Dear Mr. and Mrs Svitek,
Greetings from the Florida Keys! My internship this summer
with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's
Conch Restoration Program was a very unique experience
full of hot summer days, great people, and yes Queen Conch.
The idyllic Florida Keys with its abundance of fruit trees,
touristy gift shops, and turquoise blue waters was an
entertaining setting for me, being a far cry from the
pleasantly warm Maine and Vermont summers I was use to!
That said, I learned so much, and could not have asked
for a better environment to branch into and broaden my
knowledge of marine restoration.
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| For my internship, I was able to design
and run my own experiment, which helped the Conch program
and my own endeavers in undergraduate research at UVM. |
| One of the routines we had was to clean the conch
tanks about twice a week- fun... fun... |
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I did an experiment with pre-complete (18 days old)
conch Larvae, and tested their response to three different
stimuli: juvenile conch, spiny lobster, and Laurencia
(a red algae known to induce metamorphosis). We constructed
tubes where sea water untreated and sea water treated
with one of the stimuli dripped into either end of the
tube. I would drop one head-of-a-pin-sized larva in
the middle, watch its activity for 5 minutes, then record
its position + or - centimeters from the treatment.
The experiment was a concentrated, intense amount of
work, and the preliminary results urge for a second
run.
Field days out on the research boat were some of my
favorite. the keys are really meant to be enjoyed from
a boat, in my opinion, and being out in the warm waters
measuring conch aggregations made me appreciate this
opportunity so much. Your wonderful foundation makes
it possible for students like me to be able to accept
these amazing unpaid internships. I thank you so much
of this incredible experience, and I hope you enjoy
the pictures and captions.
Sincerely,
Christina Evans |
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