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This year we had an excellent opportunity to hire a couple of STEP students, which is
the Student Temporary Employment Program. And we had some recovered funds under a tribal
landowner incentive program, which is no longer in place. So we had the opportunity to actually
use that money to hire these STEP students. One of them is Tannar Francis. He’s a Penobscot
tribal member. And also MaryAnn Silliboy, who is a member of the Aroostook Band of Micmacs.
Primarily what I wanted to do is work with the Maine Fisheries Resource Complex and focus
the two STEP students on Atlantic salmon work and work that surrounds that in the state
of Maine.
MaryAnn is actually going to work closely with the Maine Fisheries Resource Complex.
Tannar Francis is actually going to be working with the Penobscot Indian Nation with Dan
McCaw, their fishery biologist, to do work related to Atlantic salmon restoration.
Well Atlantic salmon conservation in Maine started right here where we are today, at
the Craig Brook National Fish Hatchery. And this summer I have the opportunity to supervise
and mentor Tannar Francis who is working this summer with me through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.
Just started this summer, a position opened up for a biologist aid, and I thought that
it looked very interesting so I took it. This summer I’ve done a lot of things from going
to fish passages, and seeing different examples of good and poor fish passages, and done culvert
surveys and e-fishing with that to see what kind of fish are around the culverts. It’s
kind of given me a step in the right direction to actually see what the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
does and shows that you can actually- you can get a position, it’s not that far away.
It definitely opened up the door to go into the field of like outdoors, helping wildlife.
I’ve been able to learn a lot of stuff I’ve never learned before, especially about fish,
considering where I used to hate fishing and now I’m working with fish. So that’s been
quite an experience. I believe this internship has shaped me into the kind of photographer
that I want to become. It has taught me a lot, to help me become a different person,
and to accept fish differently than I used to see them as. To actually get into the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service and go out and get pictures of when they take the fish back out
and just capture it all, that would be pretty amazing.
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