Marcie Berry

South Carolina Aquarium, Charleston, South Carolina

The South Carolina Aquarium, located in Charleston, is a self-supporting educational institution committed to providing a way in which to experience aquatic environments. They place a great deal of emphasis on research, education, and conservation. Their values include integrity, teamwork, and excellence. The majority of the exhibits and featured animals are native to South Carolina and are actually collected by aquarium staff, with the exception of the changing exhibit, which currently features the Amazon until the winter of 2005. The South Carolina aquarium also houses a number of rehabilitated animals that were found injured and will never be able to live on their own in the wild. The Sustainable Seafood Program and the Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Program are two of the South Carolina Aquarium’s distinguished programs. The Sustainable Seafood Program works with local seafood restaurants that agree not to serve certain seafood, such as shark and Chilean sea bass, due to their status in the wild, and promotes the sale of locally caught seafood. The Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Program houses sick and injured sea turtles, nurses them back to health, and then releases them back into the ocean. Both of these programs have been incredibly successful.
As an education intern I had many different responsibilities. I spent the majority of my time learning about the exhibits and animals, and doing daily programs which involved handling live animals and speaking to large audiences. I also spent a much of my time walking around among the aquarium guests carrying a live animal, answering questions and telling them various facts about the animal. In order to do this I was trained to work with different animals, such as snakes, alligators, and birds (a red tailed hawk and a blue and gold macaw). At the beginning of the summer one of the extra projects I worked on was putting together what the South Carolina Aquarium calls a “cart program” about the Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Program. This cart program was basically a portable exhibit that could be taken out for a few hours during the day, and then put away. I made some panels showing before and after pictures of sea turtles, and other displays to teach people the importance of sea turtles and how to keep our beaches and oceans safe and clean for them. Other responsibilities included attending weekly meetings and lectures, assisting with special events, answering “question cards”, updating species sheets on the computer, writing a new section of and editing the volunteer training manual, and making calls to various outside organizations inviting them to participate in special days at the aquarium. Question cards are used when an aquarium staff member cannot answer a question that a guest may have. These cards are paper postcards that the guest can write their question on and put their address on the other side. When their question gets answered, it will be mailed to them! The last project I spent considerable time working on was identifying and cataloging a large shell collection that had recently been donated to the aquarium. I also contributed ideas for exhibiting the collection.
As an education intern, my responsibilities did not include husbandry (taking care of animals), which I am very much interested in. So, every Wednesday became my “husbandry day” and my responsibilities on this day involved working with the rehabilitation sea turtles. Sometimes I would help with medical examinations and cleaning, but most of the time it was my job to feed all six of these turtles. I would prepare the food (squid, salmon, capelin and mackerel), and give them their medications and vitamins. If any of the tanks needed to be hydro cleaned or backwashed, I would do that as well. One day I was able to help prepare and feed the birds at the aquarium, and another day some of the husbandry staff took me out collecting with them. We went into the marshes and onto a beach and did some seining, which was a really fun experience. We caught four sting rays!
My internship with the South Carolina Aquarium was incredibly valuable as a learning experience. For the most part, my objectives for this internship were met. I definitely learned a great deal about the conservation of marine environments and how/why the general public needs to be educated on these topics. I feel comfortable with this knowledge so that I can pass it on to others. In order to do the daily programs in front of large audiences I had to learn about the animals, exhibits, and environments I would be talking about, in addition to become comfortable speaking in front of so many people! I feel especially happy about gaining this public speaking experience. I am definitely more confident talking in front of a large group of people now than I ever was before. I was able to gain a fair amount of experience working with animals, especially animals that I never thought I would work with; however, I wish I could have done more on the husbandry end of things. Nevertheless, I certainly feel as though I had a rewarding experience with the South Carolina Aquarium and it gave me insight into what I may, or may not, want to do once I graduate from college! In addition to being at the aquarium, simply being in Charleston was a learning experience. I had never been there before, and it was great to see another part of the country that has outstanding environmental resources and is a place I might want to spend more time in after I graduate.
This fall semester I will be doing an independent study on certain aspects of the Cape Wind Project, which is a project that plans to build a large wind farm in Nantucket Sound, just off the coast of Cape Cod. This project has been in the works for about three years and there has been much controversy over the negative and positive impacts this wind farm may or may not have. For my study I would like to look closely that the environmental impacts that this wind farm may have for the Cape, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, particularly on the fish stocks and how it may affect the commercial fishing industry both positively and negatively. I hypothesize that while construction of this wind farm is occurring, there will be significant disturbance of the sea floor and the fauna that live there. This damage, however, would only be semi-permanent because after a while, the structure that the wind farm provides underwater will serve as an artificial reef to many ocean creatures, such as fish and invertebrates. Other wind farms in Europe have seen their wind turbines used as artificial reefs. Using data and information from these wind farms as well as information on artificial reefs in general, I can prove that the Cape Wind Project will have similar results. In addition, I would like to give some insight into the potentials of wind energy as clean energy and the details of the Cape Wind Farm itself, including size and materials used.