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USD Environmental and Ocean Sciences Students Research the Effects of Human and Environmental Stressors in The Bahamas

University of San Diego (USD) Environmental and Ocean Sciences professors Sarah Gray and Eric Cathcart stood at the entry point of Lighthouse Cave in San Salvador, The Bahamas, meticulously delivering safety instructions to their twenty students.

Staggered along a palm tree-lined trail, the students listened intently in between swatting mosquitoes and wiping sweat off their faces. Their instructions: hold tight to a ladder secured to a 4-foot hole in the ground, which would take them into a subterranean cave of narrow waterways that promised to challenge them both physically and mentally.

Cathcart, a geologist known to his students as Cathy, aimed to keep the group of mostly environmental and ocean sciences majors whole and continuously learning in the process.

"Put your hand on top of your head in the shape of a fist, before you lift your head up, and it will stop you from conking it," he said to the group. "Our job when we get in there is not only to swim around and have fun exploring the cave but to identify what formation we are in."

One by one, the students climbed down the ladder and onto a small cliff that led them into a pitch-black cave trail in chest-high water. After sloshing through the path with flashlights and curiosity, the group landed inside a cavern with sandy walls that twisted up into more passageways above. Once the students settled, Cathcart asked them to turn their lights off to experience total darkness and silence.

Like all good experiments involving quiet and young people, the smallest snicker ignited a thunderclap of laughter that rumbled up the cave walls. That laughter - a signifier of how much the class had connected in the first few days of the trip. It began with flight delays involving ten-hour waits at small airports and bags that didn't make it the first night.

- By Michelle Kennedy

Read the full article on page 10 of the Arts & Sciences magazine (Fall 2024 issue).

The USD College of Arts and Sciences released its second annual Arts & Sciences magazine this fall. In the pages of this magazine, you will discover exciting new programs and initiatives, meaningful and impactful stories, and inspiring student, faculty and alumni spotlights.

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