Samantha Mannion on the Isle of Shoals

Mannion, of West Peterborough, a recipient of a ConVal Community Scholarship Foundation Dollars for Scholars scholarship, is studying marine and fresh water biology at the University of New Hampshire.  From May 31 to June 28 she took part in an intensive eight-credit field marine science course presented by the Shoals Marine Laboratory, which included time in the field, as well as the lab and the classroom.

 

 

She and four other students lived in a dorm on Appledore Island, one of the Isles of Shoals, a group of small, rocky islands off the coast of Maine and New Hampshire.

 

The students, their two professors and a teachers’ aide worked together all day, every day from breakfast until 10:30 or 11 p.m. On Sunday they got a small break, not starting work until 10 a.m. The students helped each other, not only with their lab work, but also in carrying the 5-gallon buckets they used to collect specimens at the seashore. Each day’s schedule was built around low tide, during which the students would spend three or four hours gathering specimens -- including algae, krill, arthropods, urchins and other intertidal organisms -for study back in the lab.

On Appledore Island, where they did most of their work, the weather was generally sunny and mild, though sometimes windy. One day, the students traveled to neighboring Smuttynose Island to see if specimens different than those on Appledore Island could be found there in a surge channel – a narrow, U-shaped inlet on the rocky shore. Because such channels are narrow, waves create strong currents that reverse rapidly as the water level changes.

 

As Mannion and her friend Gabe Ng were gathering kelp at the water’s edge, a huge wave suddenly pulled them into the water. The teachers’ aide, Jillian Brinser, who ran to help, was also pulled into the water, which dragged the three of them under and buffeted them around in the rocky channel.

 

Mannion recalled the incident, “I couldn’t feel if the water was cold, all I felt was pressure. All I saw was water. When I opened my mouth to call for help, water rushed in. Gabe and I stayed together and just struggled to keep our mouths above the waves.”

 

One of her professors threw Mannion an inflatable yellow plastic bag. The bag landed next to her in the water, but before she could grab it, the current pulled it away and she had to swim away from the shore to get the bag. When she finally grasped it, the exhausted Mannion held on to it and rested before undertaking the swim back toward shore, where, with great difficulty, she was finally pulled up the rocks to safety. She had lost her glasses, boots and a sock during the ordeal in the water.

 

Mannion, who estimates she was in the water for 14 minutes, was the last to make it to safety. She was relieved to see Brinser and Ng were already ashore. The same wave that had carried her away from shore had carried Brinser and Ng toward the shore and safety. When an emergency medical technician responded to a call for help, he was unable to get to shore due to the rough seas. He had to go to the other side of the island and walk a mile across land to reach the three who had been buffeted by the waves.

 

Mannion suffered only scratches to her hands and a foot, but had been “drinking” a lot of water, she said. Brinser sustained cuts on her legs from her knees to her ankles, while Ng was suffering from a lowered body temperature, Mannion said, adding that it was a miracle the three made it out of the water safely.

Despite the fact that she is still apprehensive about going into the water, Mannion says she will miss the Isles of Shoals. She called her experience there “amazing.”

 

The cost of the field marine science course was $10,000. Mannion’s original scholarship for the special summer course, given by the Shoals Marine Lab, which is supported by UNH and Cornell University, was $3,500 and she was doubtful that she would be able to get the remaining $6,500 together. After she wrote a letter to the lab sponsors detailing why her family was unable to help her financially and explaining how she handled her own money, the scholarship was increased to $5,000. Then, two weeks before the course was to start, the grant was increased again, to $7,000. In addition, she received a $1,400 Pell grant.

 

After finishing the field marine science course, she and a graduate student taught a general biology lab at UNH in Durham in July. She said she enjoyed the teaching experience, which was enhanced by the knowledge she gained in the field marine science course. She was able to make the lab more interesting for the students and was able to sort the specimens from a 10-gallon bucket, things she couldn’t have done prior to the field training.

 

After finishing her teaching assignment, Mannion is home in West Peterborough, planning to return to UNH for her sophomore year, which begins in late August. This fall, she will be taking a sociology course, family studies (how families can affect development); introduction to oceanography, introduction to marine biology, and western civilization. She also will work part-time in the campus dining hall.

 

Mannion is the 2009 ConVal Community Scholarship Foundation Dollars for Scholars’ NHBB HiTech Scholar, meaning that the N.H. Ball Bearings HiTech Division funded half of the two-year, $6,000 scholarship she received from the foundation. The foundation is a nonprofit that helps students who might not otherwise pursue higher education reach their potentials by providing mentoring and financial assistance.