CoastWatch intern Sabrina Ehler takes a selfie on the shore.

Hey all! Now that I have had the time to settle into my position as CoastWatch intern I wanted to greet everyone and invite you all to contact me. My name is Sabrina Ehler and I’m a senior at Oregon State University. I am studying fisheries and wildlife with a specialization in law enforcement. I became aware of, and interested in the CoastWatch program through a fellow student at OSU and through my interest in the Oregon coast. Through my internship I have adopted my own CoastWatch mile (Mile 231), so I am a CoastWatcher myself. I have already begun learning new skills and have gained knowledge of the Oregon coast that I had never had before. Thanks to my internship I am able to study our coastline and all of its organisms and habitats, as well as the changes, both natural and human-caused impacts, which come along with it.

I will be helping to coordinate an effort to improve the percentage of CoastWatch miles receiving coverage and assist in improving the types of information found on the mile pages on the website (see “Tour of the Miles” in the menu). I will be checking the reports for all miles of the coastline, linking reports to mile adopters (due to the fact that there are often multiple adopters for a mile) and seeking to determine which sites need more volunteers to help and more information to be added to the website to make it more useful and informative. The goal of the program, as you know, is to have volunteers go out four or more times a year to survey their adopted mile or miles and collect valuable information that will be posted to the website. Mile adopters (including me!) can help to provide information to Oregonians about many aspects of their coastline. I will be focusing in particular on our survey of sea star populations, but will also be checking on how we are doing on documenting everything from marine debris to invasive species to stranded marine mammals.

I will work closely with Fawn Custer, the CoastWatch volunteer coordinator, to reach out to current CoastWatchers, and to recruit future CoastWatchers by getting the word out around the state about adopting a mile and the ways that people can volunteer their time to educate themselves about the shoreline, gain a great set of skills and knowledge, gather important information and help protect the Oregon Coast. Through my internship, I hope to assist CoastWatch in moving toward the goal of getting the entire coastline monitored and reported on every quarter of the year. 

Feel free to contact me at: (541) 870-1873 or ehlers@onid.oregonstate.edu.