cannot be said for the bird. Anyway, after this intense, and definitely true story, we headed for our last location to wrap up the lab and data collection for the day. We ended the day back at the guest house, watching Harry Potter and snacking on some donuts.
We are often forced to adapt here on the Outer Banks, the forces of nature often dictate what we can and cannot do. Whether it be a complete change in our schedule or a simple change in classroom locations, we are constantly reminded that we are at the mercy of nature. The lab we had did not go as planned but I think everyone would agree with me that we would not have wanted it any other way. It was the perfect end to week number five on this little island that we get to call home for a few months.