GIS4944 - Update on Internship - ECMRD

As I continue my GIS internship at the Escambia County Marine Resource Division, I’ve had the opportunity to expand my skills in geospatial data pertaining to marine and environmental management.

Early in my internship, I was tasked on creating over 15 GIS maps based on boating data that identified accident sites, citations, and warnings. Here is an example of one of the maps I created: 

More recently, I’ve moved to my other projects which were SAAD involves mapping SAAD (Suspected Abandoned and Derelict) Vessels in Bayou Chico. This is one of the more data heavy assignments I’ve taken on since it not only involves using data from years of collection, but also organizing the vessels that may have incorrect input data (Like Vessel name or registration). There are also pictures of most of the vessels that I can use to reference between vehicles. The reason why I'm working on this is these vessels pose environmental hazards and also complicate navigation for other boaters, so organizing their locations and history of these vehicles is important for or county action and mitigation efforts. 

I’ve also been helping to clean up and organize spatial data on Escambia County’s artificial reefs. Specifically, I've been standardizing Excel files, creating additional reef types (like Tetrahedron vs. EcoSphere), and also add symbology to these two reef types. 

In addition to this artificial reef work, I've also been tasked with researching and creating a profile on the history and the S.S. San Pablo (Russian freighter) from 1915 that later played an interesting role in the Gulf Coast's wartime and postwar maritime history, ultimately sinking off the coast of Pensacola.

So far with this experience, I’ve grown way more confident in my ability to handle real-world datasets which has even strengthened my passion for marine GIS work and conservation mapping. I'll even be rolling my internship into the Fall Semester so I can't wait to learn even more!