Students study abroad on the high seas

Geology major Lena Goss '16 and atmospheric and Earth science major Nevin Schaeffer '16 are two of a small group of undergraduates who will be venturing into the world's largest oceans as part of their study abroad semester this year.

Sea Education Association's SEA Semester program, based on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, provides research opportunities for undergraduates who want to spend a semester at sea. The program has two research vessels—the SSV Corwith Cramer, which operates in the Atlantic Ocean, and the SSV Robert C. Seamans, which works in the Pacific.

Goss will be a part of the Cramer's crew, working as part of a team that will conduct biodiversity and conservation policy research that will inform efforts to protect the Sargasso Sea, a critically important ecosystem in the North Atlantic.

A geology major and biology minor, she was "fascinated by how climate change is affecting our oceans," and the SEA program seemed to offer a great opportunity "for the adventure of an open ocean cruise."

The crew on the Seamans, including Schaeffer, will study issues related to climate change. Through researching climate interactions in remote regions of the Pacific between New Zealand and Tahiti, Schaeffer's team hopes to contribute to current research on climate change and marine ecosystems.

Schaeffer said that she was excited to get out under the open sky. "Star gazing, sunrises and sunsets and, between all of them, using sextants and trigonometry to navigate halfway across the Pacific Ocean," she said.

All student participants spend several weeks training at the SEA Semester campus in Massachusetts before stepping on to the deck of their tall ship sailing vessels. For Goss and Schaeffer, the firsthand experience of both the environments they are studying and the logistics of research done at sea are key to the experience.

"My dream is to work and teach for a program like SEA for environmental science and hands-on education," Goss said. "By participating in the program, I am developing relationships with the teachers and staff, and getting a foot in the door of environmental education."

You can follow Goss' and Schaeffer's voyages on the SEA Currents blog.