The summer I sweat through my clothes (repeatedly)
Andrea Tobin, 2025 Summer Student
It is mid-May, and I started my summer student position with ACAP Saint John two weeks ago. I find myself up to my knees in mud, struggling for breath as I try to reach a fyke net far in the distance. I go to take a step, but my foot won’t budge, and down I go into the pit of mud that we call Lorneville Beach. I plop down, mud splashes my face, seeps into my waders, and fights against me as I try to upright myself. My coworker reaches her mud-covered hand out to help me up, and just like that, there are two of us stuck in the mud; laughter fills the salty air. As we approach the fyke net, excitement bubbles up inside as I begin to see something large and mysterious waiting for us inside. We get closer, and I let out a scream of excitement once I realize that we, in fact, have an Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus) patiently awaiting our arrival! This magnificent prehistoric fish stares back at me as I reach into the net, gently pull it out, and begin collecting length and weight measurements. Never before have I had the opportunity to get up close and personal to a sturgeon, a true summer highlight for a marine biology student such as myself.
My name is Andrea Tobin, and I am a fourth-year marine biology student at the University of New Brunswick, located in Saint John. My interest in the marine environment began while I was attending the Wildlife Conservation Technology course at Holland College, and since then, my curiosity and infatuation with marine science has only grown. Many of the skills I acquired while in school were put to the test during my summer with ACAP, but even more new skills were acquired. If I had to choose, I would say the greatest skill I obtained during my summertime employment was learning how to work as part of a large team. Every day here at ACAP looks different, and that also means that as a student, nearly every day I would be working on different projects with different members of the ACAP crew. This required me to be adaptable to different environments and working conditions, and also pushed me outside of my comfort zone, as someone who is typically quite introverted. As intimidating as it may have been at first, I quickly got to know all the amazing professionals and immediately felt like a member of the crew. As time went on, I became more comfortable with the work environment and began asking questions. Questions that were, without a doubt, always well received and answered in a manner that allowed me to learn and continue to be curious.
An area where I lack confidence is public speaking and engagement. Before coming to ACAP, I was extremely nervous to tackle outreach events, as I lacked confidence in my ability to capture people’s attention while also being well respected and informative. However, after attending several outreach events with the ACAP crew, who effortlessly engage with the public, I quickly came to realize that outreach events don’t need to be scary. In fact, they can even be fun! Over the past few months, I attended several outreach events, the next one always better than the last, showcasing my personal development in engagement. For that, I am truly grateful.
Over the course of the summer, I got the chance to work on many different ongoing projects here at ACAP, my favorites being harbour monitoring, Musquash seal surveys, and electrofishing! Harbour monitoring entails using both fyke and seine nets to capture a sample of the benthic biological community at several different beaches located around and within the Saint John area. This project was a personal favorite because no matter how many times I got out fishing, I still got excited whenever a fish (or even sand shrimp) was captured. Nothing beats seeing the cool creatures that inhabit our local marine environment, especially the sturgeons and striped bass! The ongoing seal project was also a personal favorite and one I was strongly looking forward to learning more about. The seal project, which takes place in the Musquash marine protected area, aims to characterize seal abundance and foraging habits for both local species of seal. Working on this project increased my confidence working on boats and allowed me to gain skills in seal Identification and scat collection. Another highlight was the days we spent out in the streams sampling the freshwater fish community via electrofishing. Since I acquired my certification to operate the electrofisher during my time at Holland College, the crew here at ACAP guided and entrusted me to run the backpack, allowing me to bolster my self-assurance with operation.
It is now my last week here with ACAP, and I will be leaving with a heavy heart. My time here was irreplaceable. In just a short few months, I made countless memories and obtained many valuable skills that I plan to carry forward with me into the last year of my degree and even beyond as I start my career. Getting the opportunity to work out in the field all summer also reminded why I chose this career path in the first place. University can be a difficult and stressful experience, which sometimes causes me to lose sight of why I chose this career path in the first place. After my summer with ACAP, though, I feel reinspired to tackle the last year of my degree and excited to continue to build upon the foundation of knowledge I've begun to build.
