Updates from Our Summer Interns

ODFW Marine Reserves Program summer interns, Haley Epperly and Theo Eggermont, have been busy conducting visitor intercept surveys. They are gathering baseline data for the Cape Falcon Marine Reserve which will be closed to fishing starting January 1, 2016. Cape Falcon is the fifth, and last, marine reserve to be implemented along the Oregon Coast. Cape Falcon Marine Reserve is located adjacent to Oswald West State Park. The park boasts wonderful trails overlooking the ocean as well as the very popular Short Sands beach. Visitor surveys are one research tool being used to help understand the different ways that Oregon’s marine reserves effect people and communities, as part of our studying the human dimensions of reserve implementation.