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My name is Traven Apiki and I'll be attending the University of Hawaii at Hilo where I'm
double majoring in Hawaiian Studies and Marine Science. I'm from Homer, Alaska and started
my SCA adventure down in Sanibel, FL where we had our orientation with the USF&WS. It
was an amazing experience that allowed me to meet other CDIP interns and learn about
the Fish & Wildlife service as well as what SCA had to offer. The orientation allowed
me to experience what the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge was like and learn about possible
future careers in Fish & Wildlife. After orientation, I traveled back to Homer, Alaska, the farthest
westward destination on the road system. Homer is a beautiful town and although I lived there
for the past few years, there were many new things I had the chance of experiencing this
summer. I was able to get across Kachemak Bay to the state park, tour the boat harbor,
I ate the greatest halibut tacos at the local farmer's market and devoured the best halibut
fish and chips I've ever had. The beauty of Homer, especially during the summer when the
wild flowers were blooming, was breath taking. I visited the famous Homer spit as much as
I could, found a lot of visitors to talk to and truly experienced the beautiful art that
Homer had to offer, I even went out halibut fishing, here at the "Halibut Fishing Capitol
of the World". I used this summer to view my town as a tourist would and it opened my
eyes to all sorts of new experiences, experiences I never would have had if it hadn't have been
for SCA. Throughout the summer I'll be doing all sorts of interesting activities but my
main job is visitors services, here at the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge headquarters,
also known as the Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center. The visitor center is amazing
but it can only give you a glimpse of how awe-inspiring and wild the Alaska Maritime
National Wildlife Refuge truly is. The first time that I visited the visitor center, I
was amazed by all the detail that went into the exhibits. As soon as visitors came in,
they loved to climb on the sea lion for pictures. When families got around to the bird cave,
a lot of smaller children would start crying until they realized the birds wouldn't hurt
them. By the end of the summer I had Orville's speech memorized. The recording in the trapper
cabin was of Orville talking about the trapping that went on in the past. We had an amazing
photo exhibit with pictures that made you stand there in amazement. Visitors loved to
go into our auditorium and watch our movies, especially the Journey of the Tiglax, a movie
about our research vessel and our refuge. I loved interacting with visitors each day
and learning some of their stories. Later in the summer, one of my projects was helping
with a few of the Discovery labs. The discovery labs had a different theme each week and provided
a chance for the community and visiting tourists to become engaged with various topics such
as Fishing or recent studies funded by the Exxon Valdez oil spill. A
big trip that I took was to Galena, Alaska where I was a part of a six person group that
helped residents affected by a disastrous flood that submerged much of the town. We
stayed for 11 days and while we were there we helped Fish & Wildlife employees and local
residents alike to tear out insulation, rotten flooring and recover lost items. Although
it was a lot of work, we were glad to be able to help out. My next big trip took me to the
Barren Islands were I had the opportunity to go out on the research vessel, the Tiglax,
and help tear down an old shed and build a new one. On my trip I saw some amazing scenery
on the five hour boat ride it took to get there, a ton of birds and I even got to see
quite a few marine mammals, like seals. Once we finally got closer to the Barren Islands,
we became surrounded by whales and when we passed by one of the islands, we could see
Stellar Sea Lions off in the distance. When we arrived at East Amatuli Island, we decided
to first relax and have dinner before we got to work. We had a great cook from one of the
well-known bakeries in town and the food definitely lived up to my Two Sister's Bakery expectations.
After dinner on the first day we all gathered aboard the skiff and set off for the beach.
We got to have a lot of fun with destruction and also had to haul all of the rotten wood
from the old shed to the beach. Once everything was finally torn down, we could focus on the
building of the new shed, and the next day we started hauling all the lumber from the
vessel to shore. There was a lot of lumber to haul but between a few of us, we were able
to get everything to the field camp, including the field camp supplies for the season. During
the building process we started with nothing but after the initial start of the project,
things really started moving. We went from a sandy area, to having posts, to a floor,
and finally the walls. We hoped to get everything done on schedule but unfortunately we ended
up having to stay an extra day to finish up the shed. By the end we were all happy we
finished it, we went from trying to get everything perfect, to trying to get off the island in
time so we started moving faster and made a few mistakes but luckily, it's just a shed.
This truly was a summer to last a lifetime and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to
work here on the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. Everyone was a blast to work
with and I'd really like to thank the refuge staff and especially the volunteers for everything
they do. Words can't express how much I enjoyed my first year of SCA and I'm looking forward
to what lies in the future. Thank you everyone for making this a summer to remember.