The Journey to Becoming a Self- Proclaimed "Trash Scientist"
Hi! My name is Bree and I received my Master of Science in Fisheries Management from the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS) at the University of Miami. I got my B.S. in Ecology and Evolution from University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). For my master's thesis, I studied fish aggregating device effect on The Ocean Cleanup's System 001 aka "Wilson" (which is what I called him for rest of my blog while at sea). This was a piece of the environmental monitoring of the System/Wilson as The Ocean Cleanup had their first attempt at removing plastic debris from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (which is 2 times the size of Texas**)! To be specific - I am a marine biologist who studied fish that are hang out AROUND trash. But I think trash scientist sounds WAY cooler so that's what I'm sticking with. More on my project can be found throughout the archives of this blog, but for now I'm going to fill you in on how a Southern California girl from a sleepy marina town got to work with one of the best-known organizations to come out of the Netherlands for her Master's Thesis.
I spent my childhood playing on the beaches of So Cal. This included running rampant through the tidepools, sitting on the back of my parents' windsurfing boards, and just generally being in LOVE with anything and everything that lived in the ocean. My first career aspiration was to be a "Seaworld Girl" who played with the dolphins - but that dream quickly turned into becoming a marine biologist so that I could learn about more than just dolphins. Don't get me wrong, I still get unreasonably excited at a dolphin fin at the beach or while out on the water, but I get just as excited when I see just about every other living thing in the ocean.
Okay Bree. Everybody wanted to be a marine biologist when they grew up. Why did you actually do it? Well I'm glad you asked humble blog-reader (or didn't ask. I'm not a mind reader). It all comes back to Bruce Springsteen. In third grade I was given an important task: Make a report an adult in a career. I told my third grade teacher that I was going to write a report on Bruce Springsteen because, well he was a rockstar and that was his job. I thought that was pretty cool. Now, I can only imagine what was going through her head as she told the small blonde overenthusiastic girl, "sure you can do a project on Bruce Springsteen" but I'm immensely grateful she did - between the teachers I had through my schooling and my ridiculously supportive family, there was no one telling me that I couldn't chase my dreams. And I'm glad they did because I have NO IDEA what I would want to do outside of this bizarre and fantastic field.
I guess I can skip through the majority of my undergraduate career which was dotted with learning how to study, failing classes for the first time in my life, and of course, the best study abroad experience a girl could ask for in Australia, but UCSB taught me how to fight for what I wanted, how to persevere in the face of failure (of which there is SO MUCH in science), and, best of all, how to think critically. Though the 4 years of earning a Bachelor's flew by, I can happily say that having a B.S. in Ecology and Evolution is simultaneously RAD and exhausting because I frequently have to explain the term "ecology" in everyday life. I applied to grad school in a crazy haze the last quarter of my fourth and final year of undergrad, because what else is a bored Bio major to do? Well, fast forward to the summer and getting interviewed by my advisor from the coffee shop in Powell's bookstore in Oregon a week before I pack my car up and move to Florida, and honestly this project sounded like a dream come true! The opportunity to use fishery applications with a marine conservation project - sounds like an absolute DREAM!!! The first year of grad school flew by, with two trips to the Netherlands sprinkled in because I needed to meet my collaborators and do some work at The Ocean Cleanup Headquarters, along with getting to know my fellow UM students, scientists, and new state of residence!
All too soon, I had to pack my life up (for the second time that summer because I had to move out of my original place but I live with HOMIES so its chill) YET AGAIN! Hurricane Bree struck my (still new to me) room and all of a sudden I had a checked bag, a duffel bag, and a backpack to my name and was on time to my flight back to California! Who is this woman who makes flights with TIME TO SPARE and arrives in style (or something resembling it) back to her home state? Where did the frazzled girl who packed up her car last minute and moved to Florida without a second thought go? She definitely was just hiding deep inside because let me tell you, packing up all my stuff to live on a BIG boat for two months when you're not at all sure what exactly your responsibilities aboard are, or what the temperature of the boat will be in the living quarters, or whether you will have your own room, or how often you'll have access to laundry...the list of questions goes on and on but I CAN say I packed and repacked my bag at least 5 times in leading up to the actual boarding of the vessel (including once that day...).
What do you do in order to prepare for going to sea for two months, especially when it's almost say 6 times as long as you've been offshore before (maybe more but I'm gonna give myself the benefit of the doubt here) - YOU GO TO SAN FRANCISCO A FEW DAYS EARLY TO STAY WITH YOUR CHILDHOOD BEST FRIEND AND HER SISTER! See I apparently itch to keep on the move, even knowing that I'm going to be on the move pretty much for 7 weeks straight (and counting), I couldn't resist the opportunity to go and see the city that I love!!!
Fast forward through the cruise (which you can read all about in the vault that is this blog), the agonizing thesis-writing process, and finally graduation (!!!), and we have a young marine biologist who is at the cusp of her fast-moving science career - thanks for sticking with me this far, LETS SEE HOW THIS GOES!
Okay Bree. Everybody wanted to be a marine biologist when they grew up. Why did you actually do it? Well I'm glad you asked humble blog-reader (or didn't ask. I'm not a mind reader). It all comes back to Bruce Springsteen. In third grade I was given an important task: Make a report an adult in a career. I told my third grade teacher that I was going to write a report on Bruce Springsteen because, well he was a rockstar and that was his job. I thought that was pretty cool. Now, I can only imagine what was going through her head as she told the small blonde overenthusiastic girl, "sure you can do a project on Bruce Springsteen" but I'm immensely grateful she did - between the teachers I had through my schooling and my ridiculously supportive family, there was no one telling me that I couldn't chase my dreams. And I'm glad they did because I have NO IDEA what I would want to do outside of this bizarre and fantastic field.
I guess I can skip through the majority of my undergraduate career which was dotted with learning how to study, failing classes for the first time in my life, and of course, the best study abroad experience a girl could ask for in Australia, but UCSB taught me how to fight for what I wanted, how to persevere in the face of failure (of which there is SO MUCH in science), and, best of all, how to think critically. Though the 4 years of earning a Bachelor's flew by, I can happily say that having a B.S. in Ecology and Evolution is simultaneously RAD and exhausting because I frequently have to explain the term "ecology" in everyday life. I applied to grad school in a crazy haze the last quarter of my fourth and final year of undergrad, because what else is a bored Bio major to do? Well, fast forward to the summer and getting interviewed by my advisor from the coffee shop in Powell's bookstore in Oregon a week before I pack my car up and move to Florida, and honestly this project sounded like a dream come true! The opportunity to use fishery applications with a marine conservation project - sounds like an absolute DREAM!!! The first year of grad school flew by, with two trips to the Netherlands sprinkled in because I needed to meet my collaborators and do some work at The Ocean Cleanup Headquarters, along with getting to know my fellow UM students, scientists, and new state of residence!
All too soon, I had to pack my life up (for the second time that summer because I had to move out of my original place but I live with HOMIES so its chill) YET AGAIN! Hurricane Bree struck my (still new to me) room and all of a sudden I had a checked bag, a duffel bag, and a backpack to my name and was on time to my flight back to California! Who is this woman who makes flights with TIME TO SPARE and arrives in style (or something resembling it) back to her home state? Where did the frazzled girl who packed up her car last minute and moved to Florida without a second thought go? She definitely was just hiding deep inside because let me tell you, packing up all my stuff to live on a BIG boat for two months when you're not at all sure what exactly your responsibilities aboard are, or what the temperature of the boat will be in the living quarters, or whether you will have your own room, or how often you'll have access to laundry...the list of questions goes on and on but I CAN say I packed and repacked my bag at least 5 times in leading up to the actual boarding of the vessel (including once that day...).
What do you do in order to prepare for going to sea for two months, especially when it's almost say 6 times as long as you've been offshore before (maybe more but I'm gonna give myself the benefit of the doubt here) - YOU GO TO SAN FRANCISCO A FEW DAYS EARLY TO STAY WITH YOUR CHILDHOOD BEST FRIEND AND HER SISTER! See I apparently itch to keep on the move, even knowing that I'm going to be on the move pretty much for 7 weeks straight (and counting), I couldn't resist the opportunity to go and see the city that I love!!!
Fast forward through the cruise (which you can read all about in the vault that is this blog), the agonizing thesis-writing process, and finally graduation (!!!), and we have a young marine biologist who is at the cusp of her fast-moving science career - thanks for sticking with me this far, LETS SEE HOW THIS GOES!
Illustrations by Karen Gibbs.