Up and moving early! Anxiety set in and I couldn’t wait to get to work. 15 minute commute to the IMS lab….not bad. I arrived before 8am and had to awkwardly sit in the lobby to wait for someone to tell me what to do. Thankfully the main desk lady showed up to help me with paperwork. But then I was on my own. I was relieved when a lady came up to me in the lobby and adopted the role as tour guide. Turns out that my grad student was out today so I was left with other interns. I got a thorough tour of the IMS. Quite a place!!!!! I assumed two possibilities for the lab: 1. Brand new up scale equipment or 2. Random stuff everywhere and a bit chaotic. I’d say definitely number 2. Haha. There are lab rooms and storage facilities with the most random stuff you could possibly imagine. The place is really exciting right now with so many projects going on. There are tanks outside, natural ponds, microecosystems, inside labs, etc… It was quiet today because many people are out in the field. But I can only imagine what its going to be like. Pretty awesome to be surrounded by so much talent and creativity. The people at the lab are really nice. Its certainly a laid back crew. Dress code: psht……lets say bathing suits, chacos, and maybe shirts if your lucky. Love it.
After my tour and lecture on all the projects running at the IMS I was handed over to Michael the other intern working under Rachel. I will be working with him all summer, assisting his own research project. Luckily it seems we will get along really well. We worked out of the wet lab which means what is sounds: a lab that involves anything wet….tanks, etc. And the day continued as follows:
Task 1: Pick up frozen brine shrimp from Petsmart (if you can get the fridge open)
*our means of transportation are the IMS trucks (and I mean TRUCK). I will have to learn how to drive them and get tested on getting out of the sand.
Task 2: Radio Island – collect sargassum seaweed and shrimp
We picked up our private key to the island from a hilarious State guard (so yes for a few hours I owned an island). We then went searching for seaweed in the intercoastal jetties. Fortunately the water visibility was good. Who knew there were urchins off the coast! I collected a bag of seaweed after pulling up the roots. Why seaweed? Because amphipods live on it and they are part of Michael’s experiment. Also, our pinfish like the seaweed. We then tried to use the sieve to collect shrimp. Three tries later…..fail! Where are the shrimp? The seaweed was taken back to the indoor labs and we had to set up water filters and oxygen tubes.
Task 3: Transfer pinfish from indoor tanks to the outdoor tank.
This involved moving and dumping aquariums (along with yummy fish poop). We also had to search for and create a covering for the outdoor tanks. Success!
Task 4: Find silcone sealer at Lowes
Success again. This will be used for MJ’s project.
It was a great first day. Finished a bit early but since boss wasn’t around I couldn’t find anything else to take care of. I won’t lie…..it’s gonna be a good summer. I’m so relieved now. Off to dinner with my new intern pal.
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