Programs Blog

Monday September 23, 2024

Location: Sea Education Association campus, Woods Hole, MA

Weather: 63°, cold, windy, cloudy fall

Today I write from my bunk in B house. I stare up at the names of previous students every night wishing me goodnight and marking their stamp in SEA history. Soon my name may be on my ceiling before our two last weeks on land run out. I am here to tell you some of my favorite things so far and the beginnings of my research project that I will collect data for on board the Robert C. Seamans. 

First, my name is Anika StanWiens. I was born and raised in Boise, Idaho with a short two-year detour living in Singapore. I am currently a third-year student at the University of San Diego, and marine ecology is the subject I have chosen to dedicate my life to. Although I miss my sunny, perpetual 75˚ weather and my campus that I call home, which elegantly sits on the top of a hill, the East Coast has started to grow on me. Woods Hole with its transitioning fall colors, winding roads, and hidden little bike paths leading all the way to the beach has kept me entertained in the first few weeks of this wild semester. And finally after a big month of extensive class days, insanely long grocery store shopping trips, and chaotically huge pans of food for 8 people, I feel that I can willingly call these people my friends. 

In preparation for boarding our ship I have compiled some of my own thoughts for everyone reading to understand just a little bit more about what I and all of my classmates have actually signed up for. Note: I’m just now internalizing that I will be quite literally in the middle of the Pacific Ocean island-hopping for a month and a half. About a week or so ago we had the chance to tour the Seamans’ sister ship named the Corwith Cramer when it docked in downtown Woods Hole. Walking through the dimly lit, tight corridors and seeing the crew members’ belongings all set up and decorated in each of their little bunks, it felt so real. I too will be sticking up photos on my bunk from a photo album my dad sent me and building a routine. I came prepared with the crafts side of things to fill my microscopic amount of free time. In my backpack you will find tape, watercolor paint, books, knitting supplies (which I’ve only recently decided to start), and most importantly chocolate bars to sustain my cravings. This last week in Nautical Science we started celestial navigation, which let me say is so much math (elementary subtraction and addition on steroids). I started this journey nervous about this unit specifically because I didn’t know where any stars/constellations but the Big Dipper was…in the Northern Hemisphere. I just learned that we won’t even be able to see the Big Dipper on our cruise track. I have so much to still learn, and I continue to think more about the boat every day and how our classes right now will all directly apply to sailing and life at sea. 

On the more academic side of things, I want to explain a little bit about the research that I will be doing in the weeks to come. In our “Oceans and Global Carbon Cycle” class this past week, we were tasked with coming up with a draft research question and writing a short outline to jump start our paper writing process. I originally was interested in analyzing how seawater physical properties such as salinity, temperature, pH…etc affected viral abundance. Unfortunately I was delivered the news that a dye I needed to stain viruses under a microscope in our ship’s lab wasn’t able to be delivered in time before we are on a flight to Fiji. So, I transitioned to another interest and jumped ship to work with some lovely A house people, Emma and Isabella. We are attempting to examine how nutrient availability (phosphate and nitrate) can affect plankton populations, possibly also looking at deepwater currents. As it’s still early in the research process this may as well be way too complicated, so we will see where the waves take us. 

For now, we are all preparing ourselves to finish up our last assignments and begin our incredible journey. The next time I write will be from the ship!