Field School

June 24, 2012



Nick





Mathieu & Evan

Field School

The reason that I made the trek to Albania is that my employer, RPM Nautical Foundation is joining with the Albanian Center for Marine Research in starting up an underwater field school that will allow students to learn about underwater archeology and marine ecology in a place where very few people have ever had an opportunity to dive at all.



Kela & Howard



Kela & Erik

Jeff

Albania has been for the most part cut off from scuba diving and RPM’s work there in the past six years has been among the first exploration of the submerged cultural resources of the country ever. There are no commercial diving operators in Albania and very, very few scientific explorations have been completed. RPM is literally charting new ground in conjunction with our friends from the Albanian Center for Marine Research, we are providing an incredible opportunity to basically have students learn and work in unexplored waters.

The first portion of the field school is a two week scientific diving class, during which the students cover the basics of diving, safety and begin working with scientific tools that they will be using more extensively during the more comprehensive portion of the class they will take next.

Lee



Lee

This course complies with the 100 plus hour American Academy of Underwater Science standards. The students will gain diverse diving experience, participate in ongoing underwater research, and learn diving theory and methods in classroom sessions taught by experts in the field from institutions including East Carolina University, the Albanian Institute of Archaeology, and RPM Nautical Foundation. Almost daily dives over the two-week course will expose students to a variety of habitat types found along the southern Albanian coastline, as well as the best practices for conducting hypothesis-based research, environmental survey, and archaeological methods.

The first days of the course involved having the students taking standard swimming tests, gear preparation, safety reviews and check-out dives before the classes really got underway in earnest. Most of the days began with a brief lesson and preview of the day, followed by going down and prepping the boat and gear and then heading out diving for the morning, then lunch and lectures during the late afternoon.

Derek Smith, a coastal ecologist who has worked extensively with RPM Nautical taught the majority of these early lessons and RPM’s dive safety officer Howard Phoenix helped with the gear and vessels, most of which are being provided by RPM. It was an incredible thing to watch, Derek is a fantastic teacher and it was a real pleasure to watch him use team building techniques to bring the diverse and talented group of students together in to a cohesive unit.

It is a really fun group, one that I almost instantly felt a bond with. I am so impressed with the entire thing and think it may be one of the coolest of many cool things that RPM Nautical has been involved with. I am thrilled that I was able to come and watch it get started.







Lee & Kela

http://www.albaniamarinecenter.org/pages/2012fieldschool.html