For the sixth consecutive year, WHOI hosted a group of journalists for a weeklong fellowship program—more like a 40-hour crash course in ocean science. The September program included lectures, laboratory tours, field trips, and meetings between journalists and scientists. WHOI biologist Heidi Sosik (above left) showed off an instrument called the Imaging Flow Cytobot to (from left) Paul Thacker of Environmental Science & Technology, Mary Hoff (freelance), Lisa Strong-Aufhauser of Strong Mountain Productions, Gerald Rising of The Buffalo News, Jeanna Bryner of Scholastic Science World, and Kathleen Schmitt of Earthwatch Radio.

In October, the Institution awarded its second Ocean Science Journalism Awards, which recognize “journalistic excellence that advances public understanding of the oceans.” Beth Daley and Gareth Cook of The Boston Globe were honored for their four-part series “Sea Change: The New England Fishing Crisis.” Paul Kennedy of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation won for his eight-part radio series “Learning from the Oceans.”

Learning to use instruments to collect samples and to make measurements at sea is an essential part of an oceanographer’s basic training. But finding ships and tools for practice is neither easy nor cheap. Graduate students often grab experience on the job, wherever and whenever they can.

To remedy this, two WHOI Associates established the Edward and Erla Schwarm Family Fund before they died earlier this year. The fund provides ship time for students in the MIT/WHOI Joint Program to get hands-on instrument training aboard WHOI’s research vessel Tioga.

“My father was an electrical engineer, a sailor, and a scientist,” said Tom Schwarm, their son. Working at the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, Ed Schwarm played a central role in developing the lunar module that landed the first men on the moon. He later built a successful electronics consulting business, Edward G. Schwarm Associates and earned 11 patents along the way.

The Schwarms lived on Cape Cod and were longtime WHOI Associates, regularly attending lectures at the Institution and participating in several WHOI-sponsored educational travel expeditions.

When Erla died in March 2005, Ed wanted to create a scholarship in memory of his wife of 62 years. “The idea of launching students on ship-based expeditions was something that pleased him,” said Tom Schwarm. Ed died two months later, in May 2005.

Byron Pedler (left) spent long hours this summer extracting and purifying compounds from dolphin fat, like a laborer in an 18th-century tryworks. Instead of boiling vats and flensing knives, his tools were glassware, solvents, and mass spectrometers. His end product was tiny amounts of hydrocarbons, rather than whale oil.

Pedler, a 2005 summer student fellow, worked with postdoctoral fellow Emma Teuten and Associate Scientist Chris Reddy of the Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry Department to determine concentrations of a brominated hydrocarbon compound in dolphin blubber. Once thought to be a contaminant, the hydrocarbon is now believed to be a natural component of dolphin food.

Since the late 1950s, the WHOI Summer Student Fellowship Program has provided a rich opportunity for research experiences to talented undergraduates interested in the ocean. Fellows in the program pursue an independent research project under the guidance of a member of the scientific or senior technical staff. To date, 984 students have participated in this program.