It was a slow week at SAMPLA. Monday was a successful chumming day having taken photographs of a number of sharks in order to identify individuals. The good weather held out for us to do a seal survey from Monday evening to the following Tuesday evening, although it became difficult in the last few hours as the weather began to turn. A few of the interns also got the “interesting” job of collecting scat samples from
Wednesday and Thursday were no sea days due to the bad weather which makes for difficult and inefficient work, as well as being dangerous. There were birthday celebrations on Thursday for Simone when much food and drink was enjoyed (in responsible quantities of course). It was then back to business on Friday morning with the 7am chumming trip. However the water was left murky from the bad weather and no sharks were seen on the morning trip. A single shark was spotted during the afternoon at sea who caught us by surprise, taking the bait because of low visibility. The two no sea days during the week meant that a Saturday chumming trip was necessary to catch up with data collection. Sunday morning was put aside for cleaning the boat, not so fun but it has to be done. At least the sun was shining!
My first few weeks at SAMPLA have been a little hectic at times and far from ordinary. This is no regular job and I hope the rest of my time here is just as exiting. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the other interns and directors for making me feel so welcome.
Amy Prentice (SAMPLA intern)
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