Tuesday
We begin our camp by introducing ourselves and going over the camp schedule and our goals for the next six weeks. Suzanne Lewis – videographer from the NC Aquarium – joins for the morning filmmaking session. She begins introducing the topic of filmmaking. What are films? And, what are they made of? Films are made with a series of shots and there are different types of shots. We watch the opening scene of Born Sweet and after that a YouTube video that shows each type of shot. Then we go back to watch the same scene of Born Sweet and this time we call out each shot and discuss why the filmmaker chose to use each one of them.
And the time comes to try it out ourselves
We head out to one of the beautiful open areas of Pivers Island. It’s the perfect day to be out – the sun is shining and the ocean breeze is blowing. We learn how to adjust the tripod and how to use a Canon GL2. Each of the students gets to film two shots of whatever type they liked best. We tell them to be creative! Some of them try out exactly what we saw in class – like a wide shot followed by a medium shot. Others go for more complicated shots that combine different ones, like a wide shot of Carrot Island, that zooms out to become an over-the-shoulder… It is exciting to see how differently each one of them responds to the same explanation that we gave in class! We then go back to the class and review the material they filmed. We also go over basic rules of image composition – the rule of thirds, nose room and head room.
To finish off our introductory film session, we spoke about the concept of story arc. All films are stories, and many stories have a standard structure to them. To illustrate this concept and analyze it, we saw the short animated film The Incredible Marrec and a film from Akina’s favorite filmmaker, Devin Super Tramp.
After lunch we start to learn about fisheries science and conservation
Luke Fairbanks – PhD candidate at the Duke Marine Lab – comes to the class to give a talk about fisheries and aquaculture. He starts out explaining the importance of fisheries – why do we care? And then goes on to explain different types of fisheries. More than a talk it was a discussion, with Luke asking the students questions all throughout the talk. The highlight of the talk came when Luke showed to us examples of fisheries and aquaculture from all over the world. We had no idea that you can see aquaculture facilities in Google Maps! As he navigated over Mexico, some of our Mexican students interrupt “There’s where I’m from!”
“Where? Here?” asks Luke.
“No, more to the North” replies Aurelio.
“Here?”
“Yes!”
Thursday
Our first field trip of the camp was to the Rachel Carson Reserve and we went with the best guide we could have ever had, Dr. Dan Rittschof. We meet early in the morning to take the skiff to Carrot Island. Some of them had been on boats before, but for others, like Ana Paula, this was the first time.
We explore the crabs and snails that make Carrot Island their home
The tour started on the beach, with Dr. Dan digging up ghost crab. He showed to us how to make it open its eyes, how to hold it and how it would run away from us once he released it. We also learned about parasites in mud snails, sand dollars, snail egg cases and how to identify the trail of a baby horseshoe crab.
We walked into the crystal clear waters to look for other critters. We found a live whelk and we learned about how they open clams with the razor sharp edge of their shell. A school of drum suddenly appeared and Dr. Dan chased it with Aurelio and Zhuying.
As we headed back to the Lab Dr. Dan pointed out to us some of the many signs we can find of the warming climate: one of the horses’ watering holes in the Island has dried-up, and there are tropical species of tunicates living attached to red algae at dock of the Duke Marine Lab.
My highlight of the morning was when I showed the students the PhD students offices. Veronica said almost in a sad tone “I would love of have an office”, to what I replied “Yes, you will, one day.” And imagining her own office she left for the dock with a big smile.
After lunch, Kate Brogan from the NC Coastal Reserve, came to talk to us about how the Reserve is managed through a federal-state partnership between NOAA and the N.C. Division of Coastal Management. We also learned about volunteering possibilities and their camp for high school students that will be happening at the end of July.
Night walk with Dr. Dan
We meet again after sunset for a night walk in the Reserve. Would we see the same critters that we saw in the morning? And if we did, would they be active or hidden in their burrows?
Once we get to Carrot Island Dr. Dan goes over the rules of a night walk: you can scream but not run, ask for help whenever in need and walk in a single file. We practice our walk and off we go to look for fish and crabs in the dark night!
We walk right into the water and Dr. Dan quickly grabs something that was swimming. It is a needle fish. We learn how to catch them ourselves. They are slippery! Back on the beach and in a shallow puddle Dr. Dan finds a male and a female blue crab. He tries to catch them both, but the female escapes. We learn about the anatomy of the male crab, its nervous system… and then we continue walking to find a female crab. He points the differences out to us.
The fiddler crabs are still running around the beach. Some of them continue with their feeding others are trying to find a burrow. We find two males fighting for a burrow and the students cheer them on. “Come on!” “Fight!”
We get back to the dock and Dr. Dan has brought back with him a bucket with some mysterious organism. He shakes the water and voilà! The water is sparkling with white light. We are seeing the bioluminescence of dynoflagellates.
All good things come to an end, and it’s time to head back home. At the beginning of the van ride home they are all talking and laughing, but by the end of the ride they are almost asleep… what a wonderful long day we all had!
