About Us

• Sea Education Association (SEA) is a non-profit educational institution based in the world-renown oceanographic community of Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
• SEA has almost 35 years of experience offering academic programs that focus on the study of the oceans. SEA programs include ocean passages; semester courses involve six weeks of study ashore followed by six weeks of living, working and doing research at sea.
• SEA owns and operates the Sailing School Vessels Corwith Cramer -- a 134-foot brigantine and, its newest vessel, Robert C. Seamans – a 134.5-foot brigantine. Combining traditional tall ship sailing with modern, hands-on learning, these ships operate year round. With an annual itinerary of 18,000 miles each, the Cramer sails the waters of the northwest Atlantic, the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. The Robert C. Seamans began its first series of cruise tracks in 2001 in the Pacific Ocean.
• SEA's ships are at sea 300 days a year. Students and scientists together conduct a number of comprehensive studies in oceanography, including projects focusing on the Gulf Stream, marine pollution, fish and zooplankton distributions, thermal fronts, the geology of carbonate islands and banks, and ocean circulation patterns.
• SEA's full-credit academic program, SEA Semester, teaches college students about the oceans through multi-disciplinary curricula in oceanography, nautical science, and maritime literature and history.
• SEA is the only organization in the U.S. that offers deep-sea research experience to undergraduate students aboard a sailing vessel.
• More than 200 colleges and universities accept credit for SEA Semester.
• SEA has more than 7,500 alumni from its semester programs who work in every professional field. Because of their experiences with SEA, many choose to enter ocean-related fields, including marine research, environmental consulting, ocean engineering and professional seafaring.
• SEA Seminars, programs for adults and teenagers, include Science at SEA, a four week program for high school students, Oceanography of the Gulf of Maine, and Oceanography of the Southern California Bight, three-week programs for high school students. All programs include components ashore and at sea.
• Additional SEA Seminars are developed by contract with other organizations, and, on occasion, programs are designed specifically for SEA friends, alumni and parents.
• SEA's sea-going staff is headed up by the ship's Master and the Chief Scientist. Additional professionals include three mates, an engineer, a steward and three assistant scientists. All the crew and scientists are instructors, and play a major role in the education of SEA's students at sea.