Where in the world is Colby junior, “born and bred southerner” Michael Stephens? As a COOT leader, member of the Men’s lacrosse team, and the President of the Sportsman’s club, Michael definitely deserves the title “Campus Celebrity.” But for those of you who know Michael, he hasn’t stopped there. Michael has taken his “celebrity-status” across the country, and now, abroad! If you don’t have the pleasure of Michael’s acquaintance, you’ve most likely spent some time stalking Facebook and noticed some pretty cool pictures on his profile. This Biology-Environmental Science double major spent his summer aboard the 420-foot long US Coast Guard Polar Icebreaker known as the “Cutter Healy.” We asked Michael a number of questions regarding his summer, his current semester abroad in Turks and Caicos, and his Colby experience. So for all you summer ice cream scoopers, eat your hearts out!
HCC: So Michael, we’ve heard that you worked on a really cool project with the US Coast Guard this summer. Can you tell us about where you were and what you were doing?
Michael: This summer I was onboard the US Coast Guard Cutter Healy. It is a 420 foot long Polar Icebreaker, which is the biggest Coast Guard ship in the fleet. It is a really cool ship, and was designed with scientific research in mind, so there are lots of cool instruments and lab spaces on board.
Anyway, we were in the Arctic Circle, north of Alaska and we did research in the icepack, as well as out in the open water just south of the ice.
HCC: How did you learn about this opportunity?
Michael: I was working for Dr. Barney Balch of Bigelow labs, with whom Colby just started a new Marine Science partnership. We were studying coccolithophores, which are some pretty cool little phytoplankton. We took water samples around the clock and filtered them to isolate the plankton and then run tests on them. My shift was midnight to noon, and the sun is up 24 hours a day. It is quite an interesting experience to walk out on deck at 4 am and have the sun be shining!
HCC: What was the best/coolest part of your experience?
Michael: One of the best parts of the trip was when we worked out on the ice. It was really cool but creepy at the same time to be walking on ice that was just a couple feet thick above water that was well below freezing. You are wearing a dry suit, but if you do fall through, the water is so cold that you will instantly go into shock. You only have about three minutes in that water before your heart stops! Also, the USCG have to carry guns out onto the ice in case a Polar Bear decides that we look tasty. We drove through a couple of big storms, in which the swells got to over 20 feet! Finally, we had to divert for three Search and Rescue operations which was quite an adrenaline rush.
Living on a ship all summer was interesting, and it took a while to get used to falling asleep to the sound of the ice chunks running down the steel hull of the ship.
HCC: Where are you abroad? What exactly are you doing there?
Michael: I am currently studying at the School for Field Studies in South Caicos, which is one of the larger islands of the Turks and Caicos. It is a pretty cool gig, I do a lot of SCUBA diving on the reefs and get to live on the beach for a semester. It is a lot of work though, and we are currently researching the invasive Lionfish as well as doing population studies on Spotted Eagle Rays and the Green and Hawksbill Turtles. We also have been catching Hawksbill turtles to take genetic samples which is a ton of fun. We get towed behind a boat and then free dive down about twenty five feet to try and chase the turtle. They are fast little buggers.
One really cool thing that happened so far was we were spearing Lionfish to look at their stomach contents, and we have about six lionfish in a bag when we were finishing up our dive. A fifteen foot Caribbean reef shark then decided that they would make a nice snack, and started trying to attack the bag, as well as the person holding the bag. Needless to say, we decided that six lionfish were not worth the price of getting eaten.
HCC: Tell us all how much you miss the Hill.
Michael: I miss Colby for sure. It is really just all of the people that I miss. Colby is a special place and the community we have is one of a kind. But, trading the cold and snow drifts for 90 degree sunshine and sandy beaches is not too bad at all!
HCC: Any last thoughts?
Michael: Put simply, I have been dealing with Polar Bears, Hammerhead Sharks, Caribbean Reef Sharks, as well as Barracudas for the past couple of months, all that would love to eat me!!!
HCC: Thank you Michael! Sounds like two pretty awesome trips. Good luck with the rest of your semester abroad and we will see back at Colby very soon!