Summer Internship
The IMMS Research Internship Program is designed as a way for students interested in a career in marine science to gain valuable research experience in a real-world setting. Interns will participate with multiple projects involving bottlenose dolphins, sea turtles and diamondback
terrapins. As an intern, you will be trained in all aspects of dolphin photo-id research, sea turtle satellite tracking, and other current research projects at IMMS. Interns will also participate in other operations at IMMS including stranding response, education, and animal care. Our goal is to give Interns a well-rounded experience in a variety of areas while providing expert training and experience in marine science research.
Principle Duties and Requirements
- Commit to a minimum of at least 12 weeks. The internship can be extended depending on work performance.
- Be available to work Mon-Fri and must be available for all boat trips. Some field days may fall on the weekends.
- Have strong sense of responsibility, work ethic, attention to detail, and ability to admit mistakes.
- Produce high quality research efforts and exhibit strong interpersonal skills.
- Principle Duties include: data entry, searching and cataloging journal articles, learning all research protocols, cropping and sorting photo-id fin images, learning to use photo-id programs such as Darwin (fin matching software), and FinBase (Microsoft Access), boat based field research, and learn how to use ArcGIS
- Secondary Duties involve: Working with animal care staff,
attending marine mammal and sea turtle necropsies, responding to strandings, assisting with educational tours.
- Field days: Interns must be able to spend many hours on the water and on shore in sometimes extreme seasonal conditions. Seasonal temperatures range from over 100 °F in summer to 30 °F in winter. Field days typically exceed eight hours and occur at least two or three times a week.