This webinar features Megan Shapiro, a survey technician aboard the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s research ship Oscar Dyson.
She explains how interning and volunteering gave her skills that led to other opportunities. She also talks about how searching online, reading scientific journal articles and contacting researchers opened doors. In Fiji, she volunteered to help collect data on bonnet head sharks. In Tonga, she helped build a photo identification catalog of humpback whales. After graduating from the University of North Carolina Wilmington, she became a naturalist and deckhand on tour boats in Alaska. After that, she helped with research projects in New Zealand that involved Hector's dolphins and sperm whales. Now, on the Oscar Dyson, she operates and fixes equipment and sensors to help scientists conduct research at sea and collect data on the locations and numbers of Alaska pollock.
Lindsay Carroll, who coordinates Oregon Sea Grant's marine education program, serves as the moderator on this webinar, which was recorded on Dec. 9, 2020.