18 Jun Alannah Wister: Marine Biology, Week One

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 My name is Alannah Wister and I am one of the five selected interns from Ouray High School. I just begun my internship in Marine Biology at the Hawaii’ Institute of Marine Biology on Coconut Island, Hilo, HI.I arrived at the Honolulu airport where I was greeted by Rob Toonan where he generously met me with a Hawaiian Lei necklace. We drove the Pali highway for a scenic drive back to his home, where I spent my first night. The next day, Rob’s family and I ventured to Coconut Island where I got settled in at my room. I enjoyed a snorkel and got a tour of the island/labs.

Miranda, Professor Toonan’s family, friends, and myself before my first snorkel.

     During my internship I will be working with several different people. These people include: Professor Rob Toonan, Researcher Zac Forsman, Post Doctorate Ingrid Knapp, and a local intern Miranda Lentz. During my time here I will be setting up and conducting three different experiments. One involving multi specie growth, size development, and strength of water flow.

ToBo Lab

I have been working in the ToBo lab particularly with the coral farm. Miranda and I have been collecting corals of three different genus’s: Porites, Pocillopora, and Montipora. Then we tag them and attach the corals to an eppendorf tubes with epoxy.

The tagging, mounting, and measuring process.

Although Coconut island is only 29 acres, I am enjoying every day here. I have leaned so much about life as a marine biologist and it is only my first week!

Miranda and I hard at work.