Category: Internships

Interning with the National Park Service

My internship for the National Park Service under the Cape Hatteras National Seashore’s Natural Resource Manager, Randy Swilling has provided me with experiences and opportunities I never would have expected to have in my time at UNC.  One of my main responsibilities during the first few weeks of my time with the National Park Service was going on “turtle patrols” which consisted of monitoring and maintaining the sea turtle nests located along a several mile stretch of the seashore. In some instances, this involved excavating recently hatched nests to conduct counts of the number of hatchlings that escaped the nest, the number of dead hatchlings, and the number of live hatchlings still present in the nest. These live hatchlings were retrieved from the nests and were later released into the sea during favorable conditions.

Another interesting aspect of my internship was having the opportunity to perform necropsies (an autopsy performed on an animal) on a Kemp’s ridley sea turtle and a bottlenose dolphin. These necropsies were performed to attempt to determine the cause of death for these animals, and whether or not human interaction played a role in their demise. In addition to making basic observations of the deceased animals’ conditions, we also examined their stomach contents to determine whether or not they had swallowed any man-made products, such as plastic bags or other plastics. This provided me with a chance to learn about the anatomy of the marine animals—an opportunity I am very grateful to have had.

Overall, my internship has given me a lot of insight into the wildlife of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, and the Outer Banks. I’ve lived near the Outer Banks for the past eleven years and never realized how much of the area’s natural wonder I hadn’t experienced until I began working for the National Park Service. After my internship ends, I hope to continue to learning about the wildlife of the Outer Banks and the measures that are being taken to protect it.

The first day of my internship with the husbandry staff at the Roanoke Island Aquarium I was already feeding sharks. They just handed me a dead fish, a pole and pointed out which shark to feed. That experience sums up my internship pretty well; you just go for it and act like you know what you’re doing. At first, I was a nervous wreck. What if I made an animal sick? What if I forgot their vitamins? What if I messed up the water quality? But eventually learned to relax and enjoy the opportunity thanks to many wonderful mentors. I’ve found a new love for marine life, a desire to get dive certified, and best of all a career I want to pursue.

A typical day starts with the touch tank, holding Cow Nose rays, Atlantic Sting Rays, 3 Bamboo Sharks, a Guitar fish, a Horseshoe Crab, and a few other species of small fish. I maintain the log-book, tracking temperature, flow pressure, salinity, and PH. After cleaning out their excrement I prep food and, my favorite part of the morning, hand feed the cow nose rays before broadcasting the rest of their food. In the wild, cow nose rays are born with a tape-worm, and the cow nose rays in the touch tank are juveniles from the wild. Therefore, they need a bit more food than the others. It still amazes me that they’ll eat right out of my hand. They’ve become so accustomed to me that I’ve implemented a ray training program, to make barbing them and veterinary checks easier and less stressful for the animals. After working with the rays, I move on to more food prep. I weigh out shark food, cut up squid and fish, and bag more food. The majority of my day is spent handling frozen, thawed, or bloody fish. After lunch, I get to feed the sharks along with a few other husbandry staff members. My mentor has taught me to identify Spotlight vs. Big Girl vs. Denty Dennis and the other sharks. After this routine, my day can vary from working on projects – building an otter enrichment tool or a baby gator cover to keep them from climbing out – to working with the resident screech owl or even cleaning out the trenches at the bottom of the tanks (by far the dirtiest and smelliest job).

At 5 pm, I leave the aquarium pretty beat, and definitely stinky, but fulfilled. I absolutely love what I do there, and Mondays and Wednesdays are often the highlight of my week. Between the animals, the staff I work with, and all the experiences I’ve been given, I’ve had an amazing time at my internship. I had always thought I’d want to be a zookeeper or work with animals, but this has broadened my horizons and I’ve found that I really would like to pursue work at an aquarium post-graduation.

 

Michaela Meredith

Junior Environmental Studies major

NC Roanoke Island Aquarium – husbandry staff intern

My name is Dakota Koenigsberg and I’m a senior at UNC studying Environmental Studies and Economics.  This semester, at the Coastal Studies Institute, I’ve been conducting research on hydraulic fracturing regulation in North Carolina under the supervision of Dr. Andrew Keeler.  Specifically, I’ve analyzed the draft rules developed by the Mining and Energy Commission (MEC), comparing my findings to the regulatory experience of the Marcellus Shale states (PA, OH, NY, and WV).  My aim is to explore all potential areas of regulation, while ensuring to include the positions of all stakeholders, including the natural gas industry and environmental groups.  The final product of my internship, a research paper, will provide an objective, well-organized, and comprehensible resource to educate legislators and the general public alike on fracking in our state.

Towards the end of November, I’ll be serving as a panelist at a League of Women Voters program where I’ll be informing their members of the proposed regulatory framework for fracking in North Carolina.  I’ll also be meeting with Mr. James Womack of North Carolina’s MEC to discuss the draft rules and, in particular, the commission’s rationale for including or excluding certain provisions in the rules.

My research is expansive, but here are three notable findings:

• North Carolina is conforming to the existing trend of requiring chemical disclosure for fracking fluids, but providing exemptions for trade secrets.  Trade secrets allow fracking operators to hide the most concerning of chemical additives as confidential business information.

• The MEC opted to not write an air quality regulation into the draft rules.  The EPA’s green-completion rule will come into effect next year, but many of the exploratory and wildcat wells that are likely to be drilled in North Carolina will be exempt from this requirement.

• The current severance tax rate in North Carolina (0.05 cents per thousand cubic feet) is by far the lowest of any state with a severance tax.  MEC’s draft rules show their intention to revise this tax rate, but if it isn’t increased substantially, the vast majority of revenue from natural gas extraction will accrue to the industry, leaving little revenue to the state.

I’ll continue to pursue this topic next semester for an honors thesis project, which will synthesize my existing research to form policy recommendations.