Lagoon Drift Diaries: My Experience Navigating Lagoon Drift with Geographic Information Systems

By Geanne Donato – Fall 2024 Intern

The opportunity to intern at ANGARI has been such a once-in-a lifetime opportunity that I have been so fortunate to experience this past fall semester. As the ANGARI 2024 Fall intern, I have had so many different experiences in the world of marine science. My responsibilities varied from social media campaign content creation, outreach events, Coastal Ocean Explorers: Sharks expeditions, Lagoon Drift and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) work with Lagoon Drift data. I loved the variety of different assignments I got to participate in and help with, and I am so grateful to the Foundation and its team for welcoming me and making this time of my life so memorable.

During my time at ANGARI, I was lucky enough to participate and assist on five different Coastal Ocean Explorers: Sharks expeditions. Collaborating with Florida International University (FIU) scientists, we educated students and teachers on marine science research aboard our research vessel, R/V ANGARI. This was such an amazing experience as I got to work onboard a research vessel, learn about shark research while also playing an important role in the educating students and teachers learn about hands-on marine science research. Each expedition was unique and brought something different each day, making it very exciting and unpredictable. It pushed me to manage multiple responsibilities at once and be actively attentive to everything and everyone onboard. My role during expeditions was very diverse, one minute I’m helping students get into life jackets, the next minute I’m helping scientists pull lines and the next I’m taking photos of someone kissing a fish! It was super exhilarating being part of everything all at once. I loved being able to help in different aspects of the expedition, as it allowed me to see behind-the-scenes of a research expedition while also being hands-on with the students, educators and scientists. My favorite moment during expeditions was seeing the dynamic between the scientists and students and seeing firsthand the students’ interest and curiosity in marine science grow as they learned the hands-on research and especially when they had the chance to see sharks up close. Being on the boat and seeing my first-ever nurse and tiger shark was such a surreal moment that I will always remember.

My main intern project focused on Lagoon Drift, a citizen-science program that studies the movement of marine debris within local waterways. Lagoon Drift has two experiments per year where we release eco-friendly drift cards into the Lake Worth Lagoon and Intracoastal Waterway from 7 different sites. With 12 experiments so far, we have collected a lot of data and have built an impressive dataset. The goal of my project was to utilize our data to create an interactive dashboard through ArcGIS to share with the public. During this project, I had the opportunity to visit schools and speak with students and educators about our program and helped them participate with drift card decorating, meaning they then became one of our citizen scientists. I also got the chance to help in a variety of outreach events where we shared Lagoon Drift, including LagoonFest and the Indian River Lagoon Science Festival. As an outgoing person, I really enjoyed participating in these school visits and outreach events and getting the chance to speak to people about something I am passionate about – marine science. Furthermore, these educational and outreach events gave me insight into the type of information people are curious about, which helped me brainstorm ideas on how to create my dashboard to cater it to the interests of the public. One of the highlights of my project was getting to participate in the fall 2024 Lagoon Drift deployment and becoming a citizen scientist myself. After months of researching and analyzing data for this project, it was incredibly fulfilling to see everything come full circle and personally experience what I have been educating others about. Creating the dashboard has been a huge learning experience that has taught me so many skills in ArcGIS and project management. Through the navigation of many trials and road bumps throughout the project, I have grown so much and I am very excited to share the completed dashboard at the end of my internship.

As my time at the ANGARI Foundation comes to an end, I am filled with so much gratitude for the experiences and opportunities this internship has provided me. I’ve gained invaluable skills that will stay with me throughout my career and I want to thank everyone at ANGARI for your constant support, mentorship and encouragement.