It’s crazy what a difference 12 hours makes. Last night when C Watch took the deck, menacing clouds loomed, lightening flashed and the engine roared as we motor-sailed into yet another squall. Gathering today for our pre-afternoon-watch-meeting, we searched in vain for a patch of shade in which to hide. We gybe, heave-to, set and strike sails on most watches.

SEA Research Professor of Oceanography Kara Lavender Law is the lead author of a research article published today in Science Advances. The article, “The United States’ contribution of plastic waste to land and ocean,” reveals that the exportation of plastic waste abroad has masked the actual U.S. contribution to the plastic pollution crisis, and that the United States is actually a top source of plastic pollution in coastal environments.

Onjalé Scott Price, acting director of this past summer’s Woods Hole Partnership Education Program (PEP), along with co-authors Kelly Luis, André Price, SEA Assistant Professor of Oceanography Ben Harden, Joniqua Howard, Luis Valentin, George Liles, and Ambrose Jearld, Jr., have published a report on the program, with lessons learned for other organizations seeking to adapt summer internships for virtual delivery. The paper, “Same Program Different Delivery: Adapting the Woods Hole Partnership Education Program for a Virtual Era,” was published today in the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) Bulletin.

Dr. Skylar Bayer, SEA Semester S-209, starts work this fall as a tenure track assistant professor of biology and aquaculture at Roger Williams University.  She says she’s very excited to do marine research, work with undergraduates, and do extension work in the community.

After four years as Board Chair of Sea Education Association, Dr. Richard Cost passed the gavel to Dr. Jessica McWade at the SEA Annual Meeting, held on Zoom on Sunday, June 28th.

July 2, 2020

This is SEA’s second statement on Black Lives Matter.  We listened to many alumni and staff who told us that our first statement failed to rise to the level of the crisis engulfing our nation. Thank you to those who reached out for helping us do better.

In response to travel restrictions and health guidelines related to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sea Education Association (SEA) has revised fall programs, shifting all operations to coastal U.S. Atlantic waters aboard our flagship vessel, the SSV Corwith Cramer with no international travel or port stops required.

SEA Semester Assistant Scientist Emily Burke, the recipient of the 2020 Armin E. Elsaesser III Fellowship Award, has begun exploring the rugged coastline of Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula for her Elsaesser project, “Canvas and Ice: A Sailing Study of Alaska’s Changing Fjords.” She has created a website and will soon begin posting updates.  We encourage you to follow her progress!

When they visited the island of Kanton in the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) two summers ago, SEA Semester students of Class S-281 quickly became friends with the schoolchildren there, playing frisbee and soccer after dinner, dancing, and taking pictures.

Normally, at this time of the year, SEA’s campus would be welcoming the incoming class of college students enrolled in the Woods Hole Partnership Education Program, or PEP, for short. But this summer is different.  Instead of welcoming students in person, on Monday afternoon, they received a warm welcome via Zoom!