Teacher at Sea Kicks off the Year Early with January Marine Mammal Survey

As we embark on our 35th year of Teacher at Sea, we seized a unique opportunity to send a teacher to sea in January!

Kiersten Newtoff, a biology professor at Montgomery College in Maryland, was originally selected to sail in 2020. In the summer of 2023, Kiersten did get the chance to tour a NOAA Fisheries lab and attend a ship Change of Command ceremony. But cruise disruptions meant she never left port. Finally, this winter, she was on sabbatical from her teaching position and available for another try. We are thrilled that she left port as scheduled on Monday, January 6, aboard NOAA Ship Pisces for an Atlantic marine mammal survey .

Admittedly, the winter weather hasn't been the most welcoming. "Other than a fishing boat for a couple hours, I've never been in a ship this large, for this long, out in the open ocean," Kiersten wrote in her first post from sea. "This is definitely a new adventure and really putting me to the test with the rough waters." Fortunately, her prescription seasickness medicine has been working well-"so wonderful, in fact," she decided to write a poem singing its praises .

Over the course of the 24-day mission, Kiersten is rotating through the four scientific teams on board:

Why study plankton on a marine mammal survey? "Identifying and quantifying the abundance of zooplankton helps us to understand the health of the food chain," she explains. "If we wish to protect the 'cute' species, we need to protect their food, too!"

For each team, Kiersten is writing a blog post with science explainers, crewmember interviews, and career advice for students. (And poems.) She has also featured the steward , IT , and deck crews. "If the kitchen is the soul of the ship, the deck crew is the heart," Kiersten explains. "Without the deck crew, we could not run the science missions because they run all of the equipment (cranes, winches, etc.) and provide deck support 24/7."

This spring, Kiersten plans to deliver presentations and supporting material on NOAA career opportunities. "I look forward to creating data driven lessons for my students," she writes. "Our world is changing, and if we are to do something about it, we need to understand it."