Blue Endeavors Story from Vince Smith on Vimeo.

Blue Endeavors: Underwater Science, High School Students, & Ocean Conservation with Quantifiable Results

Motivated high school ocean advocates learn research diving before completing projects like restoring coral reefs & applying technology to study giant mantas.

The Problem

The world’s oceans are facing many problems from ocean temperatures rising and acidification to micoplastics and overfishing. Many people are not connected to the ocean enough to care, are not aware of the challenges, do not know how to make a difference, or are simply overwhelmed into inaction. This is the problem Blue Endeavors is addressing by connecting everyone, especially high school students, to the ocean so they make the small changes in their lives that as a whole will make a difference. Along the way we identify, train and mentor the next generation of leaders in this field.

"EVEN IF YOU NEVER HAVE THE CHANCE TO SEE OR TOUCH THE OCEAN, THE OCEAN TOUCHES YOU WITH EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE, EVERY DROP OF WATER YOU DRINK, EVERY BITE YOU CONSUME. EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE IS INEXTRICABLY CONNECTED TO AND UTTERLY DEPENDENT UPON THE EXISTENCE OF THE SEA."- DR. SYLVIA EARLE

The Solution

Blue Endeavors has trained more than 300 high school students in research scuba diving over the past five years, and have been working with these students on real world projects like coral reef restoration where we grew a new reef by attaching rehabilitated staghorn coral from nurseries we cleaned and populated. We are also completing underwater survey work and creating a new database using facial recognition software for biologists studying giant mantas.

Thus far, we have run this program in relatively affluent private schools (with the participation of some subsidized individuals). Our proposed project would bring this successful program to a more economically and ethnically diverse population. We will establish partnerships with new public high school and funds would support students with an economic need.

The partnership between Blue Endeavors and a high school draws on each organization’s strengths and results in a program that has many elements in common with project-based learning in an engaging and substantial STEM program. The program also integrates research scuba diving techniques and emphasizes conservation-focused scientific research from the very beginning of the students’ diving journey. The program also instructs students in the importance of protecting the natural world, which students come to appreciate on a new level through intellectual work and direct experience. Many former students have followed through on their environmental values in a myriad of ways, including further participation with Blue Endeavor's conservation-focused research diving.