Students Explore Biodiversity on the Sound

10/8/2025

It was a perfect fall day when upper school students in AP Environmental Science, Marine Biology and Sustainability classes dove into their studies along the Long Island Sound.

View a Photo Gallery of the SoundWaters Trip

The 80 juniors and seniors, led by Science Department Chair Dana McNamee and upper school faculty Lucas Mount-Finette, Pascal Maharjan and Ellie Gales, visited SoundWaters, an organization in Stamford, Connecticut, dedicated to protecting the Long Island Sound through education and action. The students set sail on an 80-foot schooner, took part in field work on the shoreline and visited SoundWaters’ lab.

McNamee explained that “SoundWaters’ programming covers a wide range of topics, from biodiversity studies to biogeochemical cycling. We engage with many topics we cover throughout the year on this one day.”

On the boat, students took benthic samples and used an otter trawl, where the boat dragged a net along the bottom of Long Island to see what lives on the ocean floor in that region.

“I enjoyed being able to see all of the marine animals that live down there,” Asher Le Breton ’26 said. “We captured horseshoe crabs, a mantis shrimp and a couple variations of flounder in a net behind our boat. We spent time studying them and then releasing them back to their habitats.”

While on land, the students conducted plankton sampling and lab studies with microscopes, identifying and understanding plankton biodiversity.

“They also went seining, very similar to what Dan Russo does with the sixth graders,” McNamee explained. “In this case, though, the students had to identify the fish, measure them, and count them as another measure of population and biodiversity study.”

McNamee was excited that the students caught multiple lookdowns, a species of fish typically found in tropical and subtropical waters. “A sign of warming waters and climate change, or just a fluke accident that they ended up here in the North?” she pondered aloud. “More data needed for sure, but interesting discussions abound!”

Sailing on the boat in an outdoor classroom was the highlight for Mark He ’26: “Being out on the water, I felt the sense of community within Masters, since everyone was relaxed, engaged and having fun together. It made the experience not just about science, but also about connection.”