CHARTING THE COURSE SINCE 1961
MARINERS MOVE IN
FIRST DAY OF FALL 2024
By Tiffany King
T
he Blue Heron Bridge, located in Riviera Beach, Florida, is one of the most popular dive and snorkel sites due to its exciting underwater experience featuring artificial reefs and diverse marine life. The College of Coastal Georgia took advantage of this great location to give students a unique hands-on experience researching marine life through a new summer course—Scientific Diving. Through the course, students learned how to do research diving and later presented their projects at the College’s first Scientific Diving Research Poster Presentation.
This is the first time the course has been offered at the College. Assistant Professor of Environmental Science Dr. Kim Takagi was approached by a local diving shop to introduce the course to students. She connected with Oneida LG2 Environmental Solutions (LG2) who provided diver training for the course. LG2 is an environmental company that specializes in environmental compliance
United States, along with ecosystem restoration and monitoring. The company is owned by the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin and is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, with a field office in Savannah, Georgia. Dr. Traesha Robertson, associate professor of biology, Dr. Robin McLachlan, assistant professor of geology, and Takagi received scientific diving training from LG2 representatives, then helped train students alongside LG2. Dr. Christine Brown, program coordinator and assistant professor of health science, provided CPR/AED training, and Judy Wright, of Island Dive Shop on St. Simons Island, provided emergency first responder training and primary and secondary care training. “The scientific diving course requires students to go through the safety training and techniques of how to do the science,” Takagi said. “Then in the end, students are supposed to demonstrate that they can do the science in the field and collect the data.”
Students created and designed their own projects, then carried out their project to demonstrate their scientific diving skills under the supervision of Robertson, McLachlan and LG2. The diving and skills trainings took place at Phil Foster Park, near Blue Heron Bridge, which is also where they did their diving research. At the park is the Phil Foster Snorkel Trail, located about 200 feet away from the shoreline. The trail is all artificial and was built to replicate the ecosystem of a barrier reef, featuring small sunken boats, artificial reef structures, and rock piles. Students divided into groups and conducted their research projects investigating the different reefs.
At the Scientific Diving Research Poster Presentation, students
Emily Weber and Hannah Kay, presented “The Influence of Artificial Reef Structure on Biodiversity.” They observed three reef structures a rock pile, a honeycomb-shaped reef, and a, reef module over two days to determine overall biodiversity. They wanted to determine which structure-type had the highest biodiversity and if shape structure was a factor. To count the different species, students used videography and inperson observations to record data while diving in a circle. Their results showed that the honeycomb reef had the highest species diversity, and that species diversity varied across all three structures.
College of Coastal Georgia alum Harrison Faulk, and students
Jaxson Grotz and Ella Sochia, presented “An Investigation of Invertebrate Community Composition Across Artificial Reef Types.” Their project investigated whether or not different artificial reefs had different invertebrate communities. They studied three different reefs: a platform reef module, a rubble pile reef, and a cinderblock reef. Results showed that total sessile invertebrate invertebrate that are attached to objects and do not move, like clams coverage did not differ across artificial reef types. Arthropods, such as lobsters and crabs, were most abundant in both the platform and cinderblock reefs. Mollusks were found to be the second most abundant in all reef types, excluding the rubble reef, where it was the most abundant.
Students Kaylee Logan, Harley Raczynski, and visiting Georgia Highlands College student, Ansleigh Peshel presented “Relationship Between Fish Biodiversity and Habitat Complexity at Blue Heron Bridge, FL.”
Read more about their research here.
Written by Taylor Cooper of The Brunswick
College welcomes second-largest freshman class.
College of Coastal Georgia is starting the fall semester with two milestones under its belt the highest number of high school students taking classes via dual enrollment programs and the second-largest freshman class in its history.
The freshman class is around 8.7% higher than last year’s fall semester, said Jason Umfress, vice president for student affairs and enrollment management.
A total of 3,621 students are enrolled and over 500 high school students are taking college classes via CCGA, interim CCGA President Johnny Evans said. The number of local students has increased somewhat, but most of the growth in enrolled students is from outside the college’s general fivecounty area.
“We’ve done a lot of really good work not only recruiting local students but concentrating on our other markers,”
Umfress said, adding that college officials have been “hitting the road and telling the good story about the college, what we offer, what makes us unique.”
It includes the tagline that anyone who’s seen the school’s marketing would be familiar with: “College is better by the beach,” Evans said.
“It’s not just because we’re a 15-minute drive from the beaches of St. Simons and Jekyll Island, but because we concentrate on the programs that take advantage of where we are,” Umfress said.
That includes courses in hospitality and tourism, environmental sciences, marine science, coastal ecology, criminal justice, nursing and health sciences. All of those programs are an easy sell, Umfress said, because the college benefits greatly from its proximity to tourist destinations on the islands, the beach, marshes and wetlands, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center and Southeast Georgia Health System.
Read more here.
HIGHLIGHTING YOUR BUSINESS
Alumni, we want to highlight and help promote your business/product. If you have your own business, please reach out and let us know. Contact Casey Hanak at alumni@ccga.edu.
-10 MEN’S GOLF TO PLAY AT THE 4TH ANNUAL COASTAL GEORGIA MEN’S FALL INVITATIONAL, IN WAVERLY, GA.
WOMEN’S GOLF TO PLAY IN THE COASTAL GEORGIA WOMEN’S FALL INVITATIONAL ON ST. SIMONS ISLAND.
MEMORIAL BENCH DEDICATION HONORING DR. MARY ELEANOR WICKERSHAM, STARTING AT 9 A.M. AT THE EAST END OF LAKE TEEL.
Alumni Basketball Game on Oct. 26. More information to come
Check out the College of Coastal Georgia Calendar for all events.
STAY IN TOUCH
We would love to stay in touch with you. Please tell us about yourself and what you’ve been up to after college. Update your contact information here. Questions? Contact alumni@ccga.edu.
