College students often spend a semester or two abroad. England. Spain. France.
Antarctica?
Yes. At least for one University of New England student from Auburn.
Stacey Keith, a 20-year-old majoring in aquaculture and aquarium science, will take part in a research trip to the coldest place on earth.
As part of a local four-member team, she will help study how microscopic plants are affected by the ultraviolet radiation that leaks into the region from a hole in the ozone layer. As the first link in the food chain, the tiny plants can affect other marine life.
A scientist on the team asked Keith to join the research project. She was an intern for the scientist at the Bigelow Lab in Boothbay Harbor last summer.
Keith leaves Oct. 19 and will spend 45 days on a research ship. It will be summer in the Antarctic, though “summer” doesn’t mean much around the South Pole.
“It’ll still be in the negatives,” she said.
The National Science Foundation is funding the research cruise, which will include about 60 crew members and 30 to 40 scientists conducting their own research. The ship will have plenty of food available around the clock. It also will have movie and exercise rooms. Keith will get her own bathroom.
But it won’t be all fun. She will have to sample and filter water at specific times, when the ship reaches specific spots.
“We have to be ready to do it whenever, even if it’s in the middle of the night,” she said.
Keith, who will be gone through mid-December, has never been aboard a ship longer than one night. During the Antarctica trip, she won’t touch land for 45 days.
She’s excited about the new experience. She’s a little nervous about the plane ride.
The flight leaves from Portland and stops in Washington, D.C., California and two places in New Zealand. She’ll leave on a Wednesday. She’ll arrive on a Friday.
Keith, who has always had a passion for the ocean, can’t wait for the trip. With glaciers, seals and whales, it won’t be an ordinary semester away.
“I’m looking forward to getting to experience a new place that not many people get to see,” she said.
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