Science & Research Environmental

Halfway Point at Baruch Marine Field Laboratory

  • Anna Dewitt
  • 28 June 2025

Intro 

  • I am currently halfway through my internship here at the Baruch Marine Field Laboratory. Every day I love it even more and feel stronger bonds forming with my peers and role models. I have been blessed with many unique opportunities and have made connections with people that will be helpful in my future career endeavors. I am feeling even more confident in my field work and especially in my work in the lab.

  • High Tide Sampling 

    • Over the past couple of weeks I have gotten a wide variety of field work as well as lab work. The PhD student I am working for is studying what species of nekton are using the salt marsh when all habitats are interconnected at high tide. The habitats are so important because they are nurseries for many commercially important marine species in South Carolina. Studies like these help us better understand how we can conserve these habitats and what lives in them. I was able to assist him in the field work that goes with this project by helping with trawls and lift nets in the marsh. Four lift nets were installed at different levels of the marsh platform in two different creeks. At high tide, ropes are pulled from each side of the net to lift the net and the organisms that are in that area of the marsh are collected. We removed the collection bins at low tide. After field collection, we worked in the lab to identify, count, measure, and weigh everything that we caught.
    • Anna and another researcher wade through high tide water in a marshy area as part of their field work.Anna smiles for the camera, holding up a stingray. She is wearing sunglasses and a light-blue top.Various small aquatic species are arranged along a wooden measuring board sitting in someone's lap

    • Shark Sampling 

      •  I was also given the opportunity to attend a shark cruise with Coastal Carolina. On this trip, I was able to see their process of catching, tagging, and collecting data on many species of sharks. This was truly a once in a lifetime opportunity that I am very grateful I was able to be a part of. We caught Lemon sharks, Black tip sharks, Atlantic Sharpnoses, and one Bullshark.
      • Anna holding a shark upright against the length of her bodyAnna and another researcher both carefully handle a shark between them
      • Anna releasing a shark back into the waterAnna and an older man each hold one end of a medium-sized shark. Anna is on the tail end, the man on the head end.

      • 24-Hour Sampling 

        • Many of my peers and other employees of the laboratory were able to assist PhD students in a 24-hour sampling process. We all took a chunk of time to be out sampling. I helped with trawls on the boat from 8 pm to 12 am. A trawl is a long net that you put out from the back of the boat for ten minutes at a time. After ten minutes, we pulled in the net and sorted and only kept Croaker and Silver Perch. Along with the Croaker and Silver Perch, we caught many other interesting species like Guitar Fish and Stingrays. The purpose of this study is to see what hours Croaker and Silver Perch are eating by performing gut dissections after field collection. I was also able to help another PhD student collect larval fish every hour for 24 hours.
        • Nighttime background, hands holding what might be a puffer fishAnna driving a boat at night, bright rainbow colors near her steering areaTimestamped 2:32am selfie of Anna and a friend in the dark. They are each covered head to toe in clothing and have what appears to be mosquito net over their faces
        • Anna smiles, sitting in a boat on the water during the daytimeAnna smiles on a boat at night. She is holding an aquatic creature, perhaps a stingray or long-nose gar

        • Free Time 

          • In my free time, I have gotten very close with my roommates and have formed many lifelong friendships. In our free time we often go to the beach, visit local shops, go out to eat, and just genuinely enjoy our time together. I am in such a great area with so many fun things to do and explore. I am so excited for my next few weeks at Baruch and to see how much more I grow and learn. I already feel like I have grown so much as a person as well as a worker. I appreciate the life skills I have learned like driving the boat, working with different types of nets, handling animals, and so much more.
          • A wooden boardwalk with wooden railing goes out across a beachy area with some shrub grassAnna and a friend haul bag chairs and other equipment across the beach