SEA Semester in the NEWS
ESF Student Participates in SEA Semester
Emily Klimczak conducts research in the Caribbean
SUNY College of Environmental Science & Forestry News

SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) student Emily Klimczak is currently on an ocean research voyage to study human impacts on Caribbean coral reef ecosystems.

With the recent volcanic eruption in New Zealand, we wish to report that all is well aboard the Robert C. Seamans.  The students and crew of class S-289 remain safe aboard the vessel which, though operating near the Bay or Plenty, is well clear of the eruption at White Island.

As his research draws to a close, Jonathan Harris, C-112, winner of the 2019 Armin E. Elsaesser III Fellowship, has posted additional coastal photographs and information on his project website, “Pirates, Blockades and Commerce: an expedition to explore the maritime history, fortifications, and lighthouses of the Gulf Islands National Seashore.”

SEA Semester in the NEWS
Work Hard, Get the Job Done, Be Yourself: Jeanne Grasso
USCG Proceedings Magazine
Pioneers & Prodigies edition

Leading maritime lawyer Jeanne Grasso, W-83, credits SEA Semester for influencing her successful legal career.

“When the readers of this edition of Proceedings realize Jeanne Grasso is a lawyer, they will have to fight the urge to flip past and dismiss her as not a ‘real’ mariner. No, Grasso did not graduate from a maritime academy. Nor has she been in command of a ship, but her love affair with all things maritime led her to become one of the United States’ premier maritime lawyers….

Healthy people, healthy ships.  One increasingly complex aspect of our work in student services focuses on health and wellness within the Sea Education Association community.  For decades SEA has managed bumps and bruises, acute infections, chronic medical issues and periodic mental health emergencies on shore and at sea.

SEA Semester in the NEWS
“Tall Ship Experience Helps Student Navigate Her Future”
By Fariss Samarrai
UVA Today

Katherine Webber, a third-year environmental sciences major at the University of Virginia minoring in global sustainability, recently completed a six-week learning adventure aboard a tall ship research vessel, the SSV Robert C. Seamans, in the South Pacific. She conducted field research for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center on a newly formed volcanic island, collected ocean data while at sea, and learned about Polynesian culture.

“What’s old is new again!” That’s according to Sea Education Association Shore Facilities Coordinator Jim Moynihan, who recently oversaw significant renovations to the campus’s Stone Cottage. The granite-walled circa 1889 structure is original to the property and home to SEA’s resident advisor.

Visitors to the Madden Center on SEA’s Woods Hole campus may have noticed an unusual 8-foot plexiglass tube, filled with synthetic saltwater, standing in the main stairwell. The tube is a rise velocity chamber, built by SEA volunteer Ethan Edson (C-247).

BOOK REVIEW: Ahab’s Rolling Sea: A Natural History of Moby-Dick
by Richard King, SEA Visiting Associate Professor, Maritime History and Literature
“Pursuing the White Whale, A briny exploration of Melville’s greatest work”
By William Howarth
The American Scholar

“In September 1891, retired District Inspector No. 75 for the Port of New York died at home on East 26th Street. Literati shrugged. Herman Melville, once known as ‘the man who lived with cannibals,’ was an antique footnote from the age of sail. His Pacific swashbucklers, Typee and Omoo, were long out of print, and his meandering seaborne epic Moby-Dick sank on publication in 1851, taking his writing career with it.”

SEA Semester in the NEWS
Johns Hopkins; Arts & Sciences Magazine
“Field Notes; Semester Abroad”
By Brennen Jensen

Conducting scientific research at sea is challenging—you’re isolated, subject to rough weather, and must rely solely on the supplies and equipment on board. Conducting scientific research at sea on a 134-foot brigantine, a type of two-masted sailing ship, is even more challenging. But it can also be a grand adventure.