December 3, 2025, by admin

This summer, the education department hosted a newly expanded internship in communications. Darby Osborne, the 2025 Communication Intern, had a summer packed with experiences ranging from snorkeling and social media to producing stories for the local radio station and newspaper. This internship is made possible by the Karsh Family Foundation in honor of Lisa Busch. Lisa was, of course, the founding Executive Director of the Sitka Sound Science Center and a notable science journalist and science communicator. Below, read Darby’s submission for the Science Center’s June newsletter: 

 

Darby Osborne, Communication Intern, has a full day of snorkeling: 

 

Cold Water Communications 

 

It’s going to be worth it.  

This is my mantra as I struggle into my skintight 7-millimeter wetsuit, contorting my body and exerting muscles I didn’t know I had. With the addition of gloves, boots, and hood, I am now transformed into something that feels more seal than human. Despite my distaste for wetsuits, I am acutely aware that these 7 millimeters of neoprene is all that will stand between me and the 45-degree Pacific Ocean. 

 

It’s going to be worth it.  

I take my first steps into the water at Sage beach, just around the corner from the Science Center. The initial shock of cold water seeping into my suit sends a chill up my spine, but trapped against my body, the water quickly warms. I am joined by the Adult Snorkel Club, adventurers ranging from their twenties to seventies, all eager to spend their Friday morning getting a glimpse of the world under our waters. I watch as they expertly slide into their fins, slip on their snorkel masks, and begin gliding across the ocean’s surface. I follow suit. 

 

It’s worth it.  

I am greeted by large black-eyed hermit crabs scrambling through kelp, juvenile salmon slipping between rocks, and large purple ochre stars stationed on nearly every surface. A bright red crab roughly 10 inches wide shuffles below me. Accustomed to smaller purple shore crabs, I had no idea their larger relative the red rock crab inhabited the same waters. These waters, which I had swam in hundreds of times before, I now see in an entirely different way. All I needed was a wetsuit and a snorkel mask to discover the beautiful and complex ecosystem below the surface, gaining a completely new view of a familiar place.  

 

The rest of my day is packed: radio training at KCAW, aquarium feeding, a bike ride out to Silver Bay, Zumba class, and a movie night with friends. It is a beautiful, long, lovely day, and I spend the entire time dreaming about my next chance to snorkel the Sitka coast.  

 

Read more of Darby’s published work at these links.  

 

https://www.kcaw.org/2025/06/26/audio-postcard-whale-park-a-quiet-retreat-in-sitkas-busy-summer/  

 

https://sitkasentinel.com/stories/science-center-uses-beach-cleanup-for-research,60121 

 

https://sitkasentinel.com/stories/sitka-holding-the-line-on-invasive-species,67285?