Increasing Access to Ocean Science with Maile Sullivan
Maile Sullivan
Education Specialist
Washington Sea Grant—University of Washington
Seattle, Washington
I have spent my entire life with salty skin and sand stuck between my toes. From an early age, my interest and excitement about all things marine was driven by the countless hours I spent tossing around in the warm Hawaiian surf, where I visited my grandparents, aunties, uncles and cousins every summer. The moment I could figure out how to work a snorkel, I was hooked on all of the critters I could count, namely the local sea turtles or honu that frequented the waters near our favorite beach. When the tide was out, my buckets were ready for every invertebrate I could coax to join me for my "home aquarium" which I intended to make in my grandparent's sink (let's just say that idea did NOT go over well with said grandparents, and had an unfortunate smelly ending). I think with the many generations of my family having such a close connection and love for the sea, much of my passion was just inherited from them. But also, I recognize that my access to the marine environment, to education and to resources that fed my interest and my studies have unequivocally played a role in my being in this field. As such, much of the focus of my career has centered around increasing and providing people, and more specifically kids, better access to the ocean and to marine sciences.
My ocean education and outreach experiences have run the gamut—from teaching touch tank and tide pool etiquette at aquariums (i.e., sea stars are NOT frisbees folks!), working along side local community members to design turtle tagging and nesting program guidelines for citizen science in the Netherlands Antilles, or coaching land-loving tourists how to "feed the fish" over the rail on a whale watching boat—the underlying goal has remained the same for me: provide people access—to the experience; to the hook that gets them excited; to the information; to the place; or in the case of the whale watching cruise—to the barf bucket :) When I look back at what seems to be a long and meandering stream of a career thus far (because in this field it’s never strait and narrow, am I right?!), this seems to be the common thread.
Participants in our NOAA Science Camp High School Junior Leadership Program survey the beach as part of one of their summer research projects.
Mike the Whale makes an appearance at Orca Bowl every year, thanks to our friends at NOAA. We've gotta have at least one orca whale there, as the namesake of our competition and an icon of the Northwest!
Getting into character with some NAME Chapter friends at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium family overnight.
I would say I've reached a bit of an oxbow whilst meandering along this stream, and at this juncture I have really settled into work that I love at Washington Sea Grant. Through programs like NOAA Science Camp, I get to facilitate middle school and high school students from all over our region gaining access to over 85 NOAA scientists and hands-on experiences highlighting the work that they do. Once summer camp season is wrapped up, I enjoy shifting gears and getting to partner with schools and teachers. This past week, for example, my focus was on our annual Orca Bowl Competition (part of the National Ocean Sciences Bowl), where 20 high school teams from across Washington state come and test their ocean sciences knowledge against each other. For some of these kids, this is the only exposure to ocean science that they get, so we try and fill their cups with as many lab tours, aquarium passes, and related study resources as we possibly can! This, of course, is not enough, but we are always trying to find innovative ways to keep all of these kids hooked and engaged in ocean science!
I have been very involved in my regional chapter, Northwest Aquatic and Marine Educators (NAME) since I moved to the Northwest, and am excited to play a more active role in NMEA as a Chapter Rep!
Maile works as the Education Specialist at Washington Sea Grant and focuses primarily on K-12 programming. She co-leads NOAA Science Camp, a summer day-camp that serves both middle and high school students in Seattle, and exposes them to much of the incredible work that NOAA does. She acts as Regional Coordinator for our region's National Ocean Sciences Bowl, the Orca Bowl, and has been on the board of the Northwest Aquatic and Marine Educators since 2012. Prior to her time with Sea Grant, she worked for NOAA's Coral Reef Conservation Program in DC, and was the Education Coordinator for Camp Sea Lab in Monterey, CA before that!
