SEA HISTORY for kids Whale Biologist
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Maritime Careers
Marine Science Teacher
courtesy arcus
Most people well into their careers will tell you that the path that got them there was not exactly a straight line. So it was that I was driving in my car last year, listening to the radio, when I heard the announcement that the Massachusetts Teacher of the Year was Cara Pekarcik. The name sounded familiar; Cara had been a student of mine years ago when I used to teach with a college program called SEAmester before I became editor of Sea History. But teacher of the year? I was certain I remembered that when Cara graduated, she got a job as a whale biologist. I got in touch with her and discovered that she is, in fact, both! “Sea History for Kids” has profiled many people in the marine or Cara as a visiting scientist/teacher, at sea in 2016, maritime field: maritime historians with the ice-covered mountains of Anvers Island, and archaeologists, oceanographers Antarctica, in the background. and marine geologists, marine photographers and videographers, a maritime attorney, a marine insurance agent, and even an ocean yacht racer. Nearly all of the people whose stories we have shared got to their chosen field after trying out other jobs, sometimes closely related, and sometimes not at all. In this issue, Cara Pekarcik, the 2018 Massachusetts Teacher of the Year, shares with us her two professions and shows how, in her case, her former career still influences her current job. —Deirdre O’Regan
courtesy cara pekarcik
Cara Pekarcik
As a SEAmester student aboard the topsail schooner Californian for a semester at sea program, Cara got a firsthand look at what communal living aboard a ship for an extended voyage was like. She discovered that it suited her well, and that being on the ocean 24 / 7 for weeks at a time was all she dreamed it would be as a kid growing up in Pennsylvania—perhaps even better.
Cara :
museum institute for teaching science
“For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be a whale biologist. The ocean and its inhabitants have always fascinated me, from the bioluminescent capabilities of deep-sea creatures, to the tremendous diving capabilities of marine mammals, to the symbiotic relationships of so many diverse groups of organisms. I have never come across a marine science topic that I did not like.” Growing up near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Cara and her father watched of lot of nature shows on TV. She read everything she could about the ocean in magazines and books from the library. It didn’t matter to her that she did not live anywhere near an ocean, she set out to learn about local rivers and spent time along Lake Erie on family outings. Her family took a few vacations to Ocean City, Maryland, where she got her first look at the ocean. Cara went to a college that specialized in marine science studies, and, after graduation with a degree in Interdisciplinary Psychobiology, she got a job as a whale biologist for the Whale Center of New England in Gloucester, Massachusetts. There, she participated in long-term behavioral and photo-identification studies of endangered whales and served as an education specialist aboard whale watch excursion vessels. In 2006, Cara left Gloucester and took a job teaching high school science in North Quincy, Massachusetts, a job she still holds today.
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Cara measures the invasive green crab during a summer professional development program studying the role of the salt marsh in coastal ecosystems.
SEA SEAHISTORY HISTORY165, 165,WINTER WINTER2018–19 2018–19