A Season at Sea

Published:
September 01, 2015

Grinnell College student Conard Lee ’16, a biology major, was one of 24 undergraduates from top colleges and universities nationwide and abroad who sailed the high seas this spring to tackle one of the most prominent scientific challenges of their generation: global climate change. Through SEA Semester: Oceans & Climate, a distinctive study abroad program offered by Sea Education Association (SEA), these students carryed out independent research on climate interactions in a less-studied region of the remote Pacific Ocean — all from the deck of a tall ship sailing research vessel.   

After a highly selective application process, the students first spent six weeks taking courses on shore at SEA Semester’s campus in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Guided by SEA faculty and local science and policy experts, they addressed and tackled some of the prickliest ecological problems facing Oceania’s waters and port cities — from coral reef damage in French Polynesia to freshwater scarcity in Samoa; from fisheries threats in New Zealand to rising sea level impacts on communities in Kiribati.

The class set sail on the SSV Robert C. Seamans, SEA’s 134-foot brigantine, from a port near Christchurch, New Zealand. During the next six weeks, the students sailed 3,000 nautical miles from New Zealand to Tahiti, exploring port stops in the Chatham Islands and Tubuai as they continued their place-based study of the South Pacific region.

You can read more about Lee's voyage and other current and past voyages on the SEA Currents blog.

As full, working members of the scientific team and sailing crew, the students had unique opportunity to study diverse and dynamic marine ecosystems in a remote and rarely studied region of the southwest Pacific Ocean. Students implemented their experimental designs, analyzed collected data, and presented their findings in peer-reviewed poster sessions upon completion of the sea component.

“Our student-designed research efforts will provide the latest of only a handful of scientific assessments of ecological conditions and climate processes in this area, establishing a baseline for future SEA cruises along the same track as well as other interested investigators,” said Dr. Deb Goodwin, SEA Assistant Professor of Oceanography and Chief Scientist for the voyage.

SEA Semester: Oceans & Climate in fall 2015 is a transatlantic voyage from the Canary Islands to St. Croix.  

About Sea Education Association/SEA Semester®

SEA is an internationally recognized leader in undergraduate ocean education. For nearly 45 years and more than one million nautical miles sailed, SEA has educated students about the world’s oceans through its Boston University accredited study abroad program, SEA Semester. SEA/SEA Semester is based on Cape Cod in the oceanographic research community of Woods Hole, Massachusetts and has two research vessels: the SSV Corwith Cramer, operating in the Atlantic Ocean, and the SSV Robert C. Seamans, operating in the Pacific.

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