I’ve been funding, planning, and supervising the Makah Fisheries Management Summer Internship Program since 2019 with other staff in the marine mammal program. You can read more about the program and the research projects each intern completes on the internship blog that I created and maintain.
Each summer we hire high school or college-aged students from Neah Bay to learn about natural resource management on their Reservation. In the first part of the program they job-shadow in-house staff in forestry, fisheries, marine mammals, water quality, habitat, and air quality. We also enlist outside researchers from a variety of agencies and organizations (including the University of Washington, University of Chicago, Northwest Fisheries Science Center, Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, Seattle Aquarium, and others) that conduct research on the Reservation to engage with the interns, explain their work, teach relevant topics, and demonstrate the importance of intergovernmental cooperation.
Each intern also chooses an independent research project and goes through the process of collecting data, conducting analyses, and writing up their results in a poster that is presented at the Senior Center and at Makah Days, and then is hung in the Fisheries Management building for all to see.
Some highlights each year include a trip to Tatoosh Island to learn about marine ecology, a trip to Seattle to learn from researchers at UW and NOAA, and copious days in the field poking crabs, fishing, and running around the beach.