Hello fellow Whyvillians,
If you haven't already heard, Whyville is getting a new area called WhOI (the Whyville Oceanographic Institution). Once it is up and running you'll be able to go and enter a lab where you can look at marine life! When you enter WhOI, you'll be greeted by Regina, real life scientist who works with WHOI (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution). I interviewed Regina so we can get a better idea of what her life is like and what her job entails. Read on!
AMae: What is your job title at WHOI and what do you do?
Regina: I'm a graduate student (doctoral candidate) in the MIT/WHOI joint doctoral program . . . simply put I'm a "marine-biologist-in-training."
AMae: How long have you been working there?
Regina: Since June 2001. I'm in my 5th year of the program.
AMae: Where did you go for your education and what was your degree in?
Regina: I am working on my Ph.D. right now (should finish next year) at MIT/WHOI in biological oceanography (marine biology at other schools). I earned my B.S. in Biological Sciences with a Concentration in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (Biology)
AMae: Have you always been interested in this field? Did you have other jobs before
this that inspired you?
Regina: When I was 7 my dad asked me what I wanted to be and I said a lawyer . . . which made him proud and happy that one day he would be taken care of. Then I looked into just how much school would be required to become a lawyer (3 years after undergrad) and decided that was too much and I really wanted to work with whales and dolphins so I decided then to become a marine biologist (before finding out that I would be in school for 5-6 years after undergrad plus 2 years of training after that!) My dad is still proud, but he is definitely not counting on me buying him a house! (Marine biologists aren't known for making the big bucks.)
AMae: Where did your interest in studying whales develop?
Regina: My family really enjoyed visiting zoos, museums and aquariums wherever we went. I always found nature programs on public television captivating (well before there was a Discovery Channel and Animal Planet) and for some reason whales and dolphins even more so! Whales and dolphins evolved from land animals and I always wondered what made animals that are obviously so intelligent return to the sea!
AMae: What is your most recent project about? I saw on your website that you are interested in ship strikes and how that can kill a whale. Are you working on a way to protect the whales from ship collisions?
Regina: Yes we are studying what happens to a whale when it is hit by a ship. Many of the whales killed by ships have broken bones, especially jaw bones. Right now we are making computer models of ship collisions so that we can tell how much force it takes to break a whale's jaw bone. If we can figure out how fast a ship has to be going to break a bone we can decide if slowing ships down would stop whales from being killed. It sounds like a no brainer (slow them down and they won't be hurt as much), but it is a really important question . . .
If you slow cars down from 100 km/h to 50 km/h then when one car hits another car the people inside are less likely to be hurt. However, if you slow a car down and a bug hits the windshield it will probably still be hurt. Some of the ships in the ocean are so big that a whale is tiny in comparison . . . and just like a bug on the windshield, the ship doesn't even know that it hit the whale! So slowing these ships down may not keep a whale from being hurt if it gets hit, but it just may give whales time to get out of the way!
I've also been studying signs of bone disease in right whales.
AMae: What is your favorite part of your job?
Regina: Variety . . . everyday brings something new. One day I'm getting CT (CAT) scans of whale bones . . . another day I'll be spending time reading or hearing lectures about the exciting work of other scientists so that I know what kind of amazing work has already been done that relates to my work . . . another day field work watching right whales at sea . . . another day writing a proposal for a new research project that will take me in an exciting new direction if funded . . . and one incredible month I spent on a ship in Antarctica!
AMae: So you went to Antarctica, have you been able to travel anywhere else? Where was your favorite place?
Regina: I spent a summer on a sailboat in the Bay of Fundy (Grand Manan) studying right whale behavior and sound production. As wonderful as sailing next to whales at sunset was, Antarctica was by far the best place though!
AMae: Do you have any interesting or funny stories about something that happened to you while you were out in the field?
Regina:I was out with a crew in the Bay of Fundy searching for whales to record using a hydrophone array, an underwater microphone that we had set up to float from a line off the back of the boat. We knew there were several whales in the area, so the boat was stopped and we were taking photographs so that we could identify individuals. We were focused on this one whale off the starboard side of the boat who was coming close and giving us great opportunities to take its picture. It went underwater and surfaced seconds later much to our surprise less than 10 feet off the stern! It had changed its course and was now heading right for the line that we had floating off the back of the boat to the hydrophone! These animals often get entangled in fishing gear because the filter feed with their mouths open and the line gets stuck in their baleen like dental floss. Myself and another photographer yelled "the hydrophones!!!" and rushed to the back of the boat to figure out how to avoid entangling the whale!! The captain realized that he had to cut the line and lose the equipment . . . but just as he hurried to get a cutting tool the whale stopped three feet away from the line and plunged deep into the water avoiding the line! We were so glad that the whale was smarter than we were and didn't get entangled. We were also glad that we didn't lose our equipment OR earn the reputation as "the scientists who tried to teach a whale how to floss with a hydrophone!!" It was pretty incredible how fast everything happened and how easily such a large animal (40 feet or more in length) was able to realize that something was in its way and take evasive action . . . it stopped on a dime!!
AMae: What are your career goals, where do you plan to go from here?
Regina: I will finish my degree (doctorate) late next year and I hope to continue researching bones and bone disease in marine mammals. I love teaching and mentoring so that will definitely be a large part of my work.
AMae: Do you have any advice for kids who are interested in going into Marine Biology?
Regina: Just go for it! Don't worry about finding the "right path" or listening to people who think you just want to swim with dolphins. There are so many roads that marine biologists have taken and there is so much more to marine biology than "swimming with dolphins" that the possibilities are endless! Some of my co-workers started out in Engineering or Ecology or Mathematics. At one point I worked in an Immunology lab and I didn't take my first marine biology course until after college!
AMae: Thank you so much Regina. Is there anything else you could like to say to the members of Whyville?
Regina: Don't be afraid to ask for help or advice! Many older students, teachers, counselors, and scientists are just waiting for the chance to answer your questions and offer advice about things that they know. If you want to become a veterinarian, ask your pet's doctor what classes helped him or her the most. If you want to become a librarian, talk to your school librarian about how he/she became a librarian. If you want to be a scientist, use the internet to search for people in your area that study things that interest you and read about their work. Then, with your parents' help, contact them with questions in mind that might help you become a scientist too!
Make sure that you check out the new WhOI when it is up and running. You can see the dock at the Beach right now! Also, you can check out the website for WHOI, who Regina works for, at http://www.whoi.edu. To learn more about careers in the marine world, check out www.marinecareers.net. Thanks for reading, and have a great day!
Signing off,
AMae
