Exploring one of the last coral wildernesses on Earth, Annabel Spranger ¡®19 is spending eight weeks on a ship in the Pacific Ocean.

She is participating in a SEA (Sea Education Association) Semester program focusing on the Phoenix Islands. While she’s on board, Annabel will be working with a small group of student researchers, examining the impacts of El Ni?o, contributing data to inform marine conservation policy, studying oceanography of tropical oceans, and collecting baseline data to assess impacts of climate change.

According to the SEA Semester press release, the program is called Protecting the Phoenix Islands (PIPA). Students will collect samples from the marine environment to assess the effects of climate change, including coral bleaching. By providing real-time data, student projects will compose a picture of the state of the ocean for the benefit of the PIPA management office in Kiribati.

¡°The program began June 11 at SEA Semester¡¯s campus in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, where the students completed preparatory coursework and developed their own research projects in ocean science and conservation policy.

¡°Last week, the class began a five-week sailing voyage as active crewmembers and scientists aboard the SSV Robert C. Seamans, owned and operated by Sea Education Association. This 134-foot brigantine is the most sophisticated oceanographic research/sailing school vessel ever built in the United States.

¡°From Honolulu, Hawaii, they are sailing approximately 2,000 nautical miles across open ocean to the Phoenix Islands Protected Area where they will spend three weeks conducting their research. The expedition ends in American Samoa on August 13.

¡°According to Dr. Paul Joyce, SEA Dean, ¡®PIPA is one very few regions on Earth where scientists can study an intact ecosystem and its response to climate change. At SEA, we¡¯re therefore extremely grateful to have the opportunity once again to work with the government of Kiribati and with our scientific partners to study this extremely isolated and important island nation, which can serve as a climate change benchmark on a global scale.¡¯¡±