PLACEMENT BLOG
Hi I’m Daisy, I’ve just come to the end of my second year at Plymouth university before embarking on this internship. I chose the journey of a summer internship as I wanted to gain relevant experience in the field without having to do a whole placement year, as many of my course mates are. Having said this, it was a brilliant decision to make and what an incredible 6 weeks this was!
My role was split into two mains sectors; education and research. Education involved informing people during activities such as guided walks, snorkels and kayaks on the marine life we were encountering and why. I’ve found this greatly improved my public speaking skills, as well as growing confidence in my own knowledge. Aside from assisting these activities being excellent for self-growth, the wide diversity of life (a lot of which I was seeing for the first time) was breath taking.
The research was a highlight for me, being able to put practical skills I had learnt at university into action and build on them was fulfilling. It involved measuring native oysters from the population in the Portmagee channel via both intertidal shoreline surveys and snorkel surveys. The snorkel surveys requiring an extra bit of multitasking! While I was here, I also had the opportunity to meet members of the marine institute who were carrying out Bonamia testing on the oysters we had collected, which was an interesting process to learn.
On days in the office research and education were rolled into one. It was my role to type up oyster data, and update the log book. But most importantly I had a large undertaking of social media to keep Sea Synergy’s followers updated on what we were doing and when. I was given a lot of freedom in this so I started the ‘Sea Saturday’ (what did we sea this week?) series and made a template on canva for future interns.
I would particularly like to mention Anna Kellagher for driving me every where we needed to be, but also for her sheer interest in the subject. I learnt so much from her and her enthusiasm encouraged me to want to know more!
Thanks Anna!