Author: mikayla_lewis

Day 6,

Memorial Day festivities were a blast! (I did pretty much nothing – which made it SO good!) My family and I went strawberry picking however, since it was near the end of the season for strawberries, many were quite mushy. I drove which was quite an accomplishment for me as I am terrified of driving and reluctantly obtained my Level 1 learner’s permit recently. We watched “Behind the Attraction” together as a family. A poignant series of documentaries on how Disney Attractions were built, we watched two. One about the different history of the differing Disney castles for each park and one about Tower of Terror and the Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind revamp in California. Additionally, I went to a friend’s house and played the perfect amount of Mario Kart and Minecraft for my liking. For work today, there was a different pattern for today’s work! We met with Dr. Tracy Collier. He has worked in the industry since he was 18 and has a 47-page long resume! I asked him two questions and eagerly wrote down his responses in a non grammatically correct form.

How do you choose what to focus on? Things that put you outside your comfort zone, sounds interesting and for a good cause, taking some risks going down different lanes.

What skills do you feel were the most important to develop early in your career or during college, that either you developed or wish you would’ve developed earlier? Sense is of humor critical, the ability to bond with people through showing this world isn’t as serious, most important skill: EQ, emotional quotient can you understand and empathize with people.

He was extremely helpful and humble and talking with him really helped put into perspective different opportunities within the field.

Mickey

Day 5,

Today I presented what I currently have to Mr. Newton. Although I was nervous, he assured us that it was low stress – just to check to make sure we were on the right track. Luckily for me, he said it was looking great! He encouraged me to continue exploring what I had been and to turn my focus towards mitigation strategies and economic and cultural impacts of offshore wind structures as well as the effects of them on lobsters. After our check-in, I spent the time searching for research papers I want to continue to explore regarding those topics and plan to do so in the upcoming days.

Mickey

Today was a good day of research, I continued exploring the North Atlantic Right Whale and found some sources I’m planning on continuing to explore this topic. Honestly, nothing totally new in terms of research today, just building upon old knowledge into more complex terms! Something to share about the protective measures for North Atlantic Right Whales is that there’s slow zones for boaters to protect the livelihood. I added a few of these similar graphics into my research because slowing down causes less disturbance in their communication with one another and their ability to find food.

Today, we were introduced to Mr. Eric Newton and Ms. Juleen Savarese. They told us about OAI and our projects that we’d be assisting them with. We’re doing research that will help OAI write scientific paper on these topics. The topic I’ve been assigned is down below.

• What are the impacts of offshore wind on species of interest? – endangered species; economically/culturally significant species
  • Impact during construction, operation of offshore wind farms
    • North Atlantic Right Whales – fewer than 400 individuals remaining
    • Cod, herring, haddock, silver hake, lobster, scallops
  • Mitigation strategies
    • Artificial reefs, exclusion zones, co-location of fisheries

Today, I spent my time researching the construction process of offshore wind farms to better establish my knowledge. Essentially, they are a method of sustainable energy; however, we don’t know the specific impacts these farms will have on local ecosystems. Mr. Newton emphasized that when making decisions about these policies a wholistic view is essential. Below, I’ve provided an example of an offshore wind farm.