Week one reflection

 Our first week of senior project couldn’t be more than amazing. Meeting with all sorts of different scientists around Massachusetts and Rhode Island was an experience like no other. I have learned more in this one week than I felt I have ever about pollution and micro plastics. I’m learning things that are bettering my knowledge on some topics while learning facts and information that I never knew about. 

Day one of our week launched with a good day of beach cleanup. Cam and I sent out to some local beaches around Massachusetts to see how much trash was around on the beach and to clean it up. We filled up 4 bags of trash on two beaching and planned to grab more, but unfortunately ran out of bags. The next day we set out to go fishing and try and find some people that we can meet with during the week. We struck out with fishing but had good knees with meeting people. We got set up for two different occasions at Woods Hole oceanographic Institute(WHOI). We ended the day with sorting through our trash from yesterday. Day 3 consisted a tour and meeting at WHOI. We meet with the head of fundraising there names Jim Flynn and he set us up with two scientists named Chris Reddy and Mark Hahn. Mark talked to us about the pollution and chemical contamination in New Bedford harbor and how these killifish were thriving there and why. Chris talked to Cam and I about the modern day plastics and their issues. He talked to us about how the plastics are made and what makes them so strong and how we can weaken them using different types of plastics that fall apart easier and by making the plastics thinner. Day 4 consisted of Cam and I going around Massachusetts to fish and try to be able to catch something we can dissect. Unfortunately we struck out yet again and couldn’t bring anything with us. We tried fishing from the morning all until 10pm and still no luck. Next day, day five we met with the director of U.S. coastal programs Jennifer McCann and she set us up with two scientists working on micro-plastics and studying how they’re being invested in animals. We learned about how some birds tend to have more plastics than others. We also learned about oysters and how they process micro Polly fibers and how they spit them back out and will not accept them. We ended that day with a tour and a peak at their aquarium. 

Overall our week consisted of knowledge packed events and some more frustrating events of not being able to get our research(fish). This week was amazing and a time of our lives and look forward to the next week. Next week we plan to meet with Atlantic Right Whale Scientist Michael Moore. We also plan to meet with oyster farmed Seth Garfield out at Cuttyhunk. Look forward to the next week and had such an amazing time this first week of senior project.