Following graduation from UC Santa Cruz, I had the opportunity to travel the shores of the Eastern Pacific for work as well as fun. Since I am only now beginning this website, I have some backlogged adventures I will put up later on! Until then, I will post about my most current adventures!
Kitsap Peninsula, Washington, USA June 2017
Washington is a land unlike any other. Water...everywhere. The sky, rivers, lakes, and ocean. With 3,026 miles of tidal coastline (1), WA is a playground for the adventurers. But before play, one must pay homage to the elements. Most complain about the rain in the the winter and spring, but our days were filled with puzzles, Netflix and epic dinner making. And now, I understand the rain. It's almost July, and while California is scorched, the Evergreen State is, you know, evergreen;)
(1) Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Ocean Service
El Pardito, Baja California Sur, Mexico May 2017
In May 2017, I was brought on as the Boating Safety coordinator for the UC Santa Cruz Supercourse class led by Dr. Don Croll and Dr. Gage Dayton. Supercourse is a field-intensive "study abroad" that facilitates undergraduate research. This year, the class's big expedition was to a small island nusseled between Isla San Jose and San Francisquito, in the Sea of Cortez: El Pardito. The culture and natural beauty that Baja has to offer is unlike anywhere I have ever been before. Vast landscapes of mountains and beaches, yet to be dismantled by humans.
More than anything, Baja reviled a part of myself that I had neglected since starting graduate school. I realized, I love collaborating with and teaching undergraduates. Their motivation to decipher the processes of nature are purely driven by their curiosity and facination with what they see before them. Assisting the groups with their study design and research questions made me long for the days prior to graduate school when I would facilitate undergraduate development. It is by far the most rewarding experience, and I plan to keep integrating them into my own research as much as possible in the future!
Santa Cruz, California May 2017
Half of my thesis work is up in Central California, which allows me to check in on some of my favorite people, places and things. So when you have 24 hours in Santa Cruz, you have to to it right. And from the wise words of The Devil Makes Three: "If you're gonna do wrong, buddy, do wrong right."
Aleutian Archipelago, AK, USA June-July 2016
More to come...
Puget Sound, WA, USA March-April 2014
Right before winter break in 2013, I was aimlessly wandering around the halls at UCSC's Long Marine Lab waiting for one of our last research boats to come in for the day. At the time, I was a Research Assistant for CA Sea Grant and a Field Technician for the Raimondi/Carr (R/C) lab. At the R/C lab, my job entailed diving 3-4 days/week, and conducting subtidal PISCO surveys to document the fish, invertebrates and algae at sites in the Monterey Bay and Big Sur.
Anyways, I'm walking down the hall, and all of a sudden I hear Pete yell from his office: Pete: "Tristin! You still here?" Me: *Scamper over to his office Pete: "You doing anything this Spring?" Me: *Started thinking about all the things I have to do as a recently graduated young adult, with big life decisions to make, and bills, and whatnot... A solid 10 seconds pass between when he asked the question and I replied as cool and calmly as possible: "NOTHING!"
And just like that, I was enlisted for the Sea Star Wasting (SSWD) Rapid Response team.
In 2013, citizen scientists and scientists began noticing an epidemic of sea stars with lesions, missing limbs, and gooey deteriorating bodies. Shortly after the initial observations, the SSWD had spread to many areas along the North American Pacific Coast. With the onset of the epidemic, concerned scientists (including Pete) filed for National Science Foundation funding to document the conditions of sea stars as the outbreak was happening. https://www.eeb.ucsc.edu/pacificrockyintertidal/data-products/sea-star-wasting/
By Feb 2014, we had a well oiled team of four divers: Cori H., Sarah S., Colin G. and myself. We spent the next two months traveling most of central California documanting conditions of the SSWD. Then, in April 2014, our team of four piled into the Chili Colorado (truck) and headed north to the Puget Sound, WA where we ventured around for three weeks in search of good dive spots and breweries.