PORT ANGELES — With two weeks to go before school starts, Dry Creek Elementary teacher Patricia Schromen set out Wednesday morning on a hunt for hake.
Schromen, a 20-year veteran of Port Angeles public schools, is a new Teacher at Sea, headed for the waters off the west coast of Vancouver Island.
There, she and 31 other scientists and crew will conduct a hake survey, a study of the fish that go into patties and sticks in restaurants around the globe.
Schromen’s sponsor is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which brings about two dozen teachers on board its ships each year.
She was among 170 applicants for this year’s NOAA Teacher at Sea grants, which aim to “give teachers a clearer insight into our ocean planet,” according to NOAA.
Shoving off
As the sun shone on a calm Port Angeles Harbor on Wednesday morning, Schromen and 31 other crew members and scientists began their voyage on the Miller Freeman, a 215-foot trawler that serves as “a working platform for the study of the ocean’s living resources,” according to NOAA.
The ship, among the biggest research trawlers in the United States, is also called “one of the hardest-working ships of the fleet” and has 24-hour Internet access and a gym called the “Pigpen.”
As a longtime Port Angeles resident, Schromen is delighted to delve into the marine ecosystem that many students, though they live very close by, don’t have the opportunity to explore in such depth.
Teacher at Sea program
The Teacher at Sea program sends educators from all over — Vermont, Oklahoma, Montana — out on research trips.
They study “the biomass,” as in the creatures populating the ocean, and share the experience with children who could grow up to be the next generation of scientists.
Schromen said she hopes to bring back her insights gained from “hands-on science,” as well as “a sense of the careers that are possible for my kids to go into.”
She’ll travel northward about 70 miles on the weeklong voyage, which will assess the hake fishery and make recommendations regarding how many hake should be harvested by fishermen.
“It’s an unglamorous fish,” but it’s a basic-food fish, said Lt. Oliver Brown, a member of the Miller Freeman’s crew.
In addition to discussing her work at sea with her fifth-grade students after school starts Sept. 3, Schromen plans to give a public presentation on the trip this fall.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
