By Jessica Oates
Steinert High alumna studies humpback behavior in Maui
On track to earning their degrees, college students are sometimes faced with taking a course to fulfill a university requirement that doesn’t pique their interest. This was not the case for Hamilton resident Emily Rickett, a sophomore at Albright College who spent three weeks last month studying the behavior of humpback whales in Hawaii.
Rickett, a family studies and early education major, wants to become an elementary school teacher. She has wanted to teach ever since she was a young girl, and thinks second graders would be the most fun to work with.
Yet, even prospective second grade teachers have core requirements, and her fascination with the ocean made the field research program in Maui seem like the perfect opportunity to fulfill her lab science requirement and have a bit of fun doing it. The Steinert High School alumna jumped at the chance to learn about humpback whales first hand.
Every winter, thousands of humpback whales swim 3,000 miles from Alaska to Maui. Females completely stop interacting with each other during their migration from Alaska to Hawaii, and latch on with male escorts—who aren’t necessarily their partners. When they reach Hawaii, the females eat, mate and give birth. They return to Alaska in the spring, and begin to socialize with other females again.
“Field Research of the Hawaiian Humpback Whale” is a course offered between the fall and spring semesters that allows students to study this phenomenon. Students from Albright College travel to Maui, where they join students from other institutions in their studies. Students study whale behavior, as well as how boats, sonar and other noise producers affect it.
Three weeks visiting a beautiful Hawaiian island may seem like a vacation, but Rickett said the program is actually very demanding. While many study abroad programs last an entire semester or even a full year, this one packs a full semester of study into less than a month. The 40 students are split into eight groups of 5, with four groups spending the morning observing whale behavior from a cliff-top laboratory overlooking a bay and four groups making their observations in the afternoon.
Everyone attends class together in the evening, and any unscheduled time is spent plotting data, analyzing observations and reading articles assigned for homework. Students follow this routine seven days a week for the entirety of the program.
Rickett said the learning experience is very interactive, very hands on and very eye-opening.
“When you open your mind and think about how humans affect the world, you realize how great our impact is,” she said.
Marsha Green, a psychology professor at Albright College, has led the program since 1986. She holds a doctorate in psychology from Temple University with a specialization in animal behavior.
One spring while vacationing in Hawaii, Green became interested in studying whales.
“Since they spend over 70 percent of their time below water, we know so little about them,” she said.
During the program, Green teaches nightly classes while her co-leader Janice Lapkiewicz leads students in their daily observations. Green said she hopes her students come away from this experience more knowledgeable and inspired.
“It’s one thing to read about whales and environmental issues that affect whales, and it’s another thing to see it right in front of your eyes. It makes a big impact. It isn’t just about studying whale behavior but also how humans affect it,” she said.
Together, Green and her students discuss issues of climate change and how it impacts whales’ food supplies, as well as issues of chemical and noise pollution that also affect their behavior.
According to the professor, the goal is not only for students to approach these problems with their intellect, but also with their hearts.
“I’m convinced that the only way to make change is by connecting people’s hearts and emotions to these issues, rather than just the rational, left side of our brains, which are instinctively more selfish,” Green said.
If Rickett’s sentiments are at all representative of her fellow classmates’, it may be safe to say that Green has succeeded in appealing to her students’ sense of responsibility and compassion.
“I definitely think more about the environment and my personal role in it,” Rickett said. “I think it’s really important to stand up for what you think is right. A small group of people can make a really big difference.”
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