Week 3 Highlight:
During the third week of my internship I lead a GIANT Great Green Crab Hunt with the rest of the interns I am working with for the 4-H camps in New Hampshire. There was 4 coach buses full of campers!
For this GGCH we were splitting up into 5 groups and each group was going to a separate location: Drowned Forest, Cedar Point at Little Bay, Hampton, and Pierce Island. The coach buses were so big that one almost got stuck in the down town of Portsmouth! Needless to say, it did not make it to Cedar Point, and instead we had two groups at Pierce Island.
I was located at Drowned Forest abutting Odiorne State park, so no bus ride for me! Unfortunately it was a neap tide, and in this particular location a spring tide is ideal for finding some larger crabs. Because of this we found over 50 crabs that were under 2 centimeters! Of our 7 crabs that were over 2 centimeters 3 of them were fresh molts! The campers had a blast and were talking about how this green crab hunt was their favorite part of their summer at the 4-H camp which was really great to hear. I really strive to inspire others through education and it means a lot knowing that something I am doing this summer is having a positive impact on the people I am interacting with.
Week 4 Highlight:
During week 4 I had a lighter work load due to taking a holiday vacation. The tides were also not ideal for sampling or doing any crab hunts so I helped the other interns with their projects. Jillian and I checked some traps in Hampton, and on the side of the pier were two GIANT sea stars that had to have been 10 inched in diameter. After that we went on an adventure to buy animal fat and fish skins (Yuck!). Jillian needs them for a project she is working on with Gabby. She has come up with another use for the green crabs that is not for human consumption.
