Shoals Green Initiatives

GoShoals | 9:16 pm | August 24, 2009 | News

APPLEDORE ISLAND, Maine — So here’s the deal. The Shoals Marine Laboratory — a first-class summer marine sciences program run by Cornell University and the University of New Hampshire — is on an island, miles away from the nearest energy source…

…So how do you supply energy for all these needs? Well, if you think mega-generators, not so long ago you would have been right. But the challenge and passion of Shoals Marine Lab operation director Ross Hansen is to “make us as efficient as I possibly can — because it will only make us stronger.”

Read the full story from NH seacoast online…

Photo by Jason Koski

Science Writing

GoShoals | 6:40 pm | August 20, 2009 | Announcements,News

Carl Zimmer recently posted (8/12/09) on his blog:
The students are now pounding out stories late into the night, and there’s more in store: the history of New England recorded in shells and bones, the migration of birds from equator to Arctic, and the three-dimensional X-ray animation of bodies in motion. By Sunday, they’ll have written up their final stories, which they will be publishing here. And then we can enjoy the view from the classroom in peace.

I invite all of you to now view the stories of our newly graduated science writers at: http://scienceonshoals.blogspot.com/

officehours440

An Ode to the Working Intern

workinginterns | 12:26 pm | August 9, 2009 | Uncategorized

You start your day by waking to the sound of the gulls

Long calling in chorus as the sun peeks through your window.

You roll over to check the time

And give yourself another ten minutes regardless.

You drag yourself to breakfast

Assuming bacon will be present in some form.

You enjoy the company of your fellow interns

Before you head back to start rinsing syrup from each plate.

Plates begin to grow and cups begin to stack

But you keep trudging on, working intern.

You finish in the kitchen and move to the bathroom

To see the carnage from the previous night’s showers

Sinks, mirrors, sweep, mop, get up all the hair

The bathrooms go by quick, but compost does not.

You pack up the gator, fend off the gulls, and get on your way

Trying to avoid running over a gull on bumpy terrain

You reach the compost bin, covered in maggots

And manage to step into the trench, now your shoes smell.

You start dumping each bucket, one at a time until finally

You get that one bucket that splatters everywhere, including on you.

You head back to rinse the buckets and your legs

But the bleach turns your black shirt poka dot pink.

Let’s face it, you need a break and settle yourself on the couch

Cause yesterday was trash day and turndown service at K-House.

The day before, you were busy early

Collecting maggot-infested trash, recycling, and compost from everywhere

Piling it all high in the truck and running down to the high tide dock

Cause high tide was at 10, it had to be ready by 9:45.

Next came K-House, The VIP-mini hotel on the island

Your fellow intern had just power-washed the deck a few days before

But you found yourself on your hands and knees scrubbing

Thanks to the explosive bowel movements of the gulls

Back to today, your fellow interns took on lunch duties

Giving you a well-deserved break, nap time perhaps?

But you don’t nap long before the Kingsbury sounds off,

Time for the food run!

You head down to the dock and find your place in the chain

And start passing on all the food, box by box, tray by tray

Until you empty the Kingbury’s hold, but no time to rest

Because you get to do it all over again in the kitchen, hooray!

Now that your arms are sore, you start on dinner prep

Which has its perks, particularly helping the chefs cook

And taking samples here and there, yummy cookie dough!

You then clean a few pans to get a head start on dinner clean up.

Dinner comes and goes and you find yourself rinsing plates, yet again

The pile of plates begin to grow and the cups begin to stack

But as you wash dishes, some people take the time to say thank you.

This may not mean much to your fellow interns, but to you it means so much.

You start to break up boxes and sweep the kitchen

The chefs even chip in sometimes

You really appreciate it when they do

Cause you’ve had a busy couple of days being short-staffed

You’re in the final stretch, mopping your way home

The floor is shining and clean, the day’s work coming to an end

But not 5 minutes after your done, you see your clean floor ruined

Muddy footprints everywhere, your triumph turns to defeat.

But it’s that perfect sunset, it’s breathtaking beauty that

No photo or painting can replicate, that brings you back.

No sunset is the same here; each one brings a certain peace

It’s colors are spectacular as it disappears behind the clouds or the city

But its not all work, there’s plenty of play

Whether its exploring island, visiting Transect 22 or the Shoe Tree

Or getting a soccer game going outside the Grass Lab

You can always kick back and take it easy

And at the end of the day, there are still more ways to play

Something as simple as jumping off the dock, so frigidly refreshing

Or heading up to Bartels to watch Supertroopers

To play Moth Darts and Bumper Pool, or simply hang

Whether you work one week or ten, your last day comes

You wonder where it all went, how fast it went by.

You reflect on all those experiences, the good and the bad

You walk away stronger and know you’ll miss every bit.

You leave with a greater appreciation for the hard work

The staff puts into keep The Shoals running.

You appreciate the time you spent there that much more

And lastly, you appreciate the working intern, cause you’ve been there.

-Justin Stilwell

Charismatic-Pelagic-Megafauna

workinginterns | 8:21 am | August 8, 2009 | Uncategorized

Text by Heather Olins
Marine Environmental Science Teaching Assistant

Photos by VIrginia Winkler
Marine Environmental Science Student

We went out on a whale watch yesterday with the class. I was excited, but didn’t have many expectations. I figured we might see a few shadowy figures in the distance and be convinced that they were whales. I could not have been more wrong! We must have seen 50 different whales, and we saw some incredibly close. Not only did we see whales up close, but we saw some really amazing behavior.

We blew past some Minke whales on the way out because the captain had been told about Humpbacks a ways out. We stopped to see some Finbacks chowing down on a huge bait ball. This also allowed us to see enormous numbers of Shearwaters and Wilson’s Storm Petrils sharing in the whales feast. After being thoroughly amazed by these examples of the planet’s second largest organism we went off in search of Humpbacks.

We came across a mother and calf and they shocked us by getting right up close to the boat and doing partial breaches. We were able to see the massive head if the young Humpback right next to the boat. We watched the two eat and dive for a while and then went in search of other whales. For a while we were all on sensory overload because in any direction you could see spouting or diving (showing us their tail). There were plenty of Finbacks around as well and even a few Minkes.

The grand climax came just about as we were getting ready to head back. We came across a group of 3 humpbacks that, after gorging themselves on baby herring, were incredibly playful. We were treated to flipper slapping in unison, synchronized dives, and lots of breaching! Seeing a humpback whale come all the way out of the water is not something I will forget, ever. One particularly feisty animal breached 5 times in a row. It really seemed like they were performing just for us. When we finally had to pull ourselves away two of the whales began to tail-slap the water repeatedly, as if waving goodbye to us. This continued until we were out of view. Truly amazing!

Humpback surfacing