Category: travel

Ian Markham
alumni, conservation, marine studies, marine-lab, travel

Ocean Wanderers

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. ” -Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Mantas are mysterious ocean wanderers. They have a grace unparalleled on land. Watching them underwater feels like an otherworldly experience. Thinking of them makes me long for the sea.
#mantas #grace #dream #big #alien #ocean #nature #wildlife #nofilter #animal

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Ian Markham
alumni, conservation, environmental health, ESC, forests, marine studies, students, sustainability, travel

Frigates, War Canoes, and Volcanoes

Arriving at dawn flanked by frigates and war canoes to Banda island, it struck me that, were we calling into port in the 16th century, we would be more than likely to have a hail of cannonfire or spears being lobbed at us by way of greeting. The “Spice Islands,” however, have mellowed considerably with age.

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Ian Markham
alumni, conservation, environmental health, ESC, forests, marine studies, marine-lab, students, sustainability, travel

Stirrings in the deep

Diving in the Kelp forest mostly brings me a tranquility I find hard to come by elsewhere. Yet in my past three months working at the Hopkin’s Marine Station of Stanford University first as the teaching assistant in a kelp forest Ecology course and then as a diving technician, I have observed strange stirrings and shifts in the kelp forest that give me anxiety.

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