Our Winter 2011 Session Begins!

It's Winter Break and the 23 students in our program are certainly not sleeping in!  We began the program with introductions, an overview of the program, and expectations.  All students were eager to learn about ocean-related environmental careers, which is the focus of this HGCI session.

We then boarded the bus to go to Pearl Harbor, Ford Island to be specific. It took a while to find, but we finally saw the ship Hi'ialakai, which is part of the NOAA fleet. NOAA stands for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.  We met officers Elliott and Vegar of H`iialakai who are in NOAA Corps, one of the seven uniformed branches of our federal government.

They took us all aboard the ship to get a feel for what their work and living conditions while at sea are like. Below is a decompression chamber that is used to save lives of crew members (or others at sea) who ascend too quickly from deep dives.

NOAA Corps addresses a number of issues including marine debris and oil spills.

We enjoyed hearing from Jasmine, a marine biologist. She does a lot of work in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument (Northwestern Hawaiian Islands). It's a fascinating world way out there where few humans but miillions of animals live, mostly underwater.

Marine debris is a HUGE problem at the Monument and all over the world. It was alarming to hear how many million tons of debris are collected every year, which is just a drop in the bucket, The debris coming from Japan due to the tsunami will challenge all of us in ways we've never experienced before.

Jasmine had us try writing on the waterproof paper. Very neat!

As we left the Hi`ialakai, we took our first (of many) group picture on the bridge to the boat.

We ended our day watching two films by NOAA that gave us more information on the NOAA Corps and the many different jobs and benefits that are available, as well as Hawaiian cultural connections to the Monument. What a full day!