Rozalia Intern Blog: From hide and seek with crabs to Pick-Uppalooza

Today's intern blog comes from Marina Duchesneau, soon to be graduating from Plymouth State University! Marina is joining us for our pick cleanup session in Frenchboro toward the end of the summer and from her blog, looks like she will be a great addition to the cleanup team

I grew up in central Massachusetts, and was at least an hour away from the ocean. Whenever I would get the chance I would drive to the nearest beach just to unwind and enjoy the salty air and fried food on the boardwalk. I have always wanted to be closer to the ocean, so I’m extremely excited that I’ll be spending part of my summer interning for the Rozalia Project, and Mamomet Conservation Sciences. I cant wait to participate in both opportunities.

I’ve always been curious of the ocean, and always loved being near it; especially when there was a visible sea critter I could study. One of my first memories of the beach were crabs trying to hide from all the other children, including myself. Everyone was so curious of how they dug into the sand and defended themselves, and all I wanted to do was protect them. I’ve always had this passion for protecting species and the environment. I learned about the North Pacific Gyre freshman year of college and never forgot about it. It always stuck out in my mind and I would think to myself why and how did it all end up there. I’ve been fascinated with it ever since and have gotten more involved with clean up programs in my area. I participated in Plymouth Pick-Uppalooza this past year and collected a total of ten bags of trash with the help of my friends. I still collect pieces everyday to and from my walk to campus. Every little bit matters and makes a difference.

I’ll be graduating Plymouth State University this May and couldn’t be more excited to go out and make the world a better place. I have enjoyed several classes such as: Biology, Conservation, Managing the Earths Resources, and many more. I’ve only taken one class that related to the ocean, and traveled to Acadia National Park for it. As a class we successfully constructed an inter-tidal study on all the organisms we found. I fell in love automatically and wanted to learn more. I believe knowledge is key in anything you do, therefore I’m eager to work with the Rozalia Project.

A year after Acadia I studied abroad in Torino, Italy. I helped create a sustainable plan for a 16^th century castle. Throughout the 4 months I was there I helped St. John International University come up with ideas for another school that focused on sustainability. This wasn’t marine related nor was I near the ocean but whenever I got the chance I traveled towards the coast. I spent time traveling to Ireland, England, Germany, Spain, and more of Italy. Overall I would like to leave this earth a better place than I first found it. Given the opportunity to intern with the Rozalia Project I will be able to physically make a difference and educate others about our ocean’s dirty secret.