SEA in the News
Air Force Veteran Inspired by Moby-Dick
The Maritime Executive

“As for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas…” ? Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale

In 2014, Ger Tysk of Houston, Texas, was recently out of the U.S. Air Force and ready to take on a new career. An avid reader, she picked up a copy of Moby-Dick; or, The Whale by the American writer Herman Melville. This story of a notoriously elusive white whale that sinks the whaling ship, Pequod, pivoted Tysk’s imagination towards a career at sea. Tysk was glued to the pages, yearning to see whales and wildlife while sailing the open ocean.

SEA Semester in the News
ESF Student Participates in SEA Semester Program
Aquatic and fisheries science major sets sail in Lesser Antilles
ESF For Earth (SUNY ESF College of Environment Science & Forestry website)

This past fall, Maria Alfaro, a senior at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF), sailed on an ocean research vessel to study human impact on Caribbean coral reef ecosystems.

Read the full story.

SEA in the News
Year’s scariest statistic: 90.5% of plastic not recycled
CBS News

Britain’s Royal Statistical Society has selected an eye-opening statistic on the proportion of plastic that is never recycled as its “statistic of the year.” The stat - 90.5 percent - comes from a global analysis of plastics co-authored last year by Dr. Roland Geyer, University of California, Santa Barbara, Dr. Jenna Jambeck, University of Georgia, and our own Dr. Kara Lavender Law, Research Professor of Oceanography at Sea Education Association.

SEA Semester in the News
Taking the classroom to the sea
Sasha Nyary
Mount Holyoke News

The experiences of two SEA Semester students from Mount Holyoke, Sal Cosmedy and Mia Sigler, currently sailing aboard the SSV Robert C. Seamans with class S-283, The Global Ocean, New Zealand, are described in an article on the college website.

Jonathan Harris, C-112, is the winner of the 2019 Armin E. Elsaesser III Fellowship. Jonathan, a geologist and former SEA crewmember, is an education and outreach coordinator at Mississippi State University. Harris was selected from a field of 13 applicants.

SEA Semester in the News
URI student joins SEA Semester to study coral reef ecology on tall ship ocean research voyage
URI Today

Woods Hole, Mass. - Dec. 4, 2018 - The Sea Education Association has announced that University of Rhode Island senior marine biology major Sharil Deleon is on an ocean research voyage this fall to study human impact on Caribbean coral reef ecosystems. Through SEA Semester: Caribbean Reef Expedition, which is offered by Sea Education Association, the Central Falls native, together with other students with a variety of academic interests, is conducting guided field research at sea sailing through the Lesser Antilles to St. Croix, US Virgin Islands.

Q: Kelsey, Congratulations!  Can you tell us more about what this means?  When did you apply, and how did you find out you had won?

A: Thanks!  It was a big surprise for me since it’s so competitive.  The Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) means that I have my own funding for graduate school so I can focus on my research.

The National Maritime Historical Society presented Sea Education Association with the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Maritime Education at an awards dinner held Thursday, Oct, 25th at the New York Yacht Club.

SEA in the NEWS
National Geographic
Oct. 10, 2018
Beach clean-up study shows global scope of plastic pollution

SEA Professor of Oceanography Jan Witting recently completed his 5th research expedition to the remote Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) with SEA Semester class S-281, Protecting the Phoenix Islands. As a member of PIPA’s Scientific Advisory Committee, he will be contributing data collected on his voyages at a meeting of the PIPA Trust later this month.

Q: Jan, can you begin by briefly telling us more about both PIPA’s Scientific Advisory Committee and the PIPA Trust.

A: When the Phoenix Islands Protected Area was established in 2006, it was by an act of Kiribati parliament. In that legal framework, the PIPA Conservation Trust has the task of guiding and governing the operation and future development of PIPA, working with a broad array of international partners. The Trust oversees the funds that have been raised to help compensate Kiribati for lost fishing license revenue. Under the Trust, the PIPA implementation office (PIO) is a body whose job it is to implement the Trust’s decisions on the ground. The Science Advisory Committee (SAC) serves to inform both the PIO and the Trust to advise them of the current scientific understanding of a broad array of topics relevant to managing the ecosystems within PIPA. Members of the SAC come from many different disciplines and backgrounds, and some of us are involved in active research programs within PIPA.