One of Eckerd鈥檚 most popular new clubs gives students a chance to snorkel and experience marine environments in Florida. Photo: Grace Curcio ’24
A boat filled with 完美体育 students departs from the St. Pete Pier, cruising under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge out to explore the ruins of Fort Dade.
Club Officer Katie Milano did some underwater filming with a GoPro and got stunning shots of several types of coral, fish and other marine life.
鈥淲e get to [snorkel] on almost every trip, and it never gets old seeing all the fish and other marine animals,鈥� says Katie, a first-year marine science student from Groton, Massachusetts.
Katie is one of 500 members of the MLAS, one of Eckerd鈥檚 most popular new student clubs. Ben Brust, a sophomore environmental studies student from Reno, Nevada, started the club in Spring 2021鈥攈is first year at Eckerd鈥攐riginally planning for members to volunteer at the , about half an hour away from campus. Due to COVID-19 restrictions at the time, volunteer positions were tight, so Ben got creative and started doing smaller trips off-campus he calls 鈥渆xplorations.鈥� One of his favorite trips was Exploration Hatchling, a September camping trip to Jupiter, Florida, where students watched sea turtles hatch.
Sophomore Ben Brust (left) started doing smaller trips off-campus, which he has since turned into a full-fledged student organization. Photo: Grace Curcio ’24
鈥淸Starting a club at Eckerd] was easy. We just had to fill out a Google Form 鈥� and send it over to the [完美体育 Organization of Students ()] president, and then we were a club,鈥� Ben recalls. 鈥淚t’s just a friend group going on adventures.鈥�
Explorations are planned mostly by Ben himself, although sometimes the club splits a boat charter. Trips are mainly funded by ECOS. This semester, the MLAS has a $500 budget to put toward hiring charters, renting kayaks and keeping student payments down. Most trips still require a small payment鈥攖he average cost per trip is $20 to $30. Recently, the club exploded in size. Now there usually is a waitlist of about 60鈥�80 people for each trip, although Ben is planning more trips to accommodate a greater number of students. Their next excursion will be Exploration Sea Cow, several weekend trips where students will rent kayaks and travel down Crystal River in search of wild manatees.
During Exploration Wharfside on October 3, the club took three trips to Fort Dade, off Egmont Key, providing amazing opportunities to swim, snorkel and see all kinds of marine life. Thirty-three students went on the exploration鈥�11 students on each trip. The last one of the day, a sunset boat ride, took members on a search for bottlenose dolphins. The sea had gotten rougher since Katie鈥檚 underwater photography, and the MLAS was feeling fairly discouraged about the possibility of seeing any more animals. Just then, Caeden Bishop, a junior marine science and economics student from Harvard, Massachusetts, spotted a pod of about 10 dolphins jumping in the waves, headed out to sea. The charter boat captain quickly turned the vessel around, and members snapped photos of the mammals frolicking in the surf.
鈥淪eeing the dolphins was amazing, even now that I鈥檝e been in Florida for a while and have seen tons. It鈥檚 always nice to see them,鈥� Caeden says.
The MLAS has six more explorations planned for the semester, including an overnight stay at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta on Oct. 15鈥�17.
