A Marine Science Adventure Across the Indian Ocean

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Integrative Biology Faculty and Staff Publications Integrative Biology

2016

An Experiment in Graduate Education: A Marine Science Adventure across the Indian Ocean

Vicki Buchsbaum Pearse Stanford University

John C. Ogden University of South Florida, [email protected]

Sharon J. Proctor Vancouver Aquarium

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Scholar Commons Citation Buchsbaum Pearse, Vicki; Ogden, John C.; and Proctor, Sharon J., "An Experiment in Graduate Education: A Marine Science Adventure across the Indian Ocean" (2016). Integrative Biology Faculty and Staff Publications. 373. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/bin_facpub/373

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CITATION Pearse, V.B., J.C. Ogden, and S.J. Proctor. 2016. An experiment in graduate education: A marine science adventure across the Indian Ocean. Oceanography 29(1):90–97, http://dx.doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2016.02.

DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2016.02

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An Experiment in Graduate Education A MARINE SCIENCE ADVENTURE ACROSS THE INDIAN OCEAN

By Vicki Buchsbaum Pearse, John C. Ogden, and Sharon J. Proctor

R/V Te Vega riding at anchor at Mahé Island, Seychelles Islands. Photo courtesy of Richard Mariscal

Port Victoria at Mahé Island in the Seychelles, one of the prettiest ports in the world. These massive islands are granitic and continental in ori- gin. Photo courtesy of Richard Mariscal

90 Oceanography | Vol.29, No.1 ABSTRACT. In the fall of 1964, Stanford University’s R/V Te Vega Cruise 5 crossed manned the ship, and the faculty mem- the equatorial Indian Ocean from Mombasa to Singapore, one of many ships bers varied with the cruise. participating in the International Indian Ocean Expedition. The cruise achieved The Cruise 5 faculty consisted two goals: (1) it provided hands-on oceanography training for graduate students in of Donald Abbott, chief scientist marine sciences, and (2) it documented the deep scattering layers of the Indian Ocean, (Stanford University), Richard Bovbjerg only poorly known at the time. Taking place on the other side of the globe from the (University of Iowa), and Margaret United States, the cruise also exposed students to cultural and personal experiences Bradbury (San Francisco State College). that shaped their lives and professions. It demonstrated the importance of experiential Richard Mariscal, having participated learning for future ocean scientists. in Cruise 1, served as teaching assis- tant, and Wesley Fielding was the ship’s EMBARKING ON THE funded Stanford’s request for converting physician. The students, mostly from EXPERIMENT a ship into an oceanographic vessel, for its Stanford, a few from other universi- In 1964, Abraham Maslow defined the maintenance, and for support of research ties (University of Hawaii; University concept of “peak experience” as a fleet- on board. The schooner Te Vega came of Alabama; University of California, ing, euphoric, and mystical moment. to be that ship. The conversion included Berkeley; Northern Illinois University), More broadly interpreted, and without a adding a deckhouse that housed the lab- were Richard Barber, Vicki Buchsbaum trace of the mystical, a peak experience oratory, with space for microscopy and (Pearse), Jay Christofferson, Jeanne can occupy a far more sustained interval. the ship’s sonar equipment, both essential Christofferson, Merrill McPhearson, It can be joyous and exciting, inspired by for Cruise 5’s research objective: to study John Ogden, Sharon Proctor, Paul exposure to scientific knowledge, creative the deep scattering layers (DSL) in the Stromborg Jr., Leighton Taylor Jr., John work, and the overwhelming beauty of Indian Ocean. The ship served to educate Wourms, and Michael Wynne. The nature (Privette, 1983). Stanford graduate students from 1963 to summary cruise report is available at Such were the elements underly- 1968 on roughly 20 cruises, with the stu- http://tevega.stanford.edu/c5.htm. ing the experience of the graduate students receiving credit for a college quarter. Our goal here is to highlight the ben- dents who boarded Stanford University’s In addition to achieving research goals, efits of field research and experiential R/V Te Vega in Mombasa, Kenya, for all Te Vega cruises were intended to pro- learning for young scientists. We briefly Cruise 5 in the fall of 1964. The voy- vide hands-on training for graduate stu- describe Cruise 5’s DSL research and age lasted 10 weeks, and the ship’s dents in marine sciences, an introduction try to capture the nature of the experi- track spanned the Indian Ocean from to the study and methods of biologi- ence and the long-term influences on Mombasa to Singapore, with significant cal oceanography. A professional crew our lives and careers. ports of call at the Seychelles, Maldives, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and the Phi Phi Islands of southern Thailand. For us young marine scientists, Te Vega Cruise 5 would change our lives and last throughout our careers, leaving such strong impressions that some 50 years later, many of us, and dozens of other Te Vega participants, would travel long distances to gather together and exchange outcomes and memories. At its very first meeting in 1957, the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research identified the Indian Ocean as an area needing research, and in 1959, it launched the International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE). As the United States was keen to be represented, money was forthcoming, and the National Science Foundation (NSF) was tasked with pro- viding federal support for participa- The ship’s track from Mombasa to Singapore, with 22 station numbers. The inset tion in the IIOE. In spring of 1961, NSF shows a section profile of the cruise track. From Bradbury et al. (1971)

Oceanography | March 2016 91 THE CRUISE 5 EXPERIENCE dense bands, but a diversity of plank- gear functioned reasonably well and we Te Vega’s Cruise 5 was an unforgettable tonic invertebrates was associated with encountered no difficulties exceeding experience for both students and fac- them. The Navy was interested because our limited repair capabilities. ulty. Whether we were trawling the DSL, it had become clear during WWII that examining collected specimens, explor- a submarine could mask its movements Mombasa to Seychelles ing tropical islands, sailing the open below the DSL. Don Abbott designed the Cruise 5 left Mombasa, Kenya, in the ocean, or just taking breaks, there was DSL project based on a research course at early afternoon of October 5, 1964. Five always something new to discover. Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Station that miles (8 km) out, the skipper ordered Living arrangements were close and concentrated on a single broad research the sails raised, and the schooner sailed cozy. The nine male students slept in the topic or a particular organism, with the for the rest of the afternoon with engines “bullpen,” a large cabin full of bunk beds students taking on individual pieces of turned off. It was a marvelous beginning! beneath the afterdeck. The four women the whole project. “Since the cruise was Or it should have been. The sea soon (three students and a faculty member) to cover over 5000 nautical miles of open became quite rough. And so, after three were assigned two tiny nearby cabins, sea,” Don wrote, “plans were made in hours, most of those aboard were queasy each with a pair of bunk beds. The male advance to organize the major work of or downright seasick, stretched out on faculty and ship’s physician occupied two the ship around a community-type eco- the deck or down below in their bunks. other small cabins off the same hallway. logical study of the mesopelagic or DSL This, despite all having taken anti-seasick The 16-member crew was essentially a biota.” Our long, open-ocean cruise track pills. It was several days before everyone community apart. They had their own provided an ideal opportunity to study was back in top form. Meanwhile, fac- work to do, separate meal times, and their the DSL in a relatively unknown region. ulty and students quickly discovered the own quarters in the bow. Don assembled a large library of rele- cook’s sense of humor. First day out, he Our meals were served at 7:00 a.m., vant references, ensured we had adequate served greasy pork chops and cauliflower. 12:00 p.m., and 5:00 p.m. in the central equipment, and wrote a draft research The smell was nauseating, especially to salon, which also functioned as a class- outline. As the cruise began, he guided us those who could keep down only corn room and research space. Following an toward making this outline our own. flakes and milk. old sailing tradition, “dinner” was at In many ways, we were remarkably Despite lingering seasickness, we at noon. We ate at a long gimbaled table. lucky. We had two depth sounders, each once began a series of sonar and trawl sta- The food was ample and generally good. recording on long rolls of thermal paper. tions that continued almost daily, stand- On a special occasion, however, it could The primary unit was a Simrad sonar ing assigned watches and rousing addi- be splendid! But, as this was a Stanford with a stable power supply that was set tional help when there was difficult work University “campus,” Te Vega was a dry to record the upper 1,500 m. The backup such as pulling in the trawl. On deck, ship; no alcohol was allowed on board. was a Simrad echo sounder, which was the trawl bucket was emptied into plas- less useful because it lacked a power sup- tic basins and large organisms were taken The Research Concept ply, so the fluctuations of the ship’s gen- out and photographed. The animals were Organizing the scientific program for erators affected the record. The rolls of sorted to major groups (siphonophores, Cruise 5 was a challenge for Don Abbott. paper from these sonar units were our molluscs, crustaceans, chaetognaths, We would cross three huge ocean basins only means of visualizing the DSL and urochordates, and fishes), and they were as deep as 4,000 m, and we would spend targeting particular features with our assigned to “specialists” in our party. long periods far from land. Furthermore, trawls. Even more risky, we had only This was exciting work—you could most of the faculty had limited experi- one Tucker trawl, and it lacked an open- never predict what would be in the trawl ence in biological oceanography, and the ing and closing feature to limit collecting when it arrived on deck. Further sorting, graduate students virtually none. Don to particular depths. We partially com- however, was another, more tedious story. had a former student at the US Naval pensated by shooting the trawl rapidly Anyone who has tackled microscopy Postgraduate School in Monterey, Eric and vertically to depth and then retriev- at sea, on specimens sloshing back and Barham, who had done his PhD thesis ing it vertically and rapidly. We deter- forth with every pitch and roll of the ship, on the deep scattering layer—the acous- mined the depth of the net from the will relate to our need for frequent breaks. tically dense layer of organisms charac- deck by the length of wire out and its One of our group composed a little ditty teristic of the deep ocean. The DSL was angle at the sheave as measured with a honoring this task: Micro-penaeids, those known to migrate toward the surface at simple wire clinometer. We made some dirty little nippers, I see them in my sort- night and return to the depths with dawn. modifications to the trawl as we went ing glass and crush them with my clippers. Fishes with gas-filled swim bladders were along, including adding a flow meter. We made good use of our shipboard thought to be the basis of the sonically Fortunately, this relatively primitive library of taxonomic reference works.

92 Oceanography | Vol.29, No.1 For example, key references for the mid- sextant (invented in the eighteenth cen- sea, we arrived at Port Victoria on Mahé water crustaceans were a series of folio- tury). No movies on laptops, no music on in the Seychelles, then a British colony sized tomes published as long as ago as iPods, no email or Internet, indeed, no occupying a series of granitic, continen- 1852 with amazingly intricate black- computers of any kind. Oh, well, we did tal islands. We moored at the end of the and-white line drawings and diagrams have some music, from a tape player in port’s Long Pier, where there were many of many species. the salon. Favorite student pastimes were local sailing vessels that carried bananas, Our job was to describe and correlate darts (made especially challenging by coconuts, and other goods throughout the DSL’s content and how it moved over the ship’s roll); playing bridge, casino, or the archipelago. We were the only foreign time and depth as revealed by measuring cribbage; writing in diaries; or just read- ship to call in quite a long time, and so the blurry brown bands on the thermal ing, talking, loafing on deck, or sitting on Te Vega was met by Madame Mancham, paper of the echo sounder. the ship’s bowsprit, watching flying fish. half French, half Greek, the large and jolly As time went on, it was clear that a And when the sails were up, the bow of wife of a wealthy beer and liquor importer. classification of the sonically dense bands the rocking and rolling ship offered a wet The couple welcomed us with a party in on the echo sounder was needed: some roller-coaster ride. their beautiful home, together with other features were consistently present while What we did have was more time to guests. Their son James Mancham, then others appeared only at certain times of connect person to person and to watch in law school in England, would become day or at particular depths or locations. the world go by. The ocean’s surface was the first President of the Republic of the The very dense bands were called “layers” a continual show. Like the Grand Canyon Seychelles in 1976. and were further defined by depth in Arizona, it changed hues and moods The island’s rocky cliffs and rugged and by time of day. Lighter traces were as each day progressed. It was some- volcanic mountains covered with lush called “curtains” and similarly distin- times the gaudiest blue imaginable. Then, greenery, the botanical garden with its guished. We recognized that this classifi- it would gradually soften to a cooler hue rich array of local plants, and Seychelles cation was a matter of convenience, but and turn grayish. In the late afternoon, giant tortoises, flying foxes, and black it helped to bring order into the search it might take on a metallic tint—turning parrots all piqued our interest in tropi- for patterns correlating the sonic traces dark with silvery highlights at sunset. cal biology. A later highlight was a trip to with our trawl hauls. Evenings often found students and Praslin Island, home of the endemic black Indeed, we had plenty of work to keep faculty sitting on the deck, watching parrot and coco de mer or sea coconut us occupied. But being cut off from fam- brilliantly luminescent ily and friends was a bit hard. With luck, spots in the water. At there might be mail from home at the night, depending on the islands where the ship called. The sole tack, the ship’s lower other connection was radio—“Voice ports might be below of America” kept us updated on the US the surface, offering a presidential election, Goldwater versus spectacular underwater Johnson. Can today’s oceanographers light show, with sparkles even imagine being so disconnected? No and skeins of light, and satellites, no GPS, none of the sophisti- occasional large flashes cated navigation that guides ships now. in the distance. Our crew navigated by charts and a After about a week at

[above] A deckhouse contained a compact lab space with microscopes for examining plankton from the trawls; gimbaled tanks occasionally accommodated fishes. Photo courtesy of John Ogden

[left] Tabulating data from the DSL records: Dick Barber, Sharon Proctor, and Don Abbott, analyzing and dis- cussing the DSL traces. The darkest tracing at the top is the surface echo. Below this are the bands of crea- tures whose bodies reflect the sound waves at different depths. Cruise participants called the darker bands “layers” and the lighter ones “curtains.”

Oceanography | March 2016 93 (both species now listed as threatened). broke loose. As if this weren’t enough, a sultan, and the island and dwellings, while Our two-week stay in the Seychelles loud burst of sound announced release poor, were meticulously maintained— enabled us to do individual projects. of a self-inflating lifeboat. The ship hung gleaming white, as many buildings and Early on, we collected fishes near Sainte there, heeled over—until the main- walls were made of coral blocks and the Anne Island in Cascade Bay by distribut- sail and a smaller sail suddenly blew out roads of neatly swept coral sand. The res- ing rotenone from plastic squeeze-bottles with more explosions of sound, and the idents were eager for foreign currency so over an area of coral reef. For a while, the schooner heaved upright. they could buy international goods, and deck of Te Vega was crowded with pails The captain was determined to retrieve our ship provided a ready source. All and basins as we sorted and preserved the lifeboat. Students were ordered to kinds of things were thrust at us for sale. the collection for eventual shipment to stay below deck while the crew maneu- Several on board bought builders’ models the Smithsonian Institution. In addi- vered the schooner. Looking out through of the Maldivian doni, a graceful lateen- tion, Mariscal studied anemone fishes the portholes, we could see the boat’s rigged sailboat, or beautifully carved and Ogden damselfishes that appeared red light bobbing in the choppy waters. coconut-wood boat bailers, whose price to divide their coral habitat behaviorally, And every so often, lightning flashes rapidly inflated with the sudden demand. much like warblers in temperate forests. would illuminate it. With great difficulty, Malé’s friendly inhabitants were Wynne focused on collecting seaweeds, the crew finally recovered it. From this Muslims, and the women dressed in tra- and later described the new red algal point on, with the lifeboat perched atop ditional attire with long sleeves and long genus Rhodolachne from the Seychelles. the forward deckhouse like a graceless skirts. What it meant, of course, was that The Seychelles proved to be the tropical hat, Te Vega moved under engine power we visitors from North America stood paradise of everyone’s dreams. For many only, and our DSL research resumed with out dramatically, especially our women of us, these islands laid the foundation of little interruption. in short dresses. But the cultural dis- a lifelong fascination with the tropics and After another week at sea track- tance soon shrank. When Don pulled a firsthand appreciation of the risks now ing the DSL on the Simrad and work- out a Polaroid camera and presented the faced by the tropics, so exceptionally bio- ing the trawl, we arrived in Malé, in the instant prints to their subjects, the chil- diverse in their lands and waters. Maldive Islands. As in Mahé, Seychelles, dren’s excitement drew everyone together. we were the first foreign ship to call in a The small islands surrounding Malé Seychelles to Maldives long time. The Maldives were ruled by a were largely uninhabited except for a few One day, between the Seychelles and the Maldives, the water was too rough to trawl. The crew, however, chose to keep [right] Cruise 5 scientific party in the sails up. That evening, students and Singapore at the end of the trip. Left to right foreground: Richard faculty were in the salon reading, relax- Mariscal, Don Abbott, Jay ing, playing cards, talking. Suddenly, a Christofferson, Wes Fielding, squall threw the ship over, close to her Richard Bovbjerg, Leighton Taylor, Jeanne Christofferson, beam-ends, and the gimbaled table hit Vicki Buchsbaum (Pearse), someone’s knees, sending plates, cut- Margaret Bradbury, Sharon lery, and papers flying across the salon. Proctor. Behind: Mike Wynne, John Wourms, Richard Barber, There were crashing sounds above and Merrill McPhearson; above, below deck, as furniture and equipment John Ogden, Paul Stromborg.

[left] Diagram of scattering layers from a 37-hour long sonar recording in the Bay of Bengal. Vertical scale is exaggerated. Below is a curve representing light-intensity readings (measured in foot-candles) for the 37-hour period. To the right of the light-intensity graph, four triangles show the angle of elevation of the moon at four times during the second night. From Bradbury et al. (1971)

94 Oceanography | Vol.29, No.1 families guarding coconut trees and one a complete daily cycle of the DSL in leading from the sea surface to the high- with a primitive factory turning coconut one location in order to place our other est point. People climbed these primi- husks into fiber rope. Perhaps because observations within a daily context. Calm tive and dangerous structures to gather of the lack of disturbance, the surround- water was essential, as during the record- swallows’ nests for bird’s nest soup, a del- ing reefs were exceptional, the corals and ing, the main engine would be turned off icacy that we got a taste of a few days fishes even more beautiful than those in to minimize sonic disturbance. later when the ship stopped for two days the Seychelles. We took time to snorkel The sun was very hot, exaggerated by at Penang, Malaysia. and scuba dive on these reefs, and some of the sea’s mirror-like surface, and we went our best coral-reef photos are from here. snorkeling about the ship in the wonder- Phuket to Singapore fully transparent water ~4,000 m deep. As the end of the cruise approached, we Maldives to Ceylon We saw some of the gelatinous plank- used much of our final week to analyze and Compared to the first long legs of the ton intact for the first time, as in trawl discuss our data—or as much as we could cruise, we fairly jumped across the gap hauls they were torn to pieces by the net. before we left for home. The pressure to between the Maldives and Ceylon (now Particularly spectacular was a Venus’s bring our work to a satisfying conclusion Sri Lanka). On arrival in Colombo, the girdle (Cestum veneris), a meter-long played out in intense debate around the ship had some mechanical problems, and belt-shaped ctenophore, perfectly trans- salon table in those final days. A major while these were repaired, we set out to parent with glistening comb rows driv- issue was whether or not the DSL was a experience Ceylon. We shared Colombo ing its undulating movement through the “community” in the ecological sense. Was Harbor with freighters and other ships calm sea. A small oceanic white-tipped it a consistent association of organisms in from around the world, and the town shark (Charcharinus longimanus) showed space and time with a predictable trophic offered small shops selling goods of equal up, promptly took a baited hook, and was structure and commonality of behavior diversity. On a three-day bus tour of the hauled on board. Its stomach was empty. and interaction? Or were the organisms country, we passed huge tea plantations, At the end of the 37 hours, Don and of the DSL simply living within their indi- elephants dragging large logs to sawmills, the captain declared Thanksgiving, a vidual habitat requirements and moving and numerous ox carts. A highlight was day early, and the cook prepared a fab- independently? We understood that reso- a visit to Sigiriya, the site of an ancient ulous feast. Not only that, but bottles of lution of this question might not be pos- fortress palace atop a massive column of liquor and wine appeared from nowhere sible, as studies of midwater plankton rock rising nearly 200 m above the flat (remember, this was a “dry ship”), and were much like the proverbial blind men landscape. Each night was spent in a gov- everyone enjoyed a rollicking cocktail and the elephant, but it became important ernment guesthouse. hour before dinner. as passionate positions were taken. Don Such changes of pace during our land Underway again, Te Vega entered the Abbott calmly presided over the conten- segments contributed significantly to Andaman Sea, and after several days tious discussion and guided it with a gen- the cohesiveness of the research team anchored off Phuket, Thailand, a sleepy tle hand. Only later did we come to appre- and allowed us as individuals to be more fishing village with tiny shops and restau- ciate his “method” approach to teaching. effective during the intense periods at rants unaccustomed to visitors, at the As we proceeded at night down the sea, an important element of program head of a huge, muddy estuary. Strait of Malacca, alleged to be the world’s design for sea education involving cruises Close by in Maya Bay was Phi Phi Don, most dangerous waters on account of of long duration. then a virtually uninhabited island with piracy, our ship’s party became increas- a thriving coral reef. From there, we vis- ingly uneasy, a feeling heightened by a Ceylon to Phuket ited the vertical limestone karst islands patrolling British frigate. A large, sleek Repairs to the ship completed, we formed of towering, uplifted coral reef, schooner such as Te Vega could be a prime departed Colombo and headed toward some deeply undercut by wave action and target, and someone asked if there was a the Nicobar Islands and Thailand, con- eons of grazing by small intertidal gastro- gun on board—an idea that dismayed Don tinuing our DSL recordings and trawl pods. We passed through a narrow chan- even more than the possibility of pirates. hauls. About midway across the Bay of nel into the huge hollow center of one of But we got through without incident. Bengal, we stopped the ship and did a the islands. The echoes of bird calls in the Cruise 5 ended in Singapore on 37-hour continuous, high-resolution deep silence and twilight of this space, December 12, 1964. Everyone said their recording of the DSL during a period with the circle of sky overhead, were good-byes and left the schooner, knowing when the sea was flat calm. Although eerie and beautiful. On the tiny beach, they would never forget their incredible we had already made many recordings we found exotic shells, including those Te Vega experience. Among the souvenirs during the cruise, we were always mov- of chambered nautilus. Some islands had we took home, besides our memories, ing. We felt it was important to record a web-like scaffolding of bamboo poles were strips of the mainsail torn by the

Oceanography | March 2016 95 Indeed, the necessity to improvise and make do with what is available in itself provides a desirable stimulus and intellectual challenge to a competent and ener- getic group. Periodic interruption of effort on the main project for work on other an unrelated things is highly desirable, and all students should be encouraged to under- take small individual projects of their own, [above] Giant heteropod (a pelagic gastropod) and allowed time to work on them. taken in a trawl. The gelatinous body is nearly Working as a team on exciting research neutral in buoyancy, and the relatively small, thin shell (at top) adds little weight. Photo cour- was at the heart of our time on board. tesy of Richard Mariscal Through the hard work of Margaret Bradbury, the results of our DSL study were published, with all students and fac- infrastructure in Phuket and the sur- ulty sharing authorship (Bradbury et al., rounding islands as well as major parts of 1971). We were already a motivated coastal Sri Lanka. Coral bleaching driven group, enrolled in graduate programs, but by ocean warming has degraded many of we were at different stages in developing [above] Our gear was primitive. The depth of the the coral reefs along our track, and reef our personal research goals. Some of us net was estimated from the length of wire out fishes are in sharp decline. had already chosen research topics, while and its angle. Photo courtesy of John Ogden others were still broadly seeking a direc- THE DUAL GOALS OF CRUISE 5: tion. Certainly, all of us gained a deep storm, giant nuts of the coco de mer and EDUCATION AND RESEARCH appreciation for biological oceanography. seashells (including giant clams) from The two major goals of Cruise 5 were That said, it is still worth consider- the Seychelles, star sapphires and other (1) the education of graduate stu- ing the ultimate value of such an expen- stones from Ceylon, wooden jars and dents, and (2) research—in particu- sive program. It turns out that nearly all model boats from the Maldives, tin bowls lar, representing the United States in the of the Cruise 5 and other participants in from Phuket, and, of course, photographs International Indian Ocean Expedition. the Te Vega program pursued careers in (a published collection can be found Combining these goals in an extended marine science and education. And they in Mariscal, 2010). shipboard experience on the other side of all tell the same story: the integration of the planet was a bold experiment. onboard instruction with research and The Islands Today and Tomorrow Our chief scientist, Don Abbott, had the overall experience greatly influenced The islands we visited so many years ago practiced this approach in his teach- their lives and careers. The students and have changed dramatically. Expanding ing, and he extended it in his design of faculty lived intimately with the ocean human populations, development, and Cruise 5. The success of this experiment (and with each other) every day around airports bringing tourists have greatly remains an outstanding testament to the clock for close to three months. altered the towns, the coral reefs, the for- Don’s wisdom and thoughtful guidance. It was life changing. ests, and local wildlife. The Maldives, for We dedicate this account to him. He Specifically, several Cruise 5 students instance, are now a popular dive destina- wrote afterwards: emphasized tropical organisms and envi- tion, with a busy airport, high-rise con- The experiment of trying to organize ronments in their research careers, con- dominiums, and resorts lining the shore. the main work of the cruise around a sin- tributing significantly to knowledge of The formerly luxuriant reefs are damaged. gle broad and many-sided research proj- these relatively poorly known faunas, At the same time, forces larger than ect, planned and carried out cooperatively floras, and regions of the world. The new local development are at work. Rising by faculty and students…is recommended Te Vega program sought to educate grad- sea level will soon claim the Maldives in for future cruises… The ship and its gear uate students, but its influence reached spite of extensive armoring of the coast; proved adequate for the project, though by beyond the participants to the students with an average ground level elevation no means ideal. However, the intellectual they later taught, from kids to adults. of 1.5 m above sea level, this is among quality and enthusiasm of the students is a Te Vega students went on to become the lowest countries on Earth. The great much more important factor in the success Te Vega faculty or participated in ship- earthquake and tsunami of December of a project such as we undertook than the board education and research in other 2004 destroyed much of the tourism refinement for sophistication of the gear… programs on other ships. And they

96 Oceanography | Vol.29, No.1 applied in their teaching what they had that includes—besides general princi- what you know.” And you know deeply discovered about the value of hands-on ples of oceanography—literature, his- only what you have personally experi- experience in the field. For example, tory, marine conservation, navigation, enced. The central lesson is the impor- Jay Christofferson relates, “The biggest ship handling, and more. Interacting tance of experiential learning. impact of Te Vega was on my teaching, in with Te Vega alumni appears to be nudg- REFERENCES particular the importance of experiential ing it increasingly toward oceanography Bradbury, M.G., D.P. Abbott, R.V. Bovbjerg, learning.” He led students in marine biol- and marine science. R.N. Mariscal, W.C. Fielding, R.T. Barber, V.B. Pearse, S.J. Proctor, J.C. Ogden, J.P. Wourms, ogy projects in Jamaica and Belize, and Over a half-century later, the influ- and others. 1971. Studies on the fauna associ- they said it was a life-changing experience of the Te Vega program contin- ated with the deep scattering layers in the equatorial Indian Ocean, conducted on R/V Te Vega ence for them, too. ues to spread. (during October–November 1964). Pp. 409–452 in Proceedings of an International Symposium on Biological Sound Scattering in the Ocean. What Else Changed? LESSONS LEARNED G.B. Farquhar, ed., Department of the Navy MC Report 005. In today’s biological sciences, women are From the earliest days of sail, teachers and Mariscal, R.N. 2010. The International Indian Ocean a majority among graduate students, and parents have recognized the benefits of Expedition Te Vega Expeditions of Stanford University Cruise 5: East Africa to Singapore. the numbers of female faculty members an at-sea experience for educational and Published by the author. Maslow, A.H. 1964. Religions, Values, and Peak are growing. But in the 1960s, women personal growth. While research vessels Experiences. Ohio State University Press, were a small minority in biology, espe- at a number of institutions include grad- Columbus, Ohio, 123 pp. Privette, G. 1983. Peak experience, peak per- cially aboard ships. For Cruise 5, Abbott uate students in research at sea, Stanford’s formance and flow: A comparative analy- enlisted Bradbury as one of the faculty, Te Vega program was unusual in mix- sis of positive human experiences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 45:1,361–1,368, but only three of 12 graduate students ing graduate education in marine sci- http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.45.6.1361. were women. Although this ratio was ences with an extended shipboard expe- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS pioneering at the time, today’s women are rience. Today, prominent undergraduate Rolf Bolin at Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford far better represented in science. programs include Stanford at Sea, already University inspired and launched the Te Vega program, with others at the Station and with funding from According to Proctor, she gained mentioned, and Sea Semester, both affili- the National Science Foundation. Te Vega’s continu- aboard Te Vega “a strong permanent feel- ated with the Sea Education Association, ing influence is seen in the reunions, the library’s archives, and the current program in ocean educa- ing of self-confidence that has served me and Semester at Sea of the Institute for tion, Stanford at Sea. We are grateful to Ed Urban, for over 50 years.” She owes this, she says, Shipboard Education. In addition, many Executive Director of the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research, who contacted us in the pro- to the ship’s physician being a natural- other organizations and individuals offer cess of compiling historical information about the International Indian Ocean Expedition and sug- born psychologist; several crewmembers educational cruises to students in second- gested that the experience of Te Vega Cruise 5 and also confided in him. Another partici- ary school and college. Te Vega herself, its messages for graduate education in ocean sciences might be interesting to Oceanography mag- pant likewise mentioned the importance after being sold by Stanford in 1969, con- azine. Our thanks go also to Oceanography’s edi- of finding another sympathetic confidant tinued in education with the Flint School tor, Ellen Kappel, who embraced the concept and has helped us to see it through. We wish to acknowl- among the ship’s company during a diffi- and, from 1981 until the mid-1990s, with edge all our Cruise 5 shipmates, most particularly Richard Mariscal for his many photos of the adven- cult personal time. The confined, isolated the Landmark School, in a program that ture. And we owe a special debt to Michael Wynne shipboard environment, free of outside specialized in secondary students with for pulling the figures together. interference, can facilitate deeply mean- language-based learning disabilities. AUTHORS ingful interactions. An enterprise such as Stanford’s Vicki Buchsbaum Pearse ([email protected]), A further measure of the Te Vega pro- Te Vega program does not come cheap. It Library Specialist at Hopkins Marine Station Miller Library (Stanford University), was founding edi- gram’s lasting impact is the participants’ demands a huge amount of funding and a tor of the American Microscopical Society’s journal, Invertebrate Biology, and a research associate at the enthusiasm for three reunions held prodigious amount of work. We are asked, University of California Santa Cruz. John C. Ogden, decades later (in 2005, 2009, and 2013) at what was learned that could enlighten and Emeritus Professor of Integrative Biology at the University of South Florida, helped to build the Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove, motivate ocean science education today? West Indies Laboratory in St. Croix in the US Virgin California. Over 50 alumni representing We learned that field time makes us all Islands and was director of the Florida Institute of Oceanography. Sharon J. Proctor was Curator nearly all of the 20 cruises came together into advocates for environmental protec- of Education and Interpretation at the Vancouver from all over the country. They shared tion and conservation. We experience a Aquarium and later an independent science and tech- nology writer. All received PhDs in biological sciences with each other what the Te Vega meant to greatly heightened, lasting appreciation from Stanford University. their lives and careers and what they felt for natural beauty, a powerful realization ARTICLE CITATION they learned from it. At all three reunions, of what an incredible treasure our Earth Pearse, V.B., J.C. Ogden, and S.J. Proctor. 2016. the experience was shared with under- is. With multiple threats looming, never An experiment in graduate education: A marine science adventure across the Indian Ocean. graduates in the university’s current ship- has it been more vital to understand the Oceanography 29(1):90–97, http://dx.doi.org/10.5670/ board program, Stanford at Sea, which oceans than it is now. An African proverb oceanog.2016.02. offers a broad, maritime curriculum says: “You protect what you love. You love

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