Dr. Kara Lavender Law, SEA Research Professor of Oceanography, will testify about ocean plastics pollution before the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works on Wednesday, Sept. 26th, beginning at 10 am.

In the fall of 2019, SEA Semester will launch a new program called Climate and Society in New Zealand. According to the course description, this new semester “takes a human-centered approach to climate change informed by the humanities and social sciences, and explores possibilities found within social and political institutions, economic markets, cultural practices, and the creative forces of art, literature, and design.”  Dr. Jeff Wescott, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, explains…

Q: Why was there a need for this program?

A: Recently, we met with faculty from several of our sending institutions to discuss new directions for SEA program offerings. They described the broad interest in climate change across social sciences and humanities majors. We already have an excellent SEA Semester program with a climate change focus, called Oceans and Climate. But that program is geared toward science majors. Our discussions with external advisors, and our own internal deliberations, led us to develop a new program that appeals to non-science majors.

SEA in the NEWS
Watching the Phoenix Rise - Debriefing Stage
Nat Geo Open Explorer
By Jacob Jaskiel

For a couple of weeks now, I’ve had the opportunity to reflect upon what we just experienced and accomplished on this wildly successful expedition through the Phoenix Islands Protected Area. Our cohort of 19 students and 15 scientists and crew sailed the Robert C. Seamans over 3,500 nautical miles while contributing to a dataset that now spans five years of oceanographic, biological, and chemical data. We conducted 46 Hydrocasts and 96 plankton net tows.

Did you shoot awesome video footage while you were at SEA?  Then enter the SEA Video Contest!  We’re looking for videos, less than 60 seconds in length, that capture what’s special about SEA Semester.  The videos can be about anything: our ships, the program you participated in, your shipmates, life at sea, charismatic megafauna, the stars, your favorite port stop… it’s up to you!

Winners will receive prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place, plus, of course, everlasting glory.

But you can’t win unless you enter!

Yoana Guzman, a student in the Woods Hole Partnership Education Program (PEP), had never been on - nor even near - the ocean.

“Home to me is mostly desert,” said the Cal State, Chico student who’s pursuing a double major in electrical engineering and physics. “This was my first time near a large body of water.”

It was also the first time that a voyage aboard the SSV Corwith Cramer, operating out of Woods Hole this summer, was incorporated into PEP.  During their first week of classes, PEP students boarded the Cramer at Dyers Dock and embarked on a four-day cruise through Vineyard Sound and Buzzards Bay.

Marty Schwarz graduated from Carleton College in 2014 with a degree in physics and is an alumnus of SEA Semester, S-239 (Sustainability in Polynesian Island Cultures & Ecosystems).  Last summer, Marty served as an assistant engineer for the SSV Corwith Cramer Major Maintenance Period in Belfast, Maine. He recently was awarded a Fulbright grant.

Q:  Please tell us about your grant, and what’s you’ll be doing (and when).

A: The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government, and is designed to build lasting connections between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.

SEA Semester alumnus Michael Jacobson (W-72), the recipient of the 2018 Armin E. Elsaesser III Fellowship award, recently traveled to southern Taiwan to document the indigenous Tao people’s traditional boat building and fishing culture.

I went to Taiwan and Orchid Island to learn about a tribal fishing boat and I came back deeply appreciative about how small the world is, how generous and wonderful people are, and a sense of awe for the indigenous people of Taiwan.

SEA Semester in the News
‘We’re All In This Together,’ Astronaut Tells SEA Students In Live Downlink
Falmouth Enterprise

A group of high school students and college interns enrolled in educational research programs at the Sea Education Association in Woods Hole had the opportunity to speak live to astronaut Richard R. Arnold II as he orbited the earth in the International Space Station on Friday afternoon, July 13.

SEA in the News
Students from Ohio, Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts to Call Space Station
NASA Media Advisory

Next week astronauts aboard the International Space Station will host several downlinks as part of NASA’s Year of Education on Station. All of the 20-minute, Earth-to-space calls will air live on NASA Television and the agency’s website.

A model of the R/V Westward, built by SEA Captain Carl Chase in 1980, has been restored and returned to the Woods Hole campus.

The model was built as a training tool to teach SEA Semester students about sail setting and striking and was used in class for many years.  Now Carl has completed the model’s “38-year refit” on the same workbench in his shop where he originally built it!