Meghan Smith, daughter of local lobsterman Hazen and Jennifer Smith, is interning at the Maine State Aquarium through a partnership with University of Maine Farmington, where she’ll be a senior at this coming fall.

Smith grew up in Boothbay Harbor and graduated from Boothbay Region High School in 2012. She is majoring in elementary education, and is acting as an aquarium educator for the summer.

Though she said that this is her first time working directly with sea creatures, she has led a pretty salty existence so far.

“My dad is a lobsterman, so I kind of grew up on a boat and I know a lot about lobsters. He fishes out of Atlantic Edge on his boat, the Little Jenny Barter,” Smith said. The boat is named for Smith's mother, she said.

Smith has been interning at the aquarium since June and said she's enjoying it. “It's a lot of fun. It's nice to be involved with the tourists and teaching them about what happens here.”

Part of her routine involves giving presentations.

“I give 'lobster talks' about lobstering. I do camp and school groups, and a lot of behind the scenes working with the touch tank and the shark tank.”

The lobster talks last around 20-25 minutes. “We teach people about how lobsters are caught and the rules and regulations and how it's done.”

Smith said she wants to be a classroom teacher. “This is really an internship to give me a different view of things and help me learn about the science of marine biology and working with kids.”

One of the things that the aquarium does in conjunction with schools is provide classrooms with tidepools and sea life. “They put Gulf of Maine critters from the ocean into classrooms and it helps to teach students about marine life.”

“There are mini aquariums in the schools and we provide the animals for them for the school year, and then they return them in the spring.”

Smith said she's thinking about leaving the area, at least for a while, after she graduates. “Hopefully I'll venture out, but may come back eventually. I don't want to go to a city, but somewhere out of the state of Maine for a little bit. I can always come home.”

She said her parents are OK with her leaving the state after graduation. “They left when they were young. They worked here and then they went to another state for a couple years, then they came back.”

Smith learned a lot by going out fishing with her father when she was young, but there were times when it was trying — for him. “He didn't really like us going with him that much, because we weren’t all that helpful,” she said with a laugh.

Hazen Smith has helped the aquarium out, too. “He took the interns out a little while ago for an afternoon to teach us how to teach other people about lobstering,” she said.

There are four sharks and five skates that will stay in a touch tank at the aquarium for the summer, then probably go to a different institute in the fall. “We don't care for them during the winter, and we get new ones each summer.”

On July 16, Smith was helping out at the shark tank, where several children were getting a kick out of 'patting them.'

She was teaching people the correct way to touch them when they came to the surface. “We touch them with just two fingers and stay away from their fins.”

Smith said she and her co-workers get to know the sharks. “I think they each have a personality. Sometimes I think they recognize me. When they swim around you can see one eye watching you.” She said they seem to look to the workers for reassurance when there are too many people touching them.

Smith admits she has developed a relationship with the sharks, but tries to keep it professional. “We're not supposed to name them.”

The aquarium is located 194 McKown Point Road in West Boothbay Harbor. The phone number is 207-633-9559.