Getting Acquainted

Another view of what I am calling the "Dome House", where we are staying. Copyright JanaS/PSRF.
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Woke up to the sound of birds chirping outside my window and was off to a great start for the day. Packed up what little I had unpacked for the night’s stay at Lighthouse Lodge (www.lhls.com) and then took Bailey to boarding. As always, it was hard to say goodbye, but I kept reassuring him he would have fun at doggy camp and I would see him sooner than he realized.

Headed north towards Elkhorn Slough, where I will be staying the rest of the expedition. The rented house is right on the beach, within a gated community. Not many other residents are around, so it is very quiet. Each house in the area is uniquely constructed. Ours is like a 3D geometric figure, and we are across from a construct of a castle, I kid you not!

The teammates search for sanddollars and other such sea life on the beach.
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When I entered the house, I was immediately greeted by Sean Van Sommeran, lead investigator and founder of Pelagic Shark Research Foundation (www.pelagic.org), as well as one of the other four teammates, Emily. We hung out for a bit before the rest of the team (Greg, Jon and Jenny), as well as the other two research assistants (Andrea and Leon), arrived. We spent the remainder of the afternoon getting acquainted, settling in (I have a single room with a waterbed), playing on our laptops and taking strolls on the beach in search of sanddollars. Jon’s keen sense of observation led us to an otter sighting, but unfortunately it was too far out for my camera to detect.

We came across many sanddollars that still had life remaining, and one by one, returned them to the ocean.
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The team is wonderfully diverse, both in age and hometown location. Three of us are educators and two are about to enter college. This brings about a variety of experiences to share and discussions to be had.

The team worked together to prepare and cook our dinner…grilled burgers (yes -a gardenburger was available), veggies and fruit. This was followed by a Powerpoint presentation by Sean, introducing us to the history of PSRF, the many projects that are currently underway and the goal of the expedition. We will begin our field work in Elkhorn Slough (www.elkhornslough.org) tomorrow afternoon, at which point, I will have more to report…