SoCo Highlight: Sophomores set sail in Monterey Bay

Like navigating the ocean, piloting a three-week Sophomore School (SoCo) class centered round engaged on a ship may be unpredictable and tumultuous. Ample alternative exists for plans to vary — particularly when the ship isn’t there.

The Western Flyer, a historic ship famed to be used by John Steinbeck within the Forties, was anticipated to reach in Monterey Bay in July. However two months later, in early September, it remained docked in Seattle for upkeep. 

For contributors within the SoCo class in Monterey Bay (OCEANS 10SC) — 11 college students, two Sophomore School Advisors and their professor — this meant a last-minute improvisation. Discovering themselves with neither a ship nor its devices, which might have included a water column profiler and a sonar unit, the group took a detour to Dwelling Depot and obtained artful onboard the whale-watching boat the New Horizons as a substitute.

The course, which ran from Sept. 4 to Sept. 22, was led by professor of oceans William Gilly, whose analysis contains the chromatophores and escape responses of squids on the Hopkins Marine Station. 

Gilly mentioned that he had anticipated last-minute spontaneity as a result of nature of the course.

“You may’t simply depend on having lovely, sunny, calm climate,” Gilly mentioned. “I believe all of us gained an excellent understanding of how troublesome it’s to do work at sea, how difficult it’s … however I really imagine that uncertainty is what drives exploration.”

The interdisciplinary course included classes in regards to the advanced historical past of Monterey Bay, discussions in regards to the space’s wealthy and numerous marine biology and a area journey to the house of famend Carmel poet Robinson Jeffers. On board the New Horizons, college students participated in hands-on actions, together with whale watching, photographing birds and fishing for their very own dinner.

College students additionally created closing tasks primarily based on the course materials and their very own tutorial pursuits, which ranged from administration science and engineering to worldwide relations. 

After repeatedly observing a sea lion violently beating a sunfish on the floor of the water, Killian Sullivan ’26, a administration science main, selected to analysis the phenomenon additional for his closing mission. Utilizing a remotely operated car (ROV) to evaluate the scenario from underwater, Sullivan was capable of establish the phenomenon as a feeding sample during which the ocean lion would beat the sunfish to dying, a course of necessitated by the fish’s in any other case impenetrable pores and skin. 

“They’ll discover a sunfish, tear the fins off and go away it on the floor,” Sullivan mentioned. “Then they’ll go hunt, and in the event that they discover nothing higher, they’ll come again to the sunfish.”

For her closing mission, Dani Gonzalez-Gaubeka ’26, a potential worldwide relations main, selected to analysis the geographical historical past of Chinese language fishing villages in Monterey Bay. Drawing data from images and paperwork, Dani created a map of the area encompassing the Hopkins campus, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and elements of town.

“Maps inform such fascinating tales, not solely in regards to the land that they signify but additionally about who makes these maps, what biases affect them, what’s proven and what isn’t proven,” Gonzalez-Gaubeka mentioned. “I actually loved with the ability to compile the tutorial and visible data I’d gotten right into a closing product.”

College students additionally fashioned a robust sense of camaraderie throughout the small class, a core tenet of this system’s design. Sophomore School Advisor Dylan Hyun ’24 recounted the receptive and compassionate nature he witnessed whereas serving to lead the journey.

“It was actually nice to see the sorts of conversations that folks would have outdoors of sophistication time that had been associated to the course materials, and likewise simply the friendliness and bond that fashioned simply by advantage of being caught on a ship collectively,” Hyun mentioned.