Tag: Marine Biology

Today was another work day for us. We all met individually with Mr. Newton to check in on our progress, and make sure we were on the right track. I had asked him a few questions on some more terms I found during my research, because I had a bit of trouble understanding some of the more complex articles. After he explained them, we spoke a bit more about where I was going with my research, and then I left the call to continue my searching. Overall, I spent today expanding my knowledge about the topic and searching for anything else that I would need for my research.

 

Sofia

Today, we met with Mr. Newton to discuss where we were in our research, and if we had any questions for him about our projects.  After everyone got their questions answered, Mr. Newton gave me some articles to look over. They were all research articles about the Mackerel, whether it was about their trophic interactions with other sea organisms, or a stomach analysis of Atlantic Mackerels. It was really helpful to get some direction with the right kind of articles to look at. He also gave me some tips on what to look for in these articles, which helped me know how to effectively read them. Overall, today was a good day for me to begin to learn how to look for/ look through research articles.

 

 

Sofia

 

On the second day, we were introduced to our research projects. These were existing projects that were apart of the non-profit foundation at Ocean Associates, so we were tasked with finding out any additional information that could be useful to these projects. Mine in particular was specifically researching the diet of the Atlantic Mackerel, in the Northwest Atlantic. Mr. Newton explained that this research has a larger significance, which lies with the Right Whales. These are one of the most endangered whale species in the world right now, with fewer than 300 currently living. Since they share their food source with other forage species, researchers have found that this is causing their populations to decline, and also causing them to reduce in physical size. By researching the Atlantic Mackerel diet, we can find out if they could be contributing to the Right Whale’s endangerment. I started my research by getting a general idea of what exactly the Atlantic Mackerel is before I got into any specifics later in my WEP.

 

Sofia

Today was the first day of my work experience with Ocean Associates, Inc, and we started the day with meeting our leader, Eric Newton. He explained that all three members of this (Camryn, Mickey, and myself) that we would each have an individual project we would be working on. Besides this, he also explained what Ocean Associates is and what they do exactly. For this first day, we spent most of the time getting to know each other and our personal goals for the work experience program. For myself, I wanted to explore a possible career option pertaining to Marine biology or any marine sciences. Everyone had different interests, so Mr. Newton wanted to ask everyone what they were looking for. We also met Juleen Savarese, the director of HR at Ocean Associates, who was the one that helped organize our work experience alongside Mr. Newton.

 

Sofia