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Now Accepting Y2013 Spring Interns

Deadline October 31, 2012

Throughout the year, internship positions are available for current upper-level undergraduates (incoming juniors or seniors) or recent university graduates (prior to graduate work) to work with the Shark Population Assessment Group. Internships encourage a close relationship between student and professional and also help focus those students interested in pursuing research careers in marine biology, fisheries science, population biology, ecology or other applied sciences.

Internships are field intensive, requiring long hours on a small boat. Interns participate in the GULFSPAN survey - a fishery-independent population abundance survey that consists of day trips 2-3 times per week to several bays and inlets in the panhandle of Florida. Interns also participate in the Smalltooth Sawfish Abundance Survey in the Florida Everglades. These are week-long excursions to Everglades City, FL, and sampling takes place in Everglades National Park and the Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge. In the field, interns aid staff biologists in sampling, identifying, measuring, tagging, collecting, and cataloging elasmobranch and teleost samples. Interns are required to have a dry bag, hat, sunglasses, bathing suit, closed-toed water shoes, personal medications, and clothes that can get dirty. Interns are provided with basic protective equipment.

When not in the field, interns participate in on-going studies of elasmobranch age and growth, bioenergetics, diet and foraging ecology, distribution and movement, and reproduction. Interns have the opportunity participate in other laboratory activities and various research cruises.

Spring internships begin in January, end in May, and the deadline for application is October 31. Summer internships begin in May, end in August, and the deadline for application is February 28. Fall internships begin in August, end in December, and the deadline for application is July 4. All internships are unpaid and housing is not provided.

Interested? To begin the application process, e-mail a cover letter stating for which internship you would like to be considered to: Dana Bethea.

You will then be contacted and asked to send a complete resumé (or CV), unofficial transcripts, and three professional reference letters. All required documents and reference letters are due before the deadline stated above.

Current graduate students & interns:

Volunteers

Former interns: Where are they now?

Dana M. Bethea: NOAA Fisheries Service Panama City Laboratory, Research Ecologist, Shark Population Assessment Group, Panama City, FL USA

Justina Dacey: Student Services Contractor, Environmental Protection Agency, Gulf Breeze, FL USA

Zelie Davis: Georgia Aquarium, Animal Care Specialist II, Atlanta, GA USA

Denise Freeman: Florida State University, Ph.D Candidate (Dr. Sherry Southerland), College of Education, Science Education Program, Tallahassee, FL USA

Loraine Hale: NOAA Fisheries Service Panama City Laboratory, Observer Coordinator - Bottom Longline Fishery, Shark Population Assessment Group, Panama City, FL USA

Kristin Hannan: University of Southern Mississippi, Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, Ocean Springs, MS USA

Christopher Hayes: NOAA Fisheries Division of Partnerships and Communications, Foreign Trade Specialist, Silver Spring, MD USA

Lisa D. Hollensead: Florida State University, M.Sc. Graduate Student (Dr. Dean Grubbs), Department of Biological Sciences, Tallahassee, FL USA

Jenny Kemper:California State Univeristy, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, M.Sc Graduate Student (Dr. Gregor Cailliet and Dr. David Ebert), Marine Science, Moss Landing, CA USA

Ray Kessler:Appalachian State University, M.Sc Graduate Student (Dr. Dr. Mike Gangloff), Biology Department, Boone, NC USA

Alisha Lemons: Indiana University, School of Education, M.Sc. Education (Transition to Teaching Program), Indianapolis, IN USA

Anabela Maia: University of Rhode Island, Ph.D Candidate (Dr. Cherly Wilga), Department of Biological Sciences, Kingston, RI USA

Heather McCann: University of Windsor, M.Sc Graduate Student (Dr. Brian Fryer), Earth and Environmental Sciences, Windsor, Ontario CAN

Jimmy Nelson: Florida State University, Ph.D Candidate (Dr. Jeff Chanton and Dr. Felicia Coleman), Chemical Oceanography, Tallahassee, FL USA

Faith Opatrny: LTJG NOAA Corps, Pacific Island Fisheries Science Center, Honolulu, HI USA