Tours and Transects

Hi everyone, my name is Patti and I'm interning at HIMB for the month of August to early September. I'm going in to my fourth year at UC San Diego with a marine biology major and I work with whale acoustics at Scripps.

Learning more about how HIMB does community education in marine biology has been a great experience towards my potential future plans of marine education. So far I have done various projects including shadowing and assisting with tours for the public as well as teaching classroom laboratory activities about plankton and invasive algae, and starting a digital archive for the historic pictures from the island.

I have also had a chance to help with monitoring the coral at Maile point to record any damage from various boating and recreational activities -an interesting project in regards to conservation. The unique ecosystem found here in Kaneohe Bay and around Oahu has been fascinating to learn about and see firsthand. Just snorkeling around the island or looking at the laboratories and tanks here and listening to the researchers discuss their work I've been able to learn so much more about this coral environment, a real change from the cold kelp forests and rocky intertidals I get back home. 

I hope to soak in as much knowledge as possible in my short time about all of the fascinating research that goes on here and hopefully be able to effectively relay information and spread awareness and excitement about conservation of these marine habitats for the future.

PS The mangoes here are awesome.